Leisure, A Right And A Duty

For a long time, leisure was seen as a negative. “She is the mother of all vices” they said. This idea that free time was negative, expanded due to the interests that prevailed in the industrial age. The slogan was to produce the maximum and, for this reason, this type of ideologies were popularized, according to which the only praiseworthy thing in life was to work.

Producing always more, to generate greater surpluses, led to uncontrolled industrial activity. Part of the consequences of this are a significant destruction of the environment and a notorious reduction in the quality of life of workers. Living only to work longer and longer leads to physical and mental illness. For this reason, leisure has now begun to be vindicated, not only as a right, but also as a duty.

Now, through science , we know that rest is as fundamental as work. The brain and the whole organism need periods of stillness to function properly. Whoever rests, as frequently as he works, is more productive, creative and healthy. However, we are not as educated for leisure as we are for work.

Leisure, a right

As we know, there were times when the right to rest was limited to a minimal margin. It corresponds to those times in which there was no legal workday, nor a legal minimum wage. Employers then, had no problem hiring workers for days of 14 or more hours. And in return they paid what they had.

As by then there was already a great mass of dispossessed, the workers accepted these totally unjust conditions. At the same time, in various parts of the world unions and union organizations began to emerge. Workers from all over the planet fought fiercely to achieve basic and universal rights. This allowed us to arrive at the famous scheme of the three eights: 8 hours of work, 8 of rest and 8 of family life.

In many countries of the world, this pattern is still maintained, although semi-slavery conditions persist in many parts of the world as well. The important thing here is that we remember that it is a right that was conquered by arduous struggles, which even claimed many lives. Voluntarily giving up a right means helping it become a dead letter and eventually disappear.

Leisure, a duty

Giving a place to leisure in our life is an act of self-love . It is part of the self-care that each of us must lavish on. Rest is a responsibility we have to ourselves, if we appreciate our health and well-being. It seems too obvious a truth, but in today’s world it has been forgotten. The internalization of obligations is so strong that many people cannot bear to have free time, in which they do not have to be accountable to anyone.

Bertrand Russell, the famous English thinker, gave many lights on the subject of leisure. In one of his writings he presents an interesting example. It presents a scenario in which a group of factories produce all the pins that a country requires, employing 100 workers, 8 hours a day. Suddenly, a technology appears that generates the same production, but in half the time. What should happen then and what actually happens?

Russell says that in this hypothetical case, what happens is that many workers are laid off, either because less labor is required, or because some companies go bankrupt. In his view, what should happen is that the same workers and the same factories work only half the time. That way they would all win, since they would continue to sell the same thing, for the same price.

Protect leisure times

Today, the consumer society has changed priorities for many people. Not necessarily work to adequately satisfy basic needs, but many want to have a surplus to consume. Buy things, whether they need them or not. Replace goods constantly. Always be buying and always be paying.

That is why many willingly agree to work longer than is reasonable. They need more money because the market is insatiable. There will always be a more tempting offer. He who has clothes wants new clothes. He who has a house wants a bigger one. He who has a car wants a plane.

Consumption, in turn, generates a closed lifestyle. You work to consume and you consume to work. Free time is the time of shopping, or consumption. Thinking about free time sometimes makes no sense to many. In fact it makes them uneasy. This is not healthy. It is important to give great value to our leisure moments, because it is in them where we best get in touch with the most genuine of ourselves and of life.