Workaholism, Leisure and Pleasure - Part II

Written by Sam Vaknin


Continued from page 1

(2) The advent ofrepparttar information and knowledge revolutions lessenedrepparttar 132316 worker's dependence on a "brick and mortar" workplace and a "flesh and blood" employer. Cyberspace replaces real space and temporary or contractual work are preferred to tenure and corporate "loyalty".

Knowledge is not geography-dependent. It is portable and cheaply reproduced. The geographical locations ofrepparttar 132317 participants inrepparttar 132318 economic interactions of this new age are transparent and immaterial.

(3) The mobility of goods and data (voice, visual, textual and other) increased exponentially. The twin revolutions of transportation and telecommunications reducedrepparttar 132319 world to a global village. Phenomena like commuting to work and globe-straddling multinationals were first made possible. The car,repparttar 132320 airplane, facsimile messages, electronic mail, other forms of digital data,repparttar 132321 Internet - demolished many physical and temporal barriers. Workers today often collaborate in virtual offices across continents and time zones. Flextime and work from home replaced commuting. The very concepts of "workplace" and "work" were rendered fluid, if not obsolete.

(4) The dissolution ofrepparttar 132322 classic workplace is part of a larger and all-pervasive disintegration of other social structures, such asrepparttar 132323 nuclear family. Thus, whilerepparttar 132324 choice of work-related venues and pursuits increased -repparttar 132325 number of social alternatives to work declined.

The extended and nuclear family was denuded of most of its traditional functions. Most communities are tenuous and in constant flux. Work isrepparttar 132326 only refuge from an incoherent, fractious, and dysfunctional world. Society is anomic and work has become a route of escapism.

(5) The ideology of individualism is increasingly presented as a private case of capitalism and liberalism. People are encouraged to feel and behave as distinct, autonomous units. The metaphor of individuals as islands substituted forrepparttar 132327 perception of humans as cells in an organism. Malignant individualism replaced communitarianism. Pathological narcissism replaced self-love and empathy.

(6) The last few decades witnessed unprecedented successive rises in productivity and an expansion of world trade. New management techniques, improved production technologies, innovative inventory control methods, automatization, robotization, plant modernization, telecommunications (which facilitates more efficient transfers of information), even new design concepts - all helped bring workaholism about by placing economic values inrepparttar 132328 forefront. The Protestant work ethic ran amok. Instead of working in order to live - people began living in order to work.

Workaholics are rewarded with faster promotion and higher income. Workaholism is often - mistakenly - identified with entrepreneurship, ambition, and efficiency. Yet, really it is merely an addiction.

The absurd is that workaholism is a direct result ofrepparttar 132329 culture of leisure.

As workers are made redundant by technology-driven productivity gains - they are encouraged to engage in leisure activities. Leisure substitutes for work. The historical demarcation between work and leisure is lost. Both are commended for their contribution torepparttar 132330 economy. Work, like leisure, is less and less structured and rigid. Both work and leisure are often pursued from home and are often experienced as pleasurable.

The territorial separation between "work-place" and "home turf" is essentially eliminated.

Some people enjoy their work so much that it fulfilsrepparttar 132331 functions normally reserved to leisure time. They arerepparttar 132332 workaholics. Others continue to hate work - but feel disorientated inrepparttar 132333 new leisure-rich environment. They are not taught to deal with too much free and unstructured time, with a lack of clearly delineated framework, without clear instructions as to what to do, when, with whom, and to what end.

The state, parents, educators, employers - all failed to trainrepparttar 132334 population to cope with free time and with choice. Both types -repparttar 132335 workaholic andrepparttar 132336 "normal" person baffled by too much leisure - end up sacrificing their leisure time to their work-related activities.

Alas, it takes workaholics to create, maintain and expand capitalism. People don't work or conduct business only because they are afterrepparttar 132337 money. They enjoy their work or their business. They find pleasure in it. And this isrepparttar 132338 true meaning of capitalism:repparttar 132339 abolition ofrepparttar 132340 artificial distinction between work and leisure andrepparttar 132341 pursuit of both withrepparttar 132342 same zeal and satisfaction. Above all,repparttar 132343 (increasing) liberty to do so whenever, wherever, with whomever you choose.



Sam Vaknin ( http://samvak.tripod.com ) is the author of Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited and After the Rain - How the West Lost the East. He served as a columnist for Central Europe Review, PopMatters, and eBookWeb , and Bellaonline, and as a United Press International (UPI) Senior Business Correspondent. He is the the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory and Suite101.


A Culture Of Life

Written by The Independent Voice


Continued from page 1

I respectfully askrepparttar pro-choicers to put themselves inrepparttar 132313 position of someone who believes so much in their convictions that they would be willing to sacrifice torepparttar 132314 point of death, to uphold them. Do you understand that a fetus, barring any complications, will grow torepparttar 132315 point of complete independence? With that beingrepparttar 132316 case, do you understand why someone would say that life does indeed begin at conception? As a woman, don't you understand that havingrepparttar 132317 ability to abort a fetus isn't power, it's responsibility? That responsibility gets shifted off bothrepparttar 132318 man andrepparttar 132319 woman, and is put squarely on you. By insisting that it is your "choice", you have, for all intents and purpose, removedrepparttar 132320 father's responsibility to not only assist in making that decision but also to care forrepparttar 132321 child, after birth.

Wouldn't a "culture of life" need to address issues like poverty, crime, responsibility and famine? How can we allow children to be born into an environment whererepparttar 132322 mother can't afford to feed, clothe, educate and protect herself? Why shouldn't fathers have as much legal responsibility to their children as mothers do? Why should women haverepparttar 132323 sole responsibility for making decisions aboutrepparttar 132324 termination of pregnancy? Why should anyone be faced withrepparttar 132325 decision to terminate because they have no support, no food, no money, no healthcare, no way to provide and no hope?

Before condemning someone for havingrepparttar 132326 opinions or convictions that they do, why don't you try to first acceptrepparttar 132327 reality that these problems are real and affect people from every race, culture and economic status, and that complete understanding of these problems is necessary, before any real world solutions can be formulated? Both sides should agree that these problems are real. Both sides have different solutions to these problems, as each of you understands them. Neither side is completely right or wrong. Neither side has allrepparttar 132328 answers. Neither side isrepparttar 132329 only holder ofrepparttar 132330 truth. You can either combat each other or combatrepparttar 132331 problem. You can either accept that there are good people with strongly held beliefs on both sides ofrepparttar 132332 aisle, and that you both seek to solve these very human problems, or you can dismiss each other and leave these issues for future generations to fight.

The first step inrepparttar 132333 process of coming to any answers is communication, understanding, and tolerance of one another. The first step towards having a "culture of life" would be to promote these values.

The Indy Voice (http://www.theindyvoice.com/) is a no-nonsense blog that discusses politics, current affairs, and American society and culture without any consideration of ratings or commercial entities (big business). The Indy Voice


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