Has man created civilization to give himself security? Security for what? For boredom? Most human beings need a certain amount of challenge, of external stimulus, to stop them from sinking into the blank stare and blank consciousness of the idiot.” (Colin Wilson, New Pathways in Psychology)

For most of human history leisure was a rare luxury. Toiling from dawn to dusk just to survive was the lot of almost all men, women and children up until a few hundred years ago. With the onset of the Second Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century and the rapid intensification of the division of labor that accompanied it, there occurred a “Leisure Revolution”. Not only did this period of rapid industrial development drive many from the farmlands into large cities in search of work, but the regimented hours associated with industrial work left the masses – for the first time in the modern era – with scheduled free time to direct their own activities.

Well over 100 years have passed since this leisure revolution, and the fruits of civilization have become more plentiful, and leisure, more bountiful. Perhaps more than at any point in the history of civilization, the average individual today is free from the daily struggle for survival. But with this newfound freedom a crucial question confronts each of us:

What are we free for?

In other words, how are we going to use the time we have that is not devoted to the necessities of life? Few contemplate this question. Rather, as with many important questions regarding how to live, most people sink into conformity and implicitly assume their free time is best spent resting, relaxing, and passively consuming.

    “Most people are, in the most ordinary sense, very limited. They pass their time, day after day, in idle, passive pursuits, just looking at things – at games, television, whatever. Or they fill the hours talking, mostly about nothing of significance – of comings and goings, of who is doing what, of the weather, of things forgotten almost as soon as they are mentioned. They have no aspirations for themselves beyond getting through another day doing more or less what they did yesterday. They walk across the stage of life, leaving everything about as it was when they entered, achieving nothing, aspiring to nothing, having never a profound or even original thought…This is what is common, usual, typical, indeed normal. Relatively few rise above such a plodding existence.” (Richard Taylor, Restoring Pride)

The idle mind is the devil’s workshop. “Boredom, passivity, stagnation: these are the beginning of mental illness, which propagates itself like the scum on a stagnant pond.” (Colin Wilson, New Pathways in Psychology). We should ask ourselves if the comfort and passive activities provide is worth the cost. For even if our passivity does not plant within us the seeds of pessimism and depression, then it most certainly is decreasing our worth as a human being.

    “Merely to do what others have done is often safe, and comfortable; but to do something truly original, and do it well, whether it is appreciated by others or not – that is what being human is really all about.” (Richard Taylor, Restoring Pride)