Dilemma of Goodness

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Pastimes: The Context of Contemporary Leisure Third Edition By Ruth V. Russell

SNIPPET By this distinction, leisure is in the heart and mind of the individual and has nothing to do with outside factors, such as what other people think. Leisure is considered a private choice based on intrinsically motivated joy and freedom and is not a matter of morality. This suggests, then, that experiencing a mood uplift from walking throuh an inspiring natural landscape and experiencing a mood uplift induced by a hallucinogenic drug are equally leisure experiences, because leisure is in the mind of the beholder. Leisure is a matter of private feelings and not a social responsibility.
What do you think? Of course this dilemma of goodness is not as simple as it may appear. If leisure is not a matter of private feelings alone--if it can be rated, so to speak, on a goodness scale (such as in the Nash pyramid presented earlier in this chapter)--then some leisure experessions are clearly better than others. Even though it is easy to see a disctinction in goodness between child pornograpy and a family picnic, other comparons reveal the compleixity of the dilemma more sharply. For example, is attending the opera better than attending a rock concert? Is playing golf at the club better than riding a motorcylce through the countryside? SNIPPET p. 279

Is watching wrestling inferior to watching fencing? Is classical music superior to rock, jazz or hip hop? Is polo better than football? Are horse derbies more civilized than demolition derbies?