France's old world view of work may be very new age-y. Or not...

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Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

For the last couple days, Joining the Dots guest poster Henri Astier and I have been taking a look at (and discussing via these substack posts) France’s continuing angst over being forced to retire a couple of years later than many people expected. Click here to read Henri’s piece and here for mine.

Now, Henri has offered a further comment on my suggestion that France’s rather traditional-seeming attachment to early retirement may actually be startlingly in sync with post-pandemic attitudes towards work. The post-pandemic attitudes, of course, incline to ensuring a work-life balance that sometimes appears to tip towards non-work life. So, for instance, taking the time to smell the flowers, indulge the dog as she walks and sniffs for as long as she wants in stray clumps of grass, etc.

But Henri suggests that there has always been a tension between Marxist and Marcusian attitudes to work. He explains it brilliantly below. I know what I think. How about yo…