The web is filled with pictures of paradise bays, postcards of sunsets, and piles of books we take with us on holiday. These are the classic book lists. Bill Gates And Barack ObamaSummer, the beach, and books are a desperate song for the time we no longer have. And I’m not referring to the 24 hours of the day that we learn to use in the most empty platitudes, but to the way we measure, value, and distribute time.
You don’t need to appeal to Einstein to know that there is no single frame of reference for time, that time is personal and non-transferable; we do not measure our lives in months and years but in the events that have marked us. Time is a social construct that serves us to utilize resources whether in an agricultural economy—seasons, river floods, tides—or in an industrial one—time of entry, exit, time of production of a commodity—or in post-industrial or timeless time where the boundaries between leisure and work (the negation of leisure) are blurred.
“We do not measure our lives by months and years, but by the events that have affected us.”
As such, time is not exempt from political pressures. Although sometimes not explicitly stated, all ideological currents, political parties and social movements have a specific position on time – shorter working weeks, work-schedule conciliation, rationalization of schedules, parental leave – and in fact, any economic policy, when resources are limited, is nothing more than a policy of time. My teacher once explained it to me Xavier Sala and Martin In a conversation at Davos: Everything that makes us happy has a cost, often it costs money, but it always has a cost in time. The corollary is that economics is the science of happiness (and so is economics, Yanis VaroufakisHe denies that economics is a science; the various currents of economic thought are like religions.
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That time is a social construct, and being the basis for measuring economic productivity, and thus happiness, means that it is constantly subject to the designs of the authorities who decide which indicators are relevant. Although there are additional indicators that provide a broader perspective on progress – happiness (GNH in its English acronym), social well-being (SPI, idem), environmental impact and human development (HDI, idem) – we are still governed by GDP, when we know for sure that it is not enough.
We know that GDP is not a good indicator since 1920 for economists. Arthur Pigou Published in his book Welfare Economy Next example: If a man hires a woman to do jobs, employment goes up and the economy (and happiness) grows. On the other hand, if he marries there and continues to do the same job, the number of workers goes down and the economy declines. Where is the poll? This misunderstanding when it comes to measuring “happiness” still persists today. This example is known today as “Pigou’s Paradox” also known from the Catalan proverb that “Working is not the same as doing work.” Which inevitably leads us, as always, to Greece.
“Although there are additional indicators that provide a broader perspective on progress, we still judge by GDP, when we know for sure that it is not enough.”
The ancient Greeks, in their agricultural time, guided by the seasons, made an ideal distinction between what it meant to work and to do work, between work and occupation. Occupation (pridevery close to I paintedpoverty) had slaves, craftsmen and medics in exchange for living, money or goods. The free citizen’s getting a job was frowned upon, not work (on the other hand)I hope), which is a moral obligation.I hope The work of the polis citizens was work that was done at home, with relatives and friends, or in public places.
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Another distinction the Greeks made was between leisure and entertainment. The former included activities such as eating, drinking, entertainment, gymnastics, and sports, and its greatest festival was held every four years at the Olympic Games. On the other hand, leisure (My sister) It combined personal education with civic engagement (the word school in the drift). Participation in the theater was more like a religious ceremony, involving a procession and audience participation for hours, than the theater we were used to.
“Tech giants have hijacked our free time, understood in Greek terms—personal education and civic engagement—and replaced it with personal display and uncivil engagement online.”
Notice that authority, which decides how time is divided and measured. OutputOn the one hand, he tried to remove work from the equation—if it wasn’t paid, it wasn’t work—and on the other, to erase the boundaries between leisure and entertainment. We see this especially in the Internet age, where tech giants have hijacked our Greek-speaking leisure—personal education and civic engagement—and replaced it with personal display and non-civic engagement online. Along the way, they’ve made a lot of money and ripped apart the social fabric.
The fact that we are not doing things right is shown by the desperate singing that characterizes them. Summer vacation. Observe yourselves, let us observe ourselves these days: without a clock, guided by the time of the sun, in contact with nature that determines its time for us, loaded with books for our personal education time (free time), participating in civic life that consists of big feasts, gatherings, parties, festivals and using the mobile phone less. We cling to our Greek and agricultural past even if it is only for two weeks in the summer.
If you want to know more, I recommend the book I’m reading now: The Politics of Time: Gaining Control in an Age of Uncertainty From the economist man standing.
See you this evening in the Havaneras on the beach at the main Sant Vicenç de Montalt festival.
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