"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." —Oscar WildeI was just reading about a new book called The Freedom Manifesto (originally published in the UK as How to be Free) by Tom Hodgkinson, creator of the magazine The Idler. I found an enticing excerpt of it on the USA Today (aka TV on paper) website of all places! How is that even possible? I'm going to go buy and devour the book as soon as I get out of work (which as I write I realize is exactly the kind of behaviour he's warning against, oh dear...)
See also: Essays in Idleness
3 comments:
So is the Freedom Manifesto a map out of this ". . .dreadful, gnawing, stomach-churning sense that things are awry mixed with a chronic sense of powerlessness is the simple result of living in an anxious age, oppressed by Puritans, imprisoned by career, humiliated by bosses, attacked by banks, seduced by celebrity, bored by TV, forever hoping, fearing or regretting."
Hey, that's my walking-tour map of Paris! I was wondering what happened to that. Totally psychogeographical if you ask me. When you go on one of the trails it's, like, totally more than a walk, man, it's, like...like a DERIVE!
(cue any number of Refused songs)
you should talk to my friend luke (or any one of his friends i guess). they are full of this stuff, which i agree with for the most part. they all condemn a little too much in my opinion.. this paragraph is great stuff though:
"Another simple solution to anxiety is to embrace a fatalistic theology. Catholics, say, are probably less anxious than Protestants. Buddhists are certainly less anxious than Jews. If you believe that there's nothing much that you can do that makes any sense other than to enjoy yourself, then your anxiety will fade..."
did you read the whole book? was it good?
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