> I'm painting with a broad brush here, but a lot of government employees do as little as possible.
Welcome to humanity. How many people actually devote their lives to the improvement of the human condition, or have a devotion to even the jobs that they are working for? I fear that treating your job with the devotion necessary to do it truly effectively means that you limit yourself and future opportunities, because you must devote time to your own growth.
And how many people are interested in devotion to any cause or personal growth? Personal growth is hard, and devotion to a cause, a serious one especially, is equally painful. Understanding climate change, for instance, is so painful that people reject it in its entirety; it could be because it is a direct refutation to their world view, or because the idea is just so uncomfortable on its face.
I feel as if Ada Palmer had it right when she suggests that the first rule of Utopians must be "I hereby renounce the right to complacency, and vow lifelong to take only what minimum of leisure is necessary to my productivity, viewing health, happiness, rest, and play as means, not ends".
I think that's too much weight for the vast majority of humanity, and understandably so. In America it feels as if the way society is structured is designed to sap willpower (for example: the Atomic Family). I can think of a number of reasons why this might actually be the planned outcome of its current design.
Welcome to humanity. How many people actually devote their lives to the improvement of the human condition, or have a devotion to even the jobs that they are working for? I fear that treating your job with the devotion necessary to do it truly effectively means that you limit yourself and future opportunities, because you must devote time to your own growth.
And how many people are interested in devotion to any cause or personal growth? Personal growth is hard, and devotion to a cause, a serious one especially, is equally painful. Understanding climate change, for instance, is so painful that people reject it in its entirety; it could be because it is a direct refutation to their world view, or because the idea is just so uncomfortable on its face.
I feel as if Ada Palmer had it right when she suggests that the first rule of Utopians must be "I hereby renounce the right to complacency, and vow lifelong to take only what minimum of leisure is necessary to my productivity, viewing health, happiness, rest, and play as means, not ends".
I think that's too much weight for the vast majority of humanity, and understandably so. In America it feels as if the way society is structured is designed to sap willpower (for example: the Atomic Family). I can think of a number of reasons why this might actually be the planned outcome of its current design.