America has lost its identity. All through our lives, we constantly seek new and innovative ways to conserve work and decrease the number of obligatory work hours. We celebrate “time-saving” appliances, and anything that makes our lives easier. Everywhere we turn, we are bombarded by images of relaxation and vacation. We quest after escapes where we can flee commitment and labor. Our available “free” time increases, but instead of joy, we get pain, for we have confused our eternal selves.
Humanity has always toiled to survive. From eons of disparity and struggle, we have placed at our very core a desire for solid work and accomplishment. There has always been something that needed doing. The increase in our available time has thereby increased our need to do. Suddenly, we have great voids that need filling up. Our loss of identity comes when we listen to society telling us to be soft and to ignore our older desires.
The media says that small, focused amounts of business are next to large amounts of godliness. They say free time is good, and the more we have, the better off we are. We listen, building our reserves of “spare” time and retreating into catered shells. And yet, we remain unsatisfied, caught at a point of cognitive dissonance. Society tells us to be soft, yet we desire hardening experiences. Humans are meant to do. Lazing about is not what we are built for. We have evolved to survive and accomplish. Even if our accomplishments are small and insignificant, their value to us remains steadfast.
In order to regain our identity, we must embrace our need for labor and pursue it. Instead of running from extended hours and hard challenges, we must run to them. The same society-induced apathy that we fight now has led us to avoid involvement in conflicts and struggles the world over. If we can get past this fear of occupation and work in our own daily lives, we could actually improve the planet which we call home.
Stand to action, good sirs and madams! What spare moments we do have must be devoted to moving, shaping, and changing our world, our lives, and the lives of those around us. It might seem an old message, but you’ll hear it until you die. Get involved. It’s the only hope any of us will ever have.
