I want to abolish the idea of prioritizing work and financial gain over life experiences. Americans rarely take vacations and we work harder than most countries. However, we are also less happy and satisfied with our lives than other countries. Why? We just keep working so we can get ahead and we never stop to enjoy. So here's what I'm thinking.
Renaissance: This got the ball rolling with the power in possibilities. Men realized they could "change their stars" in a sense. The plague, exploration, humanism led to men creating and becoming!
Enlightenment: We learn to enjoy our liberty........Any ideas here?
Industrialization: This is actually where American's demanded a 5 day work week. But industrialization and new technology allowed for inventions and improvement. Suddenly, work could continue into the night with the invention of electricity and light bulbs. Not only that but people worked in the factory and went on to continue to work at home. Isms: Nationalism, imperialism, etc. drives the idea of us being better than others and that continued into our everyday lives. We need to be better than our neighbors.
20th Century/Age of Technology: Work now can come to the home with internet, email, and handheld devices. We can be working at any moment and we convince ourselves that a few more hours will lead to immense gain.
I plan on looking into the history of leisure and such but any ideas are great :)
I like your idea. I am all for working less and enjoying life more. Especially when it comes to traveling. As for ideas regarding the enlightenment period... I am not really sure of specific examples but I know that the industrial revolution took place or at least began during this period which goes along with your section on industrialization.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few people who have the same ideas as you. Check out the ted talks by Ricardo Semlar and Dan Pink.
This is similar to what I'm doing! I'm focusing more on changing the 9 to 5 schedule, but you might consider looking into utilitarianism and how the 40 hour work week could be considered a "greater good" type system, and how this took the spotlight over the importance of leisure and giving people the right to enjoy their lives.
ReplyDeleteYou can also look into the role transportation played. People had to work non-stop just to grow enough food to live/earn enough money to buy said food. Because distances were so great, and transportation was so slow, areas were really dependent on their own individual food production for survival. Now that transportation has improved, we are able to rely on other global locations for food during shortages. As a result, we have to work less as individuals.
ReplyDeleteThat rambled a bit, but I hope the concept was clear enough.
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