Why do we feel guilty about leisure?
I have been analyzing an article on work and leisure by Gary Gutting. Previously, I discussed my mission to dedicate my life to happiness alone. In this post, I wanted to go into the reasons why leisure, not work, should be our actual goal. You see, the priorities of the world are up side down. Hardworking people are considered to be good and party girls are considered to be bad. Even party girls like Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton often lament how hard they work, the number of meetings that they have to attend, or how they are businesswomen rather than party girls. In my opinion, though, it is very sad that despite having the means to have nothing but leisure, they have fallen into the trap that the world exists, by looking down upon their party girl lifestyle, and still striving for that stereotype of getting up, slogging all day, collapsing into bed each night, and starting all over again the next day.
My understanding is that work is admired not because of its intrinsic superiority, but because the capitalists fear chaos if there are not enough workers to do the dirty, meaningless work, so that they could enjoy nothing but leisure (a great example is the comment made by Mitt Romney about him being unemployed like the unemployed people he was talking to because his wealth allows him to simply live a life of perpetual leisure while someone else does the work). Not surprisingly, his comment was not appreciated by all those who think work as something sacred, but the reality is that Romney has it right (incidentally, I support nothing else about Mitt Romney).
Personally, for me, yes, my work and leisure is one and the same thing, but still, the ideal would be to have no restrictions on what I do with my time. Till that happens, I will continue to work, simply with the only goal to buy time so that I can be happy.
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