A few weeks ago in my Social and Political Philosophy class, we learned a bit about some of the theories of Karl Marx. He is probably most famous for his work on communism, and although many people might disagree with that aspect of his writings, his reasons for communism are based on a very interesting concept that at the core, I really like and quite agree with.

Several years before writing his renowned Communist Manifesto, Marx wrote an article about Alienated Labour. In this article, Marx argued that capitalism created two classes (owners and workers), and that in this system, the workers become socially alienated or separated from the world around them. Marx believed that pursuing meaningful work was an essence of being human, and that the type of labour workers were forced to do in this system inhibited them from fulfilling this essence.

In short, Marx was saying that we can’t truly live and be happy unless we are allowed to pursue work that is inherently meaningful to us.

I thought most people hated work?

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Apparently, the Teacher Assistant’s Union at York University is planning to go on strike this Thursday, Nov. 6 for an indefinite period of time. I honestly don’t know much about the situation. All I know is that an agreement between the Teacher Assistant’s Union and York University could not be reached, and they are in a legal position to strike on Thursday – and from what I hear, they are going to strike unless some absolutely miraculous agreement is reached before then. And if there’s a strike, the university has decided to cease academic operations, and therefore, no classes.

The last time such a strike occurred as several years ago, and apparently lasted six weeks or something close to that. So there’s a good chance this upcoming strike could last a month or something, who knows? Some students are upset about the prospect of having to finish the school year in May. Personally, I don’t really care, as I wasn’t planning to do anything particularly interesting next May… so I actually wouldn’t mind having a month break right now.

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The basketball player you see above is LeBron James. For those of you who don’t follow the sport, LeBron James is arguably the most gifted player to have ever played the game. The amazing thing is that he is only 23 years old, has many years left to play, and can only get better. I really can’t wait to see how good he gets.

Imagine for a second that LeBron James decided not to pursue basketball as a career. In fact, let’s go as far to imagine a scenario where he did not train on a regular basis, was completely out of shape, and could barely play basketball for five minutes without running out of breath – let alone playing 48 minutes of intense basketball every other night with the best in the world, which is what he’s doing right now. In that world, he would not even come close to being one of the best basketball players in the world.

Nonetheless, his potential to be one of the world’s best basketball players has not changed. In our hypothetical world, he simply hasn’t gone out and achieved it.

What is Potential?

I’m sure you’ve heard many stories of teachers telling parents “Oh your son has the potential to do well – if only he worked harder!”, or something to that effect. What does that really mean?

Dictionary.com gives two pretty good definitions for potential: (1) Possible, as opposed to actual, and (2) Capable of being or becoming.

From my perspective, your potential for a specific activity are the levels of achievement you are capable of obtaining, given your natural abilities. I don’t think circumstances (e.g. resources available to you) are involved with determining someone’s actual potential; rather circumstances are factors that affect your ability to achieve that potential.

Case Study: Potential for School Performance

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