Is Civilization Worth it?

As things get worse and worse for us, we're going to need more and more of all the things that give us relief and oblivion and all the things that get us revved up and excited. More religion, more revolution, more drugs, more television channels, more sports, more casino's, more pornography, more lotteries, more access to the Web-more and more and more of it all-to give ourselves the impression that life is nonstop fun. But meanwhile, of course, every morning we must shake off the hangover and forget about fun for eight or ten hours while we drag our quote of stones up the side of the pyramid.
- Daniel Quinn in Beyond Civilization (pg 78)

Reading this tonight it made me ask myself this question - is what we get in exchange for working 40 plus hours a week, enough? Meaning, is the benefit and enjoyment we get from modern technology and other consumer goods enough compensation for working long hours at what are many times, crappy jobs that we really don't like? I worked at a job that most people in my age group would love to have, working in the testing department of a video game company, and I walked away from it because of how meaningless it was to me. Granted, it was a fun job, but I couldn't justify working long hours when it was going towards the creation of a video game. Hey, I love video games - I just couldn't spend my life doing it. And the thing was that I was making a lot of money (for my age). I partied hard and bought a lot of fun stuff (and in fact, if you want, I can sell you all the Star Wars collectibles in my basement for a reasonable price), but as time went on, the money I was making, and all the stuff I could buy with it, wasn't enough. Maybe most of you reading this love your job and think that yeah, working at your job is a fair trade for what you receive outside of your job. Maybe some of you won't. But I would bet you a dollar that the majority of people in our society hate their jobs - the question is, do they hate them enough to try and live another way? Or, can they tolerate the shittiness of their jobs because they get to go home and play XBox? Is being an Oilers fan fair trade for enduring 40 hours of filing in a dental office? Is being able to go home and listen to your CD's a fair enough trade for enduring 40 hours a week sitting in a cubicle and staring at a computer?

The other, probably more important question is this - do the positives of our society outweigh the negatives? There is no doubt that within our civilization we have created many great things - democracy, medicine, space travel, and on-line poker. But we have also created many terrible things - widespread poverty, warfare at unprecedented levels, and sexual exploitation of every conceivable nature (amongst others). Yes, many people in our world live nice, stable lives (and are able to indulge in the benefits of modern civilization), but the reality is that the majority don't. The majority are poor (and no, it is not all their fault). Is civilization so great that we must maintain it, no matter what?

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