" Time poverty is a problem partly of perception and partly of distribution ," says the article. In fact, neither of these is true. Time poverty (in the US, at least) is an invented means of social control. Our Puritanical leadership has -- for probably close to a century now -- turned "having idle time" into a moral failing which can then be used as a cudgel by bosses, a call-to-action (and exclusion) by politicians, and explanation or excuse by people looking for reasons why things go wrong (without, you know, having to actually go looking for the actual reasons). David Graeber's excellent book Bullshit Jobs goes into great detail about how our society has invented all sorts of requirements for keeping busy because our leadership is terrified by the idea that many of us could actually be idle sometimes and society wouldn't come crashing down.
this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2025
11 points (100.0% liked)
Humanities & Cultures
3018 readers
28 users here now
Human society and cultural news, studies, and other things of that nature. From linguistics to philosophy to religion to anthropology, if it's an academic discipline you can most likely put it here.
Subcommunities on Beehaw:
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
They're terrified that if people are allowed free time and personal wealth again there will be a 2nd hippy movement that will loudly oppose their wars and power structures.