Modern Times

Traviers Herndon
I found it ironic that the Modern Times video in scene one, for the begin credits it stated that it was “a story of industry, of individual enterprise- humanity crusading in the pursuit of happiness”. There would be no happiness attained in this style of industry or workplace conditions. The video showed the men headed to their big factory jobs in a flock as sheep would be running amongst each other. The president was sitting in his office doing a puzzle, reading a newspaper and taking surveillance of the work being done by everyone but himself. I couldn’t believe Charlie Chaplin went to the bathroom and he couldn’t be granted the chance to break in the bathroom. There was a surveillance of the rest area. I saw the idea of social division of labor in detail throughout the video and displayed with the industrial workers and their tasks versus the task of the man over them. The industrial workers had so much more required of them and the work proved to be potentially stressful. It was somewhat funny to see that there was a machine invented to allow workers to work and eat at the same time. Though it seemed like something to enhance the effect of the film, I think that bosses would seriously consider machines of this nature to eliminate the lunch just to get as much out of a worker as possible in a day’s work. It would be a sad predicament if workers were no longer entitled to some time for themselves to eat. I never understood how the machine would really work anyway but I find the video in general a harsh reality for any worker and it’s sad that even with the times improving the technology to do work, doing work can still be as equally as portrayed in the Modern Times Video.