We Americans have the Protestant work ethic baked into our bones. Though Gen Z is significantly less religious than our parents and ancestors, we’ve successfully secularized and rebranded the Protestant work ethic for younger generations. Now, we simply call it “the grind” — a word that encapsulates (yet also glamorizes) the drudgery of day- to- day life.
Though both male and female influencers contribute to grind culture, it has earned particular cache in the “manosphere.” In these toxic, male-dominated spaces, podcastors mythologize the “sigma male,” a self-stated lone wolf who chooses to isolate himself because “the grind never stops.” Such men look down upon making attachments to others and especially women, because modern women threaten a sense of masculinity lost by improved gender equality in the workplace. Often these men see womens’ increased success as a threat to their supposedly once-secure job prospects — as if those women never had the right to try and make it in this world as well.
And make it in this world they will, or at least die trying. These types of influencers are full of bizarre tips to maximize your productivity and increase your profit. Want to make extra money on your days off? Take a paid vacation and then use that free time to work a second job! Feeling sluggish at the office? Try microdosing on psychedelics! Thinking of starting a side hustle? Invest in a pyramid scheme, or NFTs, or any other flimsy get-rich-quick scheme that will likely leave you more broke than you started out.
The world the rise-and-grind influencers offer to us may seem like hell, and that’s because it is. But it is also not hard to imagine why they have gained a foothold in the cultural zeitgeist. After all, is not easy for members of our generation to start their adult lives in this economy. In fact, half of Gen Z live at home with their parents, and may not have the freedom or money to socialize and go out with friends. For the commuter student in particular, it might be tempting to simply give up on trying to make friends when it’s cheaper to stay at home, put your head down, and work. And it’s comforting to think that if you simply work hard enough, even past the breaking point, that you will be able to live well — that your Protestant-work-ethic-sans-the-Protestant will afford you a clean, well-lit office in Midtown Manhattan.
Perhaps the greatest irony of the rise-and-grinders and then, is that they are not living well, or even doing what is best for their careers. First, if you’re a man, training yourself to dismiss women out of hand — when we make up half the population, half the workforce, and more than half of college students — is not exactly a winning strategy for success. Speaking more generally, isolating yourself from others also hampers your ability to make connections that can define your career path.
But even if these lifestyle influencers are right, and becoming an all-work-no-play hermit is the best thing you can do for your career, it still wouldn’t be worth it. For the lifestyle they promote is hollow and lackluster, like a millstone that has been ground to dust.
After all, what is the “grind,” anyway? Oftentimes, if these influencers are not trying to sell you on one scam or another, they speak very vaguely about the actual work they do. This is because the “grind” cannot be anything that matters to you. It is simply non-specific, meaningless work only meant to propel you to the next stages of your career (if it does that). You’re not supposed to like the grind — you’re not even supposed to care what it is, even though it presumably defines nearly every moment of your life.
To someone who has embraced this mentality, it may appear I am missing the point. Yes, the grind is simply a means to an end, a tool to accumulate wealth and power. But remember, “the grind never stops” — meaning there is no light at the end of the tunnel, no moment you can simply kick back and relax. Even if you’re rich or happy with your success, you are supposed to continue working for work’s sake — repeating the same routine ad nauseum until you die.
And what’s the joy in that? What’s the joy in working to earn a job with more vacation days, if you can’t use them? What’s the joy in making more money, if you can’t use it to have fun with others? Perhaps this is why, after a certain level, having more money does not increase happiness.
The Protestants lived short, difficult lives. They worked so hard partially because it was necessary for survival, and partially because work gave them a sense of order and purpose in a chaotic new world. They sought to put people in corners — men on one side, women on the other — and keep them there using intense mechanisms of social conditioning and public shame. Once again, this was to create order in their otherwise chaotic, difficult, and fleeting lives.
Life is still chaotic, but it’s gotten much longer since the Protestants. We’ve learned we don’t have to confine human potential to have a stable society — in fact, doing so causes quite the opposite. And unlike the Puritans, we have a choice. We can grind ourselves down to the quick, or we can enjoy our days in the sun, alongside our friends and family. So when you reach the end of your life, what do you want to remember? The millstone, whole and hardy, or only the dust it has left behind?
By Renee Ricevuto
Renee Ricevuto is pursuing a double major in English and Music at Hunter College, along with a certificate from the Thomas Hunter Honors Program. She has published her work at the University of Chicago’s Harper Review and received writing awards at her institution. She’s currently working on a research project with the Mellon Public Humanities and Social Justice Scholarship Program. When she’s not writing or researching, she loves to read, draw, sing, and embroider.
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