If there is only one thing that i know deep down in my soul, its that we (civilization) are way off track. People may pick something that they find troubling: industrialized war, garbage, obesity, environmental destruction, computerized interpersonal relations- yet they fail to see the larger picture or gestalt- the whole system is faulty. I know there are many others who think along the same lines, but seems as if we are the vast minority. Personally, i think that if more people read history (not only European based), we would start to see a trend. Is the United States really a beacon of freedom, where we only have to return to the ideals of the founding fathers (who at the time of writing the constitution owned slaves, massacred Indians, and treated women as cattle).
Ive written before about the concept of free time- how shall i live my life-
we are programmed to accept leisure activities after 8 hours of work and a 40 hour work week (compared with hunter gathers who worked 4 hours). All told people receive on average 2 weeks of vacation per year until retirement age. As they toil away their waking hours, people focus their spiritual energy of these times away from "the grind." Unfortuantely, the way people utilize these hours neither fulfiils or refreshes them in any susbstantial manner. Here lies the root of aspects of mental illness, stress- and its friends anxiety & depression.
The author George Orwell (1984, animal farm) mused on these issues in his short story Pleasure Spots, which he wrote while living in an isolated farmhouse in the Shetland islands off the northern coast of Scotland in 1948. He picture these future pleasure spots where people would spend their leisure hours.
1. One is never alone.
2. One never does anything for oneself.
3. One is never within sight of wild vegetation or natural objects of any kind.
4. Light and temperature are always artificially regulated.
5. One is never out of the sound of music.
(sounds like a carnival cruise or the modern tourism industry)
The music should be the same music for everybody-its the most important ingredient. Its function is to prevent thought and conversation, and to shut out any natural sound, such as the song of birds or the whistling of the wind, that might otherwise intrude.
The lights must never go out.
The music must always play,
Lest we should see where we are;
Lost in a haunted wood,
Children afraid of the dark
Who have never been happy or good.
The question only arises because in exploring the physical universe man has made no attempt to explore himself. Much of what goes by the name of pleasure is simply an effort to destroy consciousness. If one started by asking, what is man? what are his needs? how can he best express himself? one would discover that merely having the power to avoid work and live one's life from birth to death in electric light and to the tune of tinned music is not a reason for doing so. Man needs warmth, society, leisure, comfort and security: he also needs solitude, creative work and the sense of wonder. If he recognised this he could use the products of science and industrialism eclectically, applying always the same test: does this make me more human or less human? He would then learn that the highest happiness does not lie in relaxing, resting, playing poker, drinking and making love simultaneously. And the instinctive horror which all sensitive people feel at the progressive mechanisation of life would be seen not to be a mere sentimental archaism, but to be fully justified. For man only stays human by preserving large patches of simplicity in his life, while the tendency of many modern inventions-in particular the film, the radio and the aeroplane-is to weaken his consciousness, dull his curiosity, and, in general, drive him nearer to the animals.
