The
Memorial Day which just passed is a holiday that I hope everyone remembers in
particular this year. Many of us took
time to remember the sacrifices made in service to our nation, but I would like
to add to that reflection a memory of how we spent our time during the long weekend.
We need more holidays. Granted, from
the boardroom this might be considered a contrarian opinion in the face of
concerns about productivity and competitiveness, but from the freeway crammed
with travelers driven to arrive at their holiday destinations as quickly as
possible, from the parking lots filled with shoppers in search of holiday sale
items or hot dog buns, from the long line of cars waiting to get through Helen,
Georgia, more time off might seem a good idea. With relatively few holidays
many of us feel pressure to “relax” harder and faster within the brief window
of time away from the construction site or the cubicle.
When
holidays are scarce they can become imbued with an aura of expectation and
obligation. We are obligated to take the kids to visit grandma, who lives three
hours away on the other side of interchanges and exit ramps. We feel obligated
to gather and gorge with friends, which requires driving, parking and shopping.
We expect to be able to recreate those images from the commercials of joyful
friends cooking meat over a grill in some wonderful natural area, again
requiring driving, shopping, and more driving.
As a
brief member of the motoring mob over the weekend, I had a chance as a
passenger to observe the behavior of my fellow travelers more closely than I
normally do as a driver. I saw anxiety,
impatience and anger in many who were working hard to position themselves to
have a great holiday. I had to wonder how rested many of my fellow travelers
would feel at the end of their marathons, or whether returning to the office on
Tuesday would actually be a relief.
I hope
that you all enjoyed the long holiday weekend, and that within the bit of extra
time away from work you were able to relax, to recreate, or perhaps to just
sleep late for a change. I congratulate those of you who were able to
stay at home and enjoy the simple pleasure of time – time with family and
friends, time puttering in the garden, time stretched out on the sofa: time free from obligations and expectations.
Hopefully,
at some time during the holiday you paused to reflect upon the lives that have
been spent to purchase our ability to enjoy these freedoms. They were dearly
bought, and the price continues to rise. Free time and the ability to choose
what to do with it is becoming more expensive; not because of enemies overseas,
enemies at home or enemies around every corner, but because of the pressures pushing
us deeper into wage slavery, pushing us to work more for a dollar that buys
less. Those of us who were gifted with a day off on Monday can thank
Congress. Most of our meager set of
holidays has been rescheduled to Mondays so that Congress can have a long
weekend. Perhaps they need to rest up for the laborious task of finding ways to
extract more from our labor in the ongoing search for revenue to pay for their
excess.
By
Memorial Day next year, it is likely that the government will be extracting
more tax from our paychecks, our purchases, our dividends and our capital
gains. It is likely that the deficit will be considerably higher. It is likely
that the fewer dollars we have to spend during our brief holiday will buy less,
which is not likely to increase our ability to relax and recreate. By the time
you read this, Memorial Day 2012 will be a fading memory, but remember, if you
can, the troops that will still be overseas all year long. Remember the
increasing cost of the grand schemes of government and empire in terms of blood
and treasure. Remember all of this on Election Day.
