Leisure time does not exist.

posted by Unknown , on 10:58 AM , No Comments

"In any society, sleep and other nonwork activities are necessary to restore and maintain life and labor power. Work itself is not intrinsically oppressive. It is the inclusion in so-called leisure time of commodity-producing work under monopoly capitalism which creates the contradiction between oppressive liberating in time for which people are not paid." Smythe, 1981

As I was reading this article by Smythe (1981) I started thinking about my personal habits. How exactly do I spend my leisure time? Am I still working? Am I an audience commodity? Smythe explains that even the action of watching TV is a working action. We are constantly working. The idea of working to consume was also reinforced by Stuart Ewen who discussed how industrialization gave people higher wages and less working hours to fill leisure time by buying the mass production that industrialization was generating. So what do we all do to relax to fill our leisure time? Miserably I can say that I always work and it's pathetic. How wonder why we are so envious of Italians, French or Spanish people. They know how to stop, how to regain energy lost from working all the times. When you watch TV you are working. Your brain is working, you are exposed to ads. You are continually being part of a cycle of production and consumption. Doing laundry, cooking, cleaning, feeding the dogs..... We need to do better than this. How wonder why we are always stressed at the point that we need pills to calm us down.

So, I am going to take an hour and just enjoy my leisure time. Do the same.

Today I am wearing the first item I bought after the 91 days. I am so proud of this fur (fake) vest. It is something I would have never bought it but I saw it and it was fun, different and funky. I love it.