The Promised Leisure: An Illusion

The glue that holds industrial society together, in addition to the helping professions, may very well be the promise of leisure for the modern worker. However, several conditions intrinsic to industrial progress tend to prevent the modern worker from experiencing true leisure. The mandate in industrial society to overconsume, overspend, and rely almost exclusively on machines in both work and leisure serves as an obstacle to the manifestation of true leisure. The attempts to substitute leisure for work and to sever creativity from leisure are two factors examined that make the promise of leisure an illusion.