As someone said: “The life of leisure was the only life fit for a Greek!” one could also wonder whether only the Greeks were fit for a life of leisure. Indeed they seemed to have a strong concept of what leisure should be about: it was about building and exploring ideals. Their pursuit of ideals encompassed culture, meaning the pursuit of general knowledge, excellence of the soul, fulfilment of a divine purpose and very interestingly the creation of an ideal civil society where human kind could fulfil its potential collectively based on individual’s own free will. Leisure was about building and exploring the ideal of a perfect society.

Democracy is often portrayed as the most desirable form of government. There is also a growing concern, that our modern democracies have become hollow in face of globalisation and more specifically the power of multinationals.

Even Kofi Annan from the remote UN seems to be of this opinion. While there is certainly a connection there, one could wonder whether the biggest threat is not instead in how each one of us spend our leisure time.

Unlike the Greek version, modern leisure is actually quite a difficult concept to define. It is easier to describe by default: it is free time away from work or other obligations. Alternatively it is a time for ease and relaxation. This does not tell us what it actually is. When it does, it assumes a complete switch-off through “relaxation”. More often than not, it merely implies that leisure is the leftover of the day. By default, work actually also takes preponderance; it is superior in power and influence. And in a society that has become obsessed with productivity and efficiency, leisure has lost its dimension of being a fulfilling time for nurturing relationships and self-development, to become the aimless slot between two periods of “productivity”. If it were not so, free time would not be so readily shrunk by overtime and work commitments.

When work can easily impose its constraints over leisure, it also assumes that what we do during this free time does not matter. So while everybody agrees it is important per se, it also contradictorily does not matter. If it does not matter and is unrelated to any obligation, how important is our responsibility to turn it into something constructive?

Yet we are responsible to how we choose to spend our free time. Despite all the claims for individualism and independence, we do live in a society where there is growing level of interdependence between individuals on a wider scale than ever encountered in the past.

The majority of us rely on others for what we eat, what we wear and even who is providing us with a paycheque. While trumpeting “individualism”, we are now deeply interdependent, to a point where all most basic needs are out of our control. Like it or not, this makes us answerable for all the decisions we make and this includes how we spend our free time.

My question is that if leisure is a term that cannot be defined positively, carries a notion that it is subordinate to work and has become an area of relaxation of personal responsibility, then what are the consequences for society at large?

My concerns are also feeding on the fact that modern leisure seems to be overwhelmingly spent either shopping or passively watching the box. While the traditional perception of leisure was one of tranquillity, peacefulness, timelessness and self-development, modern leisure seems to be a time bound and time conscious, multidirectional and yet intangible, sometimes with a distinctive competitive stance added to it. Sentences such as “I must work on my swing”, “I am going for my 50 lanes” over “Let’s have a game/a swim” are particularly depressing. It feels as if nothing can be done as an amateur anymore.

Regarding the standard of television, most would argue that it could be used as a source of self-development. Some could argue that the vast majority of “documentaries” or pseudo-documentaries are providing escapism rather than any real content. Too much focus on special effects, computerised animations and historical reproductions seem to have replaced real content. To my unqualified opinion, there seem to be a lot of artistic license and creation of false reality in order to attract viewers. It is probably a downside from being managed commercially, mind you.

The world seems to be balanced only where extremes are matched by their opposite extremes.
Is the evolution of free time from tranquillity to hectic rush a mirroring of the transition of work evolving from a means to an end to one of intense yet dehumanised self-actualisation? There might be an argument there.

If it is, then one could say that free time is not an opportunity to take stock and regenerate batteries anymore but one for escapism; escapism from a work take-over, which has not delivered its promises. Not only are we back to having work as the main driver, but as with all forms of escapism, leisure has become without direction and becomes pointless in terms of gratification. Tellingly the most common answer to “Did you have a good week end?” seems to be a tired look, a grunt or some undefined mumbling, leave alone the polite unenthusiastic and bland “Fine”. Does not sound challenging or stimulating to say the least, let alone refreshing.

For the Greeks, leisure had one purpose and one purpose only: Education. They however did not have this modern concept of “lifelong learning” where adults seem to be constantly pushed to gain more papers and diplomas to be able to cope and adjust to changes created by the workplace.

They practised coaching not with the aim of accumulating learning and knowledge (life long learning) but with the aim of developing the spirit and deepening insight (self development).

This often took the form of debate, observation and a lot of reflection. I sometimes wonder whether modern youngsters do have those memorable evenings debating the core life issues of love, politics, peace, religion etc… They seem to be things of the past; interactions seem focused on the latest TV program (usually not a documentary). Maybe I am too harsh here. Even the old pint around which the world can be rebuilt seems to be an impossible treat, the music is too loud, the oversized TV is the corner, fashion is in into bingeing anyway. Suicide runs high among youngsters and one would wonder whether free time debating possible directions in life and exploring the interdependence between all of us would not be better to witnessing the lowest of human behaviour on screen and alleviate the all too prevalent loneliness around. Again the Greeks had it carved in their temples “Know thyself” followed by “Nothing in excess”. So it may be that the path of least effort, i.e. TV, shopping, PC games, that we call modern leisure do come with a hidden price tag. We may be having too much of it and in the process we have lost ourselves.

For the Greeks, education (or coaching) was seen as the ultimate justification of human life and human community. Indeed, despite their highly hierarchical society, they believed that freedom was essential. In order to assume this responsibility, they firmly believed that free time should be dedicated to make individuals aware of all choices available and equip them with the tools necessary to make the right ones. They also believed that not everybody was fit for such responsibility. Unfortunately, their selection criteria (gender, wealth) were pretty gross to say the least. Beside this, education was for them the corner stone to maintaining and developing the collective, social and political basis of any state. They defined leisure according to an ideal of society. It gave them a purpose and function. We seem to relate leisure as the slot available between two periods of work, while still burdening it with work related values such as time compression, productivity and competition. It has no purpose in itself. The cynics would say it only serves as commercial purpose, a comment I heard at a local family day event hosted nearby.

The Greeks’ philosophy is rather quite far reaching as it not only defines what leisure is, it also puts a very different slant to what education is about… By comparison, our “more advanced” civilisation cannot define leisure, seems to be educating people to be workers and seems to have shifted from developing insight to accumulation of “knowledge mired in fact and devoted to triviality”. Funnily enough, it seems that the tissue of society is getting more and more stretched and fragmented, and that any cohesion is undermined by deep inequalities. Maybe we need to redress the balance of our over-specialised education to one that incorporates true elements of humanism.

It would be tempting to put all the responsibility on creating citizenship back on our schools and universities. While I certainly believe, with hindsight, that my most constructive subjects were philosophy and history, but I also believe that individuals do have a responsibility in how they develop themselves and consequently how they choose to spend their free time. Civilisations do not evolve from universities but from individuals who collectively make informed or uninformed decisions. Letting go of this responsibility is like letting go of our own self-governance.

If, as Jefferson says, liberty is best in the hand of people rather than institutions, then it is highly dependent on people’s discretion and intelligence in decision-making. This comes with education in the Greek sense of the term. Individuals must bring themselves up to be able to take such decisions. A proactive approach is necessary because nobody can force self-development unto anybody…and if the majority of individuals are not interested in self-development, maybe we need to question the whole concept of democracy in the first place. Maybe a meritocracy of the wise would be better to the uneducated election of the most charismatic. On this point, the Greeks were maybe not enviable since slaves and women were excluded from their ideal society, but maybe they had a point that not everybody is suited to carry such a responsibility. In any case, by abdicating personal awareness and development, are we heading for an equally divided society on equally unhealthy grounds.

Free time should be about exploration. Exploration of ideas and concepts, a time for experimentation though whatever stimulating or challenging hobby we may have. Most major scientific discovery did not have a practical application when first discovered, which highlights the role of inquisitive exploration or playful experimentation. Necessity has not been the driver for any civilisation development, free time has. So whether it is about gardening, nurturing relationship, reading, writing, studying, watching stars or playing sport, as long as the focus is beyond ourselves and proves challenging and stimulating, we play our part in keeping our civilisation and our democratic governance ticking. It is not to say that a certain element of self-indulgence is necessarily bad, but modern leisure seems to be a lot about self indulgence and goes little beyond the “self”. "Nothing in excess” as said the Greeks.

Keynes predicted that we would have reached a true society of leisure by 2030 as civilisation would then have defined the concept of “enough” in material terms and accepted the interconnectivity of individuals. Funnily enough some latest futurist report confirmed the same but with renewed emphasis on material accumulation and self-gratification.

In which scenario is a sustainable democracy and society cohesion the safest? One where leisure and education are defined as per the Greeks and Keynes? Or one where leisure cannot be defined, where dehumanised working practices and growing material inequalities go unchecked? Maybe we are indeed back to the original role of corporations in all this… but let’s not forget our individual responsibility as well.

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