In this world, what is truly important?
Many of us constantly feel that there simply isn’t enough time to do everything. I have, mostly jokingly, said we should institute the 48 hour day, so that we would have twice as much time to do everything. But would this actually help, or would we quickly fill up that extra 24 hours? Why are we so busy? Why is “cool” to have our schedules filled to the brim?
For 10,000 years, it was the poorest people, the servants, serf, and slaves, that worked the most through agricultural labor. With the rise of industry in the past 150 years the working class took up jobs in manufacturing and maintenance. Still the work was based on physical labor. Up until the 1800s, the wealthiest individuals showed off their status by their leisure activities.
As we progressed into an economy driven by services as well as goods, a new type of work emerged: work of the mind. Intellectual capitol is now used to produce wealth. Our society has evolved to such complexity that we need people to be educated in how to tasks, many of which can be done on their computers and over the phone. We need people to organize other people, to work out logistics, to study laws, to program and write code, to engineer…
Work of the intellectual kind does not have the connotation connecting it with servant-hood like physical labor does. This type of work is itself a status symbol. You get to work with your mind because life afforded you the privilege of learning what you had to order to make money off your knowledge. For most people this means at least a four-year degree.
The concept of work versus leisure as symbols of status has evolved in America independent of the influences of Europe. Leisure activities are still valued countries like Italy and Greece. And a balanced work-life relationship is prioritized in places like Denmark and Norway.
A developmental difference in America was that, post World War II, the new technology of television was used to market products, services, and lifestyles to the American public. Edward Bernays, Freud’s nephew, used Freud’s theories to engineer marketing strategies that sell to the insecurities lurking within most people. He believed he was doing a good thing by supplicating the masses, which could otherwise turn violent and disrupt society.
Television, along with computers and smartphones, is dependent on minerals to which we have applied an electric current. Silicon, which with oxygen makes up quartz and glass, is essential in screens, and in circuit boards and computer chips. Humans have an extensive history of being obsessed with crystals and metals. They have powerful properties that through time have been associated with intangibles like wisdom and power. They are beautiful and have been sought after and sequesters by the wealthy and powerful around the globe.
The combination of our shared history with the mineral kingdom, the use of electricity, and the knowledge or entertainment that is on the other side of the screen has made our new technology mesmerizing and addictive. We have all seen people who are glued to their smartphone and may struggle with it ourselves. It has nearly completely changed what life is like for our species, and we can’t adapt quickly enough to keep pace.
The realization of television’s power was first realized with war propaganda. Suggestive marketing fosters ideas that we need a lot of things we don’t. The he belief that we should pursue certain lifestyles and buy more things has contributed to our preoccupation with work. We have to figure out how to pay for all this, which sets up a positive feedback loop. Work used to be seen as a means to an end, but some people cling to it a part of their identity, as an external source of who they are.
What of all this? Working for what? What is the goal? To make a company money? That seems like an awfully shallow goal. To be able to buy that new car or house? Also quite shallow.
So, what is truly important? There are some deep questions to life, which beg to be pondered. There is a great deal of suffering along with personal, inter-generational, and ancestral trauma that wants recognition. There is a plethora of spiritual teachings to meditate upon. What about that homeless man? He is a human being; we can acknowledge him as such. There is the planet, with all its wonders: the mountains, the microbial life in the soil, standing under the shade of a tree, looking into the sacred structure of a flower…
We can choose to build community with one another, and make our little corner of the world a better place. We can pursue a meaningful life. There are no expanses to great to cross if we both reach for one another.
People follow what they hold as the highest value, be it knowledge, money, fame, or God. We are how we spend our time. What does that make you?
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Love ad infinitum,
Jalina
