By his very success in inventing labor-saving devices, modern man has manufactured an abyss of boredom that only the privileged classes in earlier civilizations have ever fathomed.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Labor-saving devices have created widespread boredom among the privileged.
- In plain terms
- Saving work leads to boredom for many.
- What can you take from it?
- Consider how convenience can create spiritual emptiness.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- What does busy mean to you?
- Is less work always better?
Another view
Not everyone has access to labor-saving devices or privilege.
More from Lewis Mumford
Now life is the only art that we are required to practice without preparation, and without being allowed the preliminary trials, the failures and botches, that…
Permalink to quote #21 We have created an industrial order geared to automatism, where feeble-mindedness, native or acquired, is necessary for docile productivity in the factory; and…
Permalink to quote #23 Unable to create a meaningful life for itself, the personality takes its own revenge: from the lower depths comes a regressive form of spontaneity: raw animali…
Permalink to quote #20
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