I'd rather get my exercise other ways: for instance, by paying for it
A few years ago, I was telling a friend about my new apartment. I mentioned it had five half-flights of stairs.
"My God," he said, "that sounds awful."
"No, no," I replied, "It's great exercise."
"I'd rather get my exercise other ways," was his response.
In fact, I knew how he got his exercise: he paid a goodly amount of money for a gym membership, and he would go to that gym four times a week... and use its stair stepping exercise machine for a half-hour!
Similarly, I had a friend who paid someone to push a lawnmower around his lawn, and then paid someone else to push weights up-and-down at their gym.
This is a notable aspect of modern American life: we only feel good about an activity if we are paying a lot of money to "consume" it. To simply have the exact same activity be a natural part of our daily lives is "drudgery."
Do you think marketing might have had something to do with this?
And kudos to Marx: he got a lot of things wrong, but he was spot on in noting the alienation of the worker from his work in modern society.
"My God," he said, "that sounds awful."
"No, no," I replied, "It's great exercise."
"I'd rather get my exercise other ways," was his response.
In fact, I knew how he got his exercise: he paid a goodly amount of money for a gym membership, and he would go to that gym four times a week... and use its stair stepping exercise machine for a half-hour!
Similarly, I had a friend who paid someone to push a lawnmower around his lawn, and then paid someone else to push weights up-and-down at their gym.
This is a notable aspect of modern American life: we only feel good about an activity if we are paying a lot of money to "consume" it. To simply have the exact same activity be a natural part of our daily lives is "drudgery."
Do you think marketing might have had something to do with this?
And kudos to Marx: he got a lot of things wrong, but he was spot on in noting the alienation of the worker from his work in modern society.
I used to live on a third floor apartment with no elevator. Not as bad as fifth floor, but still annoying. The problem is when you get home after a long day at work exercise is often the last thing you want to be doing.
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