A few years ago I used to use angkot as a means of transportation to go to my office. Usually I took angkot (public city transportation) from Kebon Kalapa to Cicaheum and I drop off near my office in Taman Lalu Lintas, Ade Irma Suryani Nasution.
Once I was very surprised upon reading on that angkot’s bumper sticker. Actually it is not a bumper sticker, but a short sentence (phrase) written on the fore-glass of the car: “My life is star, stir, stor.” I, therefore, asked the driver: “Why you wrote this phrase on your car’s fore-glass?” And his answer is very interesting:
“Sir, this is the reality of my life. Actually this is the philosophy of my life. Early in the morning I have to “star” (start) the car. Then I drive the car along my route from Kalapa to Cicaheum. That is the meaning of stir. It is a dull routine, of course. And finally in the evening I have to give all the money I got during the whole day to my boss. And this is the meaning of “stor.” Yeah, that is life Sir. You work very hard along day, but you do not get a worthy income from your own working, because the money went to the boss’ wallet. Anyway at least I have job, I have something to do, to kill the time, as the saying goes.
Upon hearing his explanation I remember the philosophy of work once delivered by Karl Marx in his masterpiece Das Kapital. One the keywords in his philosophy are the idea of alienation. The labor or worker in a certain sense experiences the so-called alienation. They are alienated from the product they produce in their work, because the product was taken away by the boss and in exchange they received a sum of money as salary.
Then I think that even by not reading or studying the philosophy of Karl Marx, that angkot’s driver has existentially experienced the bitterness of alienation. In that sense the philosophy of Marx, I think, is not speculative at all, but actually based on the reality of the experience of ordinary people in their daily life. What a nice insight!
Computerized and rewritten (and edited) on 12 January 2009.
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