Philosophical Dialogues, Is a Just Society Possible?, Hunter and Bain, Jake Jackson, What is a Waste of Time?

Dialogues | What is a Waste of Time?

Hunter and Bain sit under a canopy at the Northern end of Central Park, in New Manhattan. As their coffee is self-served from the middle of the table they watch the hot sun burnish the resting bodies lying like scattered leaves across the grass all around. In this curious landscape of aliens, androids, maintenance bots and other bi-pedal creatures the humans are easy to discern, because they all seem to have succumbed to the soothing attentions of the sun, while the others carry on without regard.

The time does not matter, nor the year.


Bain: Seems such a waste of time.

Hunter, his eyes closed: Must be bad if you think so!

Bain: What? I’m genuinely exhausted, you can’t compare that to lying in the sun. Look at these people, some of them are so tanned they’ve changed their skin-colour.

Hunter: perhaps that’s how they refuel. You humans seem to have an endless capacity for sensuous experience.

Bain, smiling: You do mean sensuous, not sensual?

Hunter: Of course, although we can have that discussion if you really want.

Bain: I don’t. It would be like talking about sex to my mother.

Hunter: You’ve never mentioned your parents.

Bain: Well, they kicked me out. I was the worst teenager you can imagine.

Hunter: I can imagine. But you’ve changed since we travelled together.

Bain: Yes. Not always for the better though.

Hunter: Are you a little envious of those sunning themselves? There’s nothing stopping you.

Bain: Well, I’m too tired.

Hunter: To lie on the grass?

Bain: It’s uncomfortable.

Hunter: More than these hard chairs?

Bain: I suppose I’d feel uncomfortable.

Hunter: Surely the lying down is the most relaxing thing you could do?

Bain: But I don’t want to do it.

Hunter: You seem to be in a minority, here at least.

Bain, pulling at his face: But I wouldn’t feel like myself. It would feel like an unnecessary waste of time.

Hunter: So you’re making a value judgement about it?

Bain: I’m trying not to.

Hunter: It’s a strange thing to struggle with. All the things we do together, the places we visit, the demons and gods we despatch, the dark corridors and deep pits, and you worry about how you’d feel lying in the sun?

Bain: Yes, it is odd. It feels fundamental. I just can’t do it. I see the pleasure in it. I used to have friends who said they loved the sensation of the sun across their flesh.

Hunter: It’s meant to refresh you, release the endorphins and help you recover from whatever else is going on in life.

Bain: Sounds like an excuse for indolence to me.

Hunter: That’s harsh, especially from someone who used to spend hours getting drunk, playing pool and laughing at people falling over.

Bain, ruefully: That’s harsh. Anyway, I don’t do that any more. I’m too tired, getting older, not inclined.

Hunter: Well those are all good reasons for not doing it, but was it a waste of time when you did?

Bain: I suppose not. It helped me get through the day. Especially when I didn’t sleep.

Hunter: Perhaps it was a waste of time, so you stopped doing it.

Bain: Well, I noticed that when I stopped drinking so much I felt better the day after.

Hunter: It’s really about the drink though is it? In human culture the need to have a good time is strong.

Bain: But it can be destructive.

Hunter: Doing nothing can be destructive?

Bain: Yes, I have friends who were bright-eyed and full of potential when they were young but years of life and work have ground out the joy from them. Relaxation is doesn’t exist for them, it’s just an exhaustion, an emptiness.

Hunter: Perhaps only some people have the luxury of this “relaxation”.

Bain: In some societies, on old earth, and still on the new colonies across the galaxy, where people work to survive in any way they can, there’s no room for relaxation. That’s called sleep.

Hunter: So that’s why you feel uncomfortable. You feel guilty.

Bain hesitates: I suppose so. There’s so much to do, and for those of us with a limited lifespan, unlike you, there just isn’t enough time to fit it all in, let alone lie around and luxuriate in the sun.

Hunter: It’s not unreasonable to recover from a hard day’s work, or long week, or month of work. That’s what we’re doing right now.

Bain: Yes, but part of us is mulling over what we’’ve done, why, what we can learn from it, what we’ll do next.

Hunter interrupts: Sounds like you do need a rest. You’re always anxious at the end of our journeys. Although I’m tired it doesn’t affect me in the same way. You seem to invest your emotions into everything, whereas I’m seeing it all through the meta-universe, as well as your time and place, so I don’t take anything personally.

Bain: Do I do that?

Hunter: When we had to walk across the beach of crying babies you were distraught.

Bain: yes, because they were babies, they were crying. Where was their mother, or father? Or family, and the tide was coming in!

Hunter: But they weren’t real babies. Just physic projections.

Bain: I didn’t know that then.

Hunter: So it exhausted you inside, as well as physically. Was it a waste of time to recover from that? In whatever way worked best for you.

Bain: Which was drinking heavily in a bar and playing pool. I guess.

Hunter: Indeed. I went off to sort out something else while you collapsed for two days.

Bain, laughs: What a waste of time!

Hunter: But you recovered.

Bain: Since when did you become so understanding about humans and their needs?

Hunter: Travelling with you my friend.

Bain smiles. Having travelled so far and so many times with this Dark Hunter of the Displaced, Bain has learned so much, his brain fizzing with landscapes and beings, new cultures, diverse forms of existence, always learning from Hunter, trying to catch up. Now, apparently they’re friends. And resting may not be such a waste of time after all. Bain stands up slowly, and walks a few feet to the grass nearby. He settles down on his back, eyes closed, lying content in the hot sun with the people and the leaves.


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