Sunday, May 20, 2012

temple scott

the use of leisure

p. 37 -
why do i insist so much on leisure? because leisure is time, and time is life. leisure means liberty, freedom for the assertion of self; leisure is the first requisite for making possible fo us the pursuit of happiness. give a poor man tim and you enrich him. give him time and you empower him so that he will move mountains by taking thought.

time and space... spaces with nothing to prove

p. 61 -
how are we ever to settle social questions if we leave out the souls of the people?
the problem of economic freedom depends absolutely on the healthy-minded citizens themselves, and healthy-minded citizens are possible only in a community which permits its members  the enjoyment of leisure, and offers every facility for its right use.

p. 62 -
the right use of leisure is to educate the average citizen to be high-minded. leisrue produced the high-minded aristocrat, the lover of art and the patron of genius; the eimple-heated lover of nature; there is no reason why it should not also produce the high-minded citizen, with equal power to appreciate and encourage art and genius, and with even greater power to maintain them, and greater desire for the free-play of innocent natural instincts.  
the right use of leisure is to maintain our ability to live it joyously. the ability to use anything is measured by the results of the use; if the results work well, they are desired...
p. 71 -
only a free people can hope; for only a free people have the chance to make good. hope is the movement of the souls to the making of ideas which freedom compels the body to make real.  

p. 75 -
i seem to hear my ingenious friend and critic saying: what you urde is all very good but it will take a long time to make civilized and innocent citizens for your civilized community. how is the poor man to be helped in the meantime? i can only answer with another question: will the poor man be worse off with leisure than he is now without it? no one can help him if he will not help himself. if he is content to reamin unhappy he, probably finds soe dull comfort in it, and in that case he will not thank us for distrubing him. but i do not believe that any citizen of these united states is that kind of a man. the history of this country would not be what it si were its people so utterly helpless.  
p. 76 -
and, indeed, there is no need for poverty or want and its consequent misery. there is enough and more, for all, if we will but see to it that each man has fair play and a square deal, and that the game of life be played according the the rules of honor. if leisure be the gentleman's privilege, as we are told it is, let us all be gentlemen. instead of competing against each other for the largest possession of wealth, let us compete for the best expression of self.

the silver age