EMANCIPATING LEISURE: TRUE LEISURE IS THE BASIS OF DEMOCRACY
by Mary Gresch (Media Contact Tim Steury 509/335-1378, [email protected])
While a frantic pace has become an accepted way of American life, John Hemingway says it is also a threat to democracy.
"Whether free time increases or decreases, who has it and who does not are not trivial issues in societies already riven by economic, racial, ethnic and cultural differences," says Hemingway, associate professor of recreation administration and leisure studies at Washington State University. His article "Emancipating Leisure: The Recovery of Freedom in Leisure," in a recent Journal of Leisure Research examines why true freedom in leisure is essential to an effective democracy. "Leisure is not just free time; it is the space in which historical cultural values are built, the arena in which human beings come together to build communities of spirit, of intellect, of art."
In his essay and throughout his research, Hemingway examines the history of leisure and its importance in building culture. He says that as society has evolved, one thing is clear: Post-industrial revolution workers value increased affluence rather than shorter work hours. "New influence and more free time did not restore the sense of social solidarity eroded by industrialization. Instead, leisure consumption mirrored work: it was individualistic, revolving around the self or the family, and involved exchange relationships rather than communicative or normative ties. Even in public, preferred activities reflected increasing social isolation."
That trend continues today. People's leisure time has not increased and the time they do have is spent promoting their work. For example -- shopping has become a form of recreation. Owning bigger and better things is a badge of success, which in turn ties people more closely to their jobs so they can pay for more things.
"We've gotten hooked on two different but mutually reinforcing societal errors," says Hemingway. "We talk about time more than about the content of that time. Our use of time has been pretty bad under any circumstances, yet now we have also hooked our free time and its contents to our work. The commercial quality of how we use our time has become the yardstick, and because of that, it becomes subservient to work.
"In order to achieve real freedom, you have to cut loose from work in leisure. If all you're doing is going out and consuming, then all you're doing is tying yourself more and more to your job."
Hemingway looks to Aristotle and, ironically, Marx, to help us understand why emancipating leisure is so critical to building democracy. Aristotle wrote that leisure is freedom from the necessity to labor at menial tasks (Politics, 1269a), but Hemingway notes this statement has yet to be understood in all its dimensions. Aristotle, he says, believed the whole point of leisure was to take part in public culture. He cites empirical evidence that certain forms of leisure support democracy.
"If people today could break away from being isolated and consuming during our leisure time -- if we would participate more in sport clubs, chorus, the arts -- if that were to happen, we would create a greater foundation of civic community," says Hemingway. "When we paradoxically take leisure seriously, it becomes one of the central features of our life. If we build these relationships, we can build trust in democratic procedures."
Hemingway cites R.D. Putnam's study of democratic reform in contemporary Italy "Making Democracy Work," Princeton University Press, 1993, as evidence. Putnam found that where leisure in secondary associations thrived (ranging from sports and hobby clubs to civic, charitable, artistic, and religious groups) democratic beliefs were strongest.
"A sense of civic engagement grows out of such memberships," says Hemingway. "They are an education in democratic procedures and values.".
Even Karl Marx suggested (in Capital, vol. 3) that the "true realm of freedom" exists beyond work, in leisure. Yet freedom cannot exist when our leisure is either socially isolated or only serves to fuel the cycle of our labor. Hemingway says that emancipating leisure really begins with taking responsibility for ourselves and our role in shaping society.
"Without sounding overly simplistic, we can only work toward true freedom by being willing to understand that we are in a world we made ourselves," says Hemingway. "Our society is a historical creation made by other people like ourselves. The first emancipating thought is to understand that this isn't necessarily just 'the way it is.' Change has to be built from the ground up, but all the little things matter. We have to start at the local level and work up.
"We need to get back to responsibility. We've lost a sense of being able to act. We feel more and more that things are done to us/for us. People need to take responsibility for what they do on a day-to-day basis."
Hemingway says new social movements hold some hope, such as environmental and women's causes. "The Boy Scouts had a hell of an idea," Hemingway says. "They said do one good deed every day. If everybody really did that, imagine what that would mean to our society."
Hemingway is quick to acknowledge the irony in his work. "Leisure cannot be emancipating unless it is emancipated. The recovery of the original emancipatory potential of Aristotelian leisureÖ is part of the search for a renewal of freedom in democratic society."
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