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a bridge; a character of uselessness
The struggle for existence, to eat and to provide for his own, has not been man’s greatest enemy. Very often it has been a stimulant to his lagging, puttering spirit. In the process of evolution an unorganized nervous system became a brain and later when man was “kicked into activity by a hostile environment” he found he could build an airplane, paint a picture, construct a bridge, write a novel, cure a disease, and create a civilization...
“If it were desired to reduce a man to nothing,” wrote Fyodor Dostoevsky in The House of the Dead, “it would be necessary only to give his work a character of uselessness.”
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Jay B. Nash, “Education for Leisure — A Must,” in JOHPER Journal of Health, Physical Education, Recreation 31:1 (January 1960) : 17-18, 62
same (at archive.org,
where many numbers of this journal can be found; filter by year(s))
- Jay B. Nash (1886-1965),
localwiki - Nash’s Pyramid (“a framework for ranking leisure activities”)
wikipedia (extensive “references” list; see in particular note no. 5 “JB Nash Lecture Series,” which includes biographical information)
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search reflects current reading, Dostoyevsky’s The Devils (1871)
summary
favorite book of political philosopher Lea Ypi (Guardian interview, 4 June 2022)