At 09:14 97-11-26 +0000, Keith Hudson wrote:
[snip]
>I don't know how many of the original list are still with Futurework but
>some may be interested to see what I've been doing in the last few months
>as a practical endeavour. This is at <www.handlo.com> and you are warmly
>invited to visit it and tell me what you think (at my above address
>please). Although this site is about a minority pursuit I'm quite sure
>that, in due course, it's going to create new jobs. But, more importantly,
>there must be dozens, if not hundreds, of other specialisations which could
>be developed and, taken together, could amount to a transformation of our
>constantly monopolistic-tending business, governmental and educational
>institutions. This, of course, will take a generation or so, and the
>individual endeavours (like Handlo) will take a lot of work to set up, but
>I'm quite convinced now that all this is going to happen, catalysed by the
>Net, and that the future of Futurework List lies in encouraging initiatives
>of a similar sort and acting as a resource base for potential entrepreneurs
>rather than discussing political prejudices.
>
I went to visit the "handlo" site and was very impressed (and plan on
returning to enjoy it in more details). What struck me most was the
enthousiasm reflected in the site. I'm no musician (even if I was a little
choir boy, way back) but can sense that this whole project is done with a
lot of love and altruism. What that says to me is that, there is one proof
that leisure can "pay". It would be nice if we could find words other then
"work" and "jobs" to describe such activities ("remunerated leisure" comes
to mind, "social economy" is heard more and more). 65 years after Russell's
word, we finally get the "modern technique" that make "it [...] possible to
distribute leisure justly without injury to civilization." Not only without
injury but on the contrary, as the site exhibits, surely for the
intellectual benefit of many.
>I don't think anybody, politicians and economists least of all, has any
>sure remedy for unemployment. But anything that helps to spread money
>around in a voluntary way is, in fact, creating more work.
>
Now, if only our economists could convince our politicians that the
"income" tied to "work" is no longer the way to distribute wealth, much
less to provide revenues to balance overly fat budgets and pay off
ridiculous debts, we could get on with implementing Russell's project, at
last.
Regards,
"The end of labor is to gain leisure." Aristotle.
-- ARG d'Ottawa ON Canada. Futuriste-au-loisir maintenant. --
