It is needless to stress that the subject is thought-provoking (- compelling in making one think) as well as topical. It draws a sharp line between our past style of living and present. The crucial matter is summed up in the phrase ‘no longer … for us’: our pleasures, today, have become more vicarious (= enjoyed at second hand) then self-evolved (= produced by original efforts). I propose to discuss the topic by concentrating mainly on the two terms ‘entertainment’ and ‘reliance’.
A man has three fundamental sources of energy: the body, the mind, the spirits. These, we might say, are the motor (= causing motion) parts, and these make us work. But works are of two kinds principally: works as duty and as entertainment. In fact, the two are complementary. Overworked persons seek modes to relax in some sort of entertainment. Hence there are provisions for clubs in factories, games and other co-curricular activities in schools. In the intellectual sphere, great poets entertain themselves by writing light verses. Tagore wrote scores of such flitting lines and Eliot wrote Old Possum’s Cat; Winston Churchill, the wartime Prime Minister of England, took time off to paint. The latter is an instance of spiritual holidaying. The mind-boggling (= shuddering) calculations and strategies in the conduct of the Great War made the entertainment a spiritual need for the great statesman. Thus ‘entertainment’ is the need felt by one to what can be defined as making room for living healthy.
The above examples represent the highest variety. But it trails down to the lowest strata of human genus. It is self-inventive and gives its peculiar kind of pleasure to the inventor.
Today the scenario has largely changed. Human life is becoming more and more oriented by external modes of entertainment. Reading, playing, acting as sources of pleasure are gradually going into the hands of remote agents. Television in closed-door flats/apartments entertains its members, young and old. It has little functional value. Guardians and their wards are treated to the same kind of stuff without discrimination of their kinds of, taste. Personal involvement of men and children in the entertainments is coming to a zero point. Even in isolated cases where parents encourage participation’ among boys in entertainment, the powerful ‘channels of entertainment’ sweep the floor in their favour. What personal initiatives can prevail against these?
Formerly the cinema was the prime source of entertainment, but went see films by choice. The more conscious viewers to consulted friends or acquaintance whom they considered to be men of taste. Others saw reports in responsible journals. Naturally there were deliberations and selections. But today the situation is topsy-turvy. TV sets at homes (often having more than one). markets, haircutting saloons, station platform would literally bombard the illiterate or half-literate floating mass of men with matters that are commercially productive. Be it a film, a strip scene, or advertisement-the senses are always under attack. Where is the time to decide or consult? The onrush is so vehement that it takes larger and larger cross-section of men within its swipe.
There are indeed a few of the older dispensation (= arrangement of things) that resist in their individual way, would shun (= avoid) the untoward things. Their number is so few that they have no franchise even in their own houses; they are generally outvoted even if they are the patriarchs.
Here is an offhand observation. If a sociology research worker embarks on (= launches) a study-survey as to how men in general use their leisure hours at home or elsewhere, the picture shall be clear. An increasing number of them slowly and without realizing it slip into the trap of vicarious pleasures (= pleasures derived from other’s doing, not self-earned).
The traditions of tool-man with his tools, the singer with his tunes; the traditions of the teacher with his limited pupils enjoying as studying or the traditions of folk-culture have taken the back- seat today. Today men live in a world of haste and speed; of machine-oriented life and quick results. It is an age of fast food, fast marriage, fast divorce and pleasures by proxy.
It is a pity that we not realise that we are fast losing reliance on our own selves. I do not allege that today there are no evidences of self reliance. It is indeed evident in the march of science. But this faculty-principally located in the upper echelon (=categories) – does not prevail in our general human culture. There our whole day has become mortgaged to the external devices of pleasures or inventions of new pleasures. We are losing contact or touch with our inner selves or souls. We have to look upon others to entertain ourselves. Woe betide us!
