The trouble with modern European society lies in the fact that a considerable segment of society, the leisure class, fails to contribute significantly to any necessary productivity. That is a cardinal point in Hythloday’s complaint against the class system in the first book of Utopia. The Utopians, he tells us, have found the answer. Everybody works (well, nearly everybody) at a productive trade, and the result is that they get the work done in a six-hour day.
Their manner of passing the time after working hours sounds agreeable, certainly, and innocent, though somewhat limited, according to the patterns devised for amusement in the present century. It is interesting to reflect on their not gambling. That fits into their attitude on other moral issues, but the fact is that it is difficult to gamble without money.
