Ch 4: Emperors & Emptiness---modern life's pros/cons (2 of 2)

A discussion of Chapter 4 of my book "Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames" - http://www.amazon.com/Hunting-Gathering-Videogames-Allen-Gates/dp/1601450443/...

A chapter-by-chapter summary of "Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames" (and thus an overview of the entire video series):

PART I: WHY DO WE HAVE TO WORK?

Chapter One
*Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames* gives a historical overview of why we've always had to "go to work," tracing the common link between the workday of the prehistoric hunter and gatherer, the first millennium B.C. farmer, the first century A.D. pottery-maker, the nineteenth century assembly line worker, and today's videogame programmer.

Chapter Two
*Surgery & Dental Floss* spells out the complications of bartering, and explains why communities with multiple goods and services always end up using some form of money (be it beads or dollar bills) to solve their trading problems.

Chapter Three
*Penguins & Peacocks* is about why the changes in our workday--the transition from hunting and gathering to the ages of agriculture, industry, and information--took place, even though some aspects of these changes were for the worse. It looks at the parallel between the history of our workday and the way evolution works in nature: how change is driven by the demands of the immediate environment, not by concerns for future repercussions.

PART II: WORK, WEALTH, & HAPPINESS

Chapter Four
*Emperors & Emptiness* gives an overview of three drawbacks of our modern work system: the alienation, the perception of deprivation that can come from being in a society overflowing with goods and services, and the way our increased number of career options has opened up a large window for failure--particularly when we tie our occupation to our identity.

Chapter Five
*More vs. Enough* offers an alternative to the unattainable American financial goal of "more is better" by outlining a flexible but precise definition of how much income is "enough."

Chapter Six
*Measuring Success* contrasts our culture's guideline for happiness--the wealth, status, and identity we derive from our careers--with a guideline that instead aims for a balance of our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual dimensions.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Karl
• Marx
• alienation
• industrial
• revolution
• Berry
• Kaczynski
• Unabomber
• Goodman
• Growing
• Up
• Absurd
• Thoreau
• ToddAllenGates

[wolffenhaus]

for various reasons, money and fantasy are linked. Looking things square in the face as you have is not for the faint of heart. Setting young people on a good path is also comendable.

[ToddAllenGates]

> excellent underated . This is good work.

Thank you ... my other author channel (the one I'm writing from now, which focuses on religion) gets a decent amount of attention, but I guess people just aren't as interested in this subject ... but glad to hear at least *some* people are! (Besides just me that is!)

[wolffenhaus]

excellent underated . This is good work.

[ToddGates]

> Of course this in no way refutes [Thoreau's] views, just makes them a little harder to side with him.

Agreed!

[BayerLexan]

Though I do like some of what Thureau wrote, I think he was also a rich dude, that basically had the absolute assurance that when his little camping trip in the woods was over he had a comfortable life to return too. Or atleast he was able to mooch off his wealthy friends, if my memory isn't distorted. Of course this in no way refutes his views, just makes them a little harder to side with him.