The Many Faces of an Automaton

This is a small excerpt from Wendell's essay, "Feminism, The Body, and The Machine" in which he continues his defense of his choice to disavow computers.  The first part - as if the title were not clear enough - discusses the feminist attack against his wife working in the house.  His critique is against feminists.  His critique is against the condescension that men have something worth attaining.  And here it is:

And what are we to say of the diversely skilled country housewife who now bores the same six holes day after day on an assembly line? What higher form of womanhood or humanity is she consenting to evolving toward?

How, I am asking, can women improve themselves by submitting to the same specialization, degradation, trivialization, and tyrannization of work that men have submitted to? And that question is made legitimate by another: How have men improved themselves by submitting to it? The answer is that men have not, and women cannot, improve themselves by submitting to it.

Women have complained, justly, about the behavior of “macho” men. But despite their he-man pretensions and their captivation by masculine heroes of sports, war, and the Old West, most men are now entirely accustomed to obeying and currying the favor of their bosses. Because of this, of course, they hate their jobs—they mutter, “Thank God it’s Friday” and “Pretty good for Monday”— but they do as they are told. They are more compliant than most housewives have been. Their characters combine feudal submissiveness with modern helplessness. They have accepted almost without protest, and often with consumptive relief, their dispossession of any usable property and, with that, their loss of economic independence and their consequent subordination to bosses. They have submitted to the destruction of the household economy and thus of the household, to the loss of home employment and self-employment, to the disintegration of their families and communities, to the desecration and pillage of their country, and they have continued abjectly to believe, obey, and vote for the people who have most eagerly abetted this ruin and who have most profited from it. These men, moreover, are helpless to do anything for themselves or anyone else without money, and so for money they do whatever they are told. They know that their ability to be useful is precisely defined by their willingness to be somebody else’s tool. Is it any wonder that they talk tough and worship athletes and cowboys? Is it any wonder that some of them are violent?

Does this resonate with anyone else?  I'd say I'm in a pretty autonomous work environment where I work with my hands and have a very easy means of determining my work quality, efficiency, and productivity.  When I'm done, does it work and does it meet determined specs?  Did I keep the smoke in the machine?  Has the doctor been able to continue his work because of my work?  And yet...  This still resonates with me.  I'm still beholden to obey like an automaton when asked.  I say, "Thank God it's Friday," and, "Pretty good for a Monday," verbatim.  It's not just a cliché, it's true damnit.  Monday's suck, Friday's rock.  So?  How bout you?  And what does it mean?