A Critique Of Leisure Alienation In Industrial Society

Leisure is an ancient and brilliant concept. The ancient Greek, Aristotle said, leisure is the centre that everything surrounds, and it's higher than labor and it's the goal of working. Leisure is put on the agenda due to the development of social productive forces and the time for people to produce material products is reduced, and free time is increased.Meaning of the leisure is different in different times, different nations and different cultural backgrounds, and different disciplines also have different points of view. Scholars define leisure from different angles, including from the angle of free time, of psychology, of social activity and of existence, and so on. The main representative of the ancient concept of leisure is ancient Greece and ancient China. The concept of leisure of ancient Greek pursues spiritual tranquility and calm, and meditation poetry is the main leisure activity. That of ancient China also pursues spiritual calm and peaceful, but stressed the relationship between man and nature that achieves the "Harmony" realm. Both of the two have cultural content and the meaning of the development of education. The definition proposed by an American scholar major in modern leisure theory Jenifer Gerbyis commonly recognized that leisure is the relatively free life relieved from the pressure of the cultural and physical environment. It enables the individual to act with his favorite and instinctively valuable way, with motivated love and provides a basis for the belief. The character of leisure is free, spiritual, consumptive and cultural.Some western developed capitalist countries entered into the industrial age in the 19th century. The implementation of the factory system restricted people at work in a fixed time and fixed locations. People's working hours and free time were clearly separated, and leisure was confined to free time. It's believed that the higher efficiency the better. Under the guidance of "Knowledge is power", science and technology are applied to produce a large number of material wealth. So people must spend a lot of time to maintain, possess and consume these items. In the lives of people are filled with the material. The free time spent in physical and mental development was replaced by material consumption. People's understanding of freedom is the freedom to shopping. There are two notable features in the leisure in industrial society: the first one is the materialization of leisure activities and the second one is the popularization and commercialization of leisure culture. This is contrary to the true concept of leisure. Marx believed the reason that caused the alienation of leisure is the alienation of labor in capitalist society. Labor is the o object-oriented of human nature and is the conclusive evidence of human nature. But under the conditions of the private ownership and the social division of labor in capitalist society, labor is the compelling means of subsistence. Products produced by people are opposite to them.The alienation of leisure life leads to several serious consequences. The first one is the alienation of man and nature. People are filled with unlimited expansion of the material desires, unregulated and uncontrolled production and consumption that resulted in endless damage to the natural. The second one is the alienation of man and himself. People are spiritual empty and busy with the production and consumption and loose the opportunity to enrich themselves. And the third one is the alienation of man and the society. Social issues are emerging endlessly. Facing the alienation caused by materialistic lifestyle in industrial society to the people, Marx explained the significance of the consumption that the consumption situation is a reflection of the situation of survival; it is not only the final process to make product the product, but also producers the producers. It is consumption that produces the ability and quality of workers. In the leisure life, it must be established that the concept of sustainable consumption, the reasonable and moderate spiritual consumption and human centralism must be discarded, thus the harmony between man and nature will be achieved. In face of the alienation of materialistic life of industrial society, the modern western philosophers criticize and reflect on it, reveal the alienated living conditions and its harmfulness to the nature and human himself. Most of them think that this is due to the concept of "human-centered" and the result of the development of science and technology. The way out is to limit the development and application of science and technology and to improve interpersonal relationships. These partial improvement measures are not of practical significance. Marx revealed the source of the leisure alienation in the capitalist society is the alienation of human labor. Labor are the object-orientation of human nature and the conclusive evidence of the power of human nature. But in the condition of capitalist private ownership and social division of labor, labor is compelled life-sustaining activities and alienation of labor. The alienation of labor has influence on the leisure alienation. It explains the correct relationship between human and nature that the "human-centered" relationship leads to the predatory exploitation of nature. Technology is invented and used by human. It doesn't bring about disastrous consequences. The key lies in how to make use of it.Marx's theory is reflected mainly in his free time theory. Marx defined time as a sum of working hours and non-working hours. Working hours is the material productive time for meeting man's own survival. Non-working hours is the time not devoted in material production. Non-working hours includes the physiological necessary time and the free time is free disposal time for man's fully development and is of great importance for man's physical and mental Marx's thinking of leisure is shown in his theory of free time. Marx divided time into labor time and non-labor time. Labor time is the time spent in material production for meeting people's need of survival; non-labor time is the time not spent in productive working. If the necessary physiological time is deducted from non-labor time, the free time is remained which can be disposed freely and is"the personal time for full development". Marxist thinking of the leisure includes the following: the development of productive forces establish a material foundation for the free time. Free time is of great significance for the physical and mental development. Free time is a measure of the future social wealth. Consumption produces the workers'ability and quality. Marx's theory of free time is of a great significance in practice and is the form in reality of human's comprehensive development.The all-round development of human is the ultimate ideal of the society and leisure is the practice form of the comprehensive development. The all-round development means the essence of the person in full swing and the complete possession of his nature which includes liberal and conscious labor- class nature of man, man's social nature, human personality and the needs, and so on. To adapt to the three periods of historical development of mankind, the comprehensive development of human can also be divided in to three stages: the original fullness; the independence based on the dependence on material; the freedom of individual based on the comprehensive development of individuals and their common social productivity which forms the social wealth. Among them, the development of the second stage provides an abundant material basis for the third stage.People will live a life of leisure, play the positive, initiative and creativity in the work and develop together in the material life and spiritual life. People feel themselves integrated in daily life and working and fully develop their own personality. In the process to the future society, the standard values should be changed that the growth of material is regarded as the standard of social development; the stress should be changed from changing the nature in the past into changing human himself. The scientific concept of development should be established that harmonious development between man and nature, economical use of natural resources, creative use of new energy sources, and development of circular economy thus the human's ability to survive on this planet will be further enhanced. Slow down the pace of life and the instincts and habit in pursuing material will be focused on the development of the spirit in the new century. It is not advocated returning to the pre-industrial societies that time passed freely, the era of material scarcity. People have the right to enjoy various interests of social progress, but we should make more full use of the free time to improve our quality. Bread isn't the only necessity in our life, sunshine and the truth is more necessary. With recognizing the relationship between the rich spirit and happy life, the utilitarian values will be changed.Right guidance and proper education are necessary in the changing of the concept. The academic and vocational oriented education model should be changed. The purpose of education should be to tell people how to grasp the whole world better and how to gain better life,"to understand the world, to maintain the physical and mental health and to enjoy and perform the beauty of education".