2004-02-02 06:21:28SLEEPING
[英文社會學日記3] 深夜的超市櫃臺
The Counter Worker in TOPS……
They look so tired when I arrived TOPS late…Although they still smile to me and say the same word as “ Did you find everything? Good, have a nice day.”
I remember the 1st time when I entered TOPS. Since almost all workers in Taiwan’s supermarket are silent, I felt so surprised that they talked to me. But immediately I found this is just like a routine. After that time, I even wondered: if I answered NO when they asking me about “ do you find everything?”, how shall they react?
However, I didn’t do that. (I can’t! ) It’s not their fault. They are alienated worker, not only selling their labor, their time to such a big company, but selling their smile, their emotion, too. Sometimes I will chat with them, and I found they are so lonely and felt happy to chat with me.(although my English is so poor….) They lose the meaning of job and the meaning of social species……
From Simmel’s perspective, they may be the strangers in our world. You see they interact with thousands of people everyday but just say the same sentences with you….He may wonder what kind of person who is standing in front of him bought these food, these grocery and facilities. But he can’t ask!
Most of time, everyone expected him as an ATM machine or live calculator, not a real person who works for us. Oh…..I really felt so lonely when I imaged this situation….
Marx told the sad aspect of alienated labor, but Simmel indeed indicate the objectivity of the stranger. Maybe both of them are right…we could see the mix within those workers…
They look so tired when I arrived TOPS late…Although they still smile to me and say the same word as “ Did you find everything? Good, have a nice day.”
I remember the 1st time when I entered TOPS. Since almost all workers in Taiwan’s supermarket are silent, I felt so surprised that they talked to me. But immediately I found this is just like a routine. After that time, I even wondered: if I answered NO when they asking me about “ do you find everything?”, how shall they react?
However, I didn’t do that. (I can’t! ) It’s not their fault. They are alienated worker, not only selling their labor, their time to such a big company, but selling their smile, their emotion, too. Sometimes I will chat with them, and I found they are so lonely and felt happy to chat with me.(although my English is so poor….) They lose the meaning of job and the meaning of social species……
From Simmel’s perspective, they may be the strangers in our world. You see they interact with thousands of people everyday but just say the same sentences with you….He may wonder what kind of person who is standing in front of him bought these food, these grocery and facilities. But he can’t ask!
Most of time, everyone expected him as an ATM machine or live calculator, not a real person who works for us. Oh…..I really felt so lonely when I imaged this situation….
Marx told the sad aspect of alienated labor, but Simmel indeed indicate the objectivity of the stranger. Maybe both of them are right…we could see the mix within those workers…