Decius wrote:
] Freedom is the ability to spend your time for your own
] purposes rather then those of others. We have too little.

I wonder what John F. Kennedy would have to say about this definition of freedom.

Every thread eventually turns into a debate about selfishness and altruism. Here we are.

Are you saying we have too little time, or too little ability?

I think the biologists are working on the time part, but I'm not sure the "solution" qualifies as an improvement.

I am concerned about the increasing effectiveness of the technologies of escapism. In the days when all we had were books, even simple escapism could be mind expanding, because you had to do work to make the story truly come to life. Nowadays, the escape experience seems almost real, and yet you're just sitting there.

At some point, no one will be inclined to struggle for improvement in the real world we must share, because everyone will just escape into their own private, perfect, virtual world.

Is that progress?

] How is [when] ... the work week is scaled back to 30 hours.

Less is more. Be careful what you wish for.

If you haven't seen "Born Rich", it's worth the hour. You may even be convinced that the life of leisure is not necessarily the most fulfilling possibility. Would you like to ride horses around an obstacle course all day, every day? How about collecting historical documents?

RE: How to Spread the Word When the Word Is 'Grim'