Mindless Leisure

When we discussed the topic of mindless labor and mindless leisure. The example was brought up about how mindful leisure would be playing chess with your friends and mindless leisure would be playing against a computer. There is really no joy in playing against a computer compared to playing one of your friends. I do not play chess on a regular basis, however, I do play XBOX. I enjoy playing, but whenever I am unable to talk to my friends or play with them in a game I get bored very easily. I can understand the mindless leisure aspect of playing games.

In the book, it stated that both political views typically take for granted that an increase in economic productivity is desired. The example that was used for mindless labor was an assembly line. A worker will easily get very bored with putting together one part of a car at a manufacturing plant. However if the person took the time to put together the entire car, he or she would have a much more meaningful outcome at the end of the completed task. This was a great example and really helped me understand what was meant in the reading of the book.