[PEN-L:28627] Re: Re: Re: Drudgery

[joanna bujes <joanna.bujes@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 06:52 PM 07/26/2002 -0400, you wrote:
> As I read Michael's post, the point was that Mali women's use of
> mechanized grinding machines has given them time to improve their lives
> and become literate.  No attempt to draw more general conclusions about
> the social consequences of machinery, or to minimize the complexity of
> this issue, was made.  Indeed, in light of well-known instances of less
> progressive applications of machinery to work (e.g., the role of the
> cotton gin in US slavery), this item serves if anything to highlight the
> complexity of the issue.

OK. Labor saving devices save time and labor. This time and labor can be
invested in other (possibly worthwhile) projects. I'm on my fifth day of
not smoking and I'm irritable and I wanted to find out why Michael was
telling me that the world is round.

Joanna