Production is the source of life energy

Developed and underdeveloped societies differ from one another in their relationship to production. Developed societies have built their systems around production. Underdeveloped societies, on the other hand, are not even aware that such a thing as a system exists. For a society to transform into a structured entity, its operating mechanisms must be very clearly defined and set into active motion. The fundamental constitutive element of that functioning is production. It is no coincidence that the renowned thinker Karl Marx analysed societies along the axis of production and addressed social classes through the mode of production and relations of production.

On the other hand, individuals are also products of the society into which they are born. Every individual reflects the character of the society to which they belong. From their relationships with their social environment to their attitudes and behaviours in working life and their organisation of daily life, an individual is in every respect a reflection of the society in which they were born and raised.

I am not an admirer of the West, but when we compare Western societies with our own in terms of work, production, and labour, we must also acknowledge that we have still not completed the development process. What I want to emphasise here is not economic or technological development. I am speaking of an understanding of life itself. There is a world of difference between the relationship that individuals in developed societies establish with the world and with life, and the relationship that our own people establish.

If Western societies are today far ahead of us in science, technology, and consequently in economics, the fundamental reason is the difference in the understanding of how people are raised. The establishment of a production-oriented education system. The application of an education tailored to individuals' abilities, and the integration of every individual into society in some meaningful way. It becomes possible for every individual to establish a production- and creation-oriented relationship with their own life and to become the subject of their own existence. Societies composed of individuals raised not through rote learning but through an educational philosophy that allows for the development of production, creativity, and intellectual competence will naturally develop and progress.

A production-oriented individual plans their day around working and producing, and sets raising the level of work and production as their future goal. Viewed from this angle, for example, the future goal of most people in our society is to retire — to stop working and producing and move into rest. This is why parks, streets, and public transport are mostly filled with idle, unemployed retirees. As the saying goes, they have sifted their flour and hung up their sieve. They sit and wait as though there is nothing left to do in life. If you ask what they are waiting for, let us not go there. Yet for the Western retiree, real life begins after leaving active working life. They launch a new phase in their life to pursue their own hobbies and do the things they could not do during their working years for lack of time.

On the other hand, for people in developed countries, work and production are at the same time a way of life — and therefore a form of entertainment and enjoyment. Taking pleasure in production, adding value to life through creating, is in fact a magnificent feeling. Yet for those who do not have a work- and production-oriented mindset, work and labour are most often a necessity. One must earn money to sustain one's life, and therefore one must work. This transforms work and production from a pleasure and a way of life into a burden. Because the person does not have a work- and production-oriented mindset and cannot reach the satisfaction of producing, they see work as drudgery and count the days until retirement. The only goal is retirement — that is, to exit working life. This is why, in societies like ours, people who retire cut themselves off entirely from work, even when they are in good health.

Adding value to life through production, contributing to the development and progress of humanity, is a deeply human feeling. It is this feeling that also nourishes a person's productive energy. Yet in our society, what people understand by entertainment and enjoyment is not working — staying outside of work and production. Passing time aimlessly, spending idle hours with no production or creation to show for it, sleeping, wandering, having trivial conversations, spending hours in neighbourhood coffeehouses or cafés — or more precisely, consuming time. The general outcome of this is masses of people who are unhappy, hopeless, without goals, and who have lost their joy of living. In other words, social chaos.

So what is to be done? Well, if there is a problem, there must also be a solution.

First and foremost, the education system needs to be reviewed. The transition must be made from an education squeezed into rote learning and a limited number of multiple-choice exams to an educational philosophy oriented towards developing production, creativity, and intellectual competence. In this way, it will become possible to raise individuals who, from an early age, think, have well-developed creative competence, are visionary, can set goals, take pleasure in production, and find the source of their life energy in work.

On the other hand, making work and working environments enjoyable for employees, developing ways and methods to increase motivation, and transitioning from a manager or employer mentality that issues orders, applies pressure, and makes threats to a managerial understanding that produces together, establishes equal relationships, is open to communication, is protective, and acts as a partner in finding solutions.

But at the same time, organising training programmes for employees in institutions and workplaces could be beneficial in terms of developing institutional belonging and ownership. As far as we can observe, in most workplaces — regardless of the nature or characteristics of the work or the workplace — employees prefer to do their work superficially, driven by a sense of resistance towards the employer, rather than taking ownership of the work they do and seeing it as their own. For this mindset to be replaced by one of institutional belonging and ownership of work, every institution or workplace needs to develop solutions appropriate to its own conditions, character, and dynamics.

Most importantly, meritocracy. The principle of finding the right person for the job — not giving a job to a person — must be established. This is a problem we encounter particularly frequently in our society. People are somehow placed in institutions and workplaces, but because their qualifications and competencies for the work or profession in question are insufficient, it becomes impossible to achieve productivity. This situation causes conflicts and communication problems for both the employee and the manager. Meritocracy, then, is important. If the compatibility between the job and the employee is ensured, the vast majority of problems will be resolved.

Another solution is the creation of suitable environments so that older individuals feel secure. Ways and methods for establishing social-state guarantees must be developed, and measures must be taken to prevent individuals who have completed their active working lives from transitioning into passive living. Regardless of age, as long as a person is alive, there is always something they can contribute to society and to humanity. All that is needed is the right environment and proper guidance. Not a single person can be wasted.