Against compulsory holidaying
Guardian Unlimited: I’m going nowhere
“Now that the choice of where to go and what to do is entirely my own, I stay at home. I read, watch television, have friends round - everything I enjoy doing in my leisure hours, but for longer stretches … I’d like to claim that my untravelled history is the result of a principled stand against the destructive tourist industry … [But] such a justification would be at best the partial truth. A larger portion of my domestic inclinations can be explained as a reaction to this creeping concept of compulsory holidaying in order to become a fully-paid up member of an unnamed club … The central importance holidays have assumed in our cultural life is at least as much a monument to the level of pressure the vast majority of people labour under, domestically, professionally, or both. We live on a crowded isle with the longest working hours in Europe and in an increasingly 24-hour society. Unless you can find some means to protect your mental and physical space from constant invasion then a couple of weeks away functions as an escape valve…”
(via Blog de Viajes)