I was reading We the Living the other day. In it, Kira was giving a monologue about what life was about - not about being a machine that produces, but as an individual that wants. To be alive is to want.
So, regardless of how highly the author thinks of productive ability, it has to be production that the individual wants to do, not something that some other source dictates the individual should or must do.
A few observations:
- There are people who benefit from not having to want and can outsource the decisions of their lives.
- There are people who want to do the wanting themselves, but perhaps society can give them options to choose from.
- The people who genuinely want to choose their lives according to their wants are very rare, and even rarer are those who even can do it.
But yes, generally speaking... when was the last time you evaluated your wants, and if they're actually your wants and not something you've been told to want?
