FIGAROVOX / TRIBUNE – The debate over pension reform reveals a turmoil in our relationship to work, explains economist and founding president of the Sabice Institute. He adds that we conceive of life as a long period of free time where moments of action are scarce.
Olivier Pappeau is the head essayist of the Institut Sabines (a think tank). Preparing for publication, in February 2023, entertainment tyranny(ed. Buchet-Chastel).
the Pension reform You won’t stir up a lot of emotions if you don’t touch the French quickly. By extending her working hours, she attacks a treasure shrouded in jealousy: our free time. It is important to understand the new situation in which we are investing our free time now.
A major shift has taken place since the end of the 20th century, gradually upending arbitration between them work and leisure. It is the end of the work preference that was born during the industrial revolution. As the historian Jean-Yves Grenier has pointed out, the Marxist or Foucaultian views that interpret the productive transformation of the nineteenth century as the fruit of restrictions imposed on workers, are wrong. Rather, it is an evolution of factor arbitration between leisure and work. The Industrial Revolution is as much a revolution in consumption as it is a revolution in production, if not more. Whereas, up to the middle of the eighteenth century, workers preferred leisure to higher incomes, this arbitration changes from this date because the utility afforded by the new goods is greater than the satisfaction of the leisure hour. Thus, workers widely barter their leisure time for extra working time.
Glorious thirty I continued this trend. Then a kind of fatigue from the fruits of labor gradually emerged. More precisely, we have tasted so much modern convenience and the latest innovations, that we support less the bondage that their acquisition imposes. Between work and leisure time, from now on, we have determination Choose free time. With what success: in the 19th century we worked about 4,000 hours a year, now 1,400 hours. France is even among the developed countries where people work the least: a Portuguese person works 12,000 more than a French person on average over a lifetime … Thus we completely reversed the usual perspective: in the past, life was essentially work interspersed with leisure time. From now on, life is seen as an enormous moment of free time where we slip in a few (as few) moments as possible of work.
In a largely secular world that has distanced itself from great religious narratives, the new science of teleology devotes primary place to leisure.
Olivier Papau
Our leaders must understand that the discourse about the “value of labor” now finds as little resonance in the minds of our contemporaries as it does in the “Motherland”. By losing traditional solidarity, our society has lost the shackles they created. Isolated, often alone, we no longer feel the same forms of dependence on the group. The individual no longer identifies himself in relation to the group and is no longer anxious about the social situation to which his function refers. An aristocrat in the Ancien Régime had to “maintain his rank”. His membership in the social group of reference, what he called his honor, was the only thing that really mattered. The isolated individual in the twenty-first century Century makes arbitrable time the primary resource. In a largely secular world that has distanced itself from great religious narratives, the new science of teleology devotes primary place to leisure.
What do we do? A part is used in work on oneself that one might say repeats in modern forms ancient wisdom convertio ad itself. It is the ethic of mastery whose goal, as with Senecato transcend simplicity Voloptas (joy) to achieve laetitia (The joy of happiness). One also uses his time to develop his belonging to the social circles of his choice. Above all, we “have fun”. We benefit.” This is the meaning of the famous injunction repeated at length in the advertisement: “Take care of yourself”. This fun ethic is none other than an unrestrained hedonist who is not afraid of what people will say.
We all connect in our Netflix nighttime ritual. The fantastic series presents re-enactments of the great epics of yesteryear. We are immersed in the endless succession of images as the Christians of yesterday lived in religion.
Olivier Papau
Much of the economy is now devoted to production entertainment Necessary to populate these enormous recreational beaches. Mass tourism is one aspect of this. But the most important thing is played on screens, which take up 60% to 70% of our free time. “Contents” is the new gold that triggers the rush. The factories that produce the images aimed at relaxation are fully operational. To attract a portion of the attention that we want to devote a weary eye to one of the many screens that surround us, billions are swallowed every year. In a world without God, having fun has become our big business. We all participate in the evening rituals Netflix. The fantastic series presents re-enactments of the great epics of yesteryear.
We are immersed in the endless succession of images as the Christians of yesterday lived in religion. We find there, as they did before, the moral principles that bind us, the stories that move us, the stories that bind us. The images are at once our teaching, the daily path of our piety and what crystallizes our veneration. Endangering our leisure time, he does Pension reform, thus considered sacrilege. This is why discussions on this topic are so sterile: feeling attacked in what is most valuable in our lives simply cannot hear financial and technical arguments.
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