Thousands of years ago, man lived in constant fear. Fear of death from getting eaten, murderous rivals, or the steady decay of life that comes with malnourishment and parasites. This fear translated into a constant, pervasive sense of need: to mate, to kill, to move, to do. Humans acted or lost, and loss in the caveman’s world meant death. Technological advancement, at least in part of the world, has given us unprecedented leisure. Security systems, definition in social structure, clarification of moral guidance, and abundance of food all contribute to our free time. Most often we benefit ourselves and our society by properly channeling our efforts into the propagation of this leisure time. Yet more often than not we waste that time.
HD Discovery Channel epics, while fascinating eye candy, entertaining knowledge, and Sigourney Weaver, do little to actually enhance our understanding of the world. Though for a fleeting moment I appreciated the beauty of a polar bear skidding down an icy slope, it quickly shifted to my appreciation of the camera man’s patience in waiting four months to film that shot. Then I got up and drank some pop. Essentially, my appreciation of nature resulted in my motivation to drink more root beer and did little to enhance society.
We now often conceptualize work in terms of work/life balance and education in terms of preparing our futures for the leisure we’ll have once we are given high paying jobs. At what point did human future planning shift from a focus on work to leisure? Was it the industrial age or earlier? There has to be some apical era in which the survival of man was a done deal, when we were ‘Made’ men in the organized crime family of nature. I might be completely misrepresenting humans though, maybe we still work to survive, but I believe that nature is dwindling fast. In the welfare state even the less privileged have more people to take care of them than ever before. I don’t know. I really just wanted to blog because I was bored and everyone else is doing it. Happy New Year!
