In the future if it's "good", we may have all our basic, and even secondary, needs provided for. We may be able to do whatever we legally want. Legal may be expanded over what it is today.
It could easily be a world where all people are doing something related to a portrayal or an artistic creation: that is, you are either watching a production or event of some kind - sports, entertainment, education; or, performing in an event or production; or you're communicating about a production or event.
It would highlight "real" versus "contrived" but it might, in fact, highlight that the real life we're leading is more fiction (i.e. made up) than fact. Or, that there is no essential difference between acting something or supposedly "being" something if real life is actually a script like any other. It may be a script that's embedded and somewhat unconscious but nonetheless, it's created in an interaction between people and individuals and the surrounding world; it's a series of choices and accompanying actions.
If we strip away the layers and veneers, the only actions we take that are not in any way contrived are those related to food, shelter and clothing. Yet, even those have accreted their share of rituals and acting out. But, those ancilliary actions and words can only exist when the primal search for food, water, shelter and clothing is satisifed for today and several weeks into the future. "Roles" to do with those existential needs are the foundation for all that follows. Related to these fundamental needs is the need for safety and security of person and property - if you can't protect what's yours, you'll starve or freeze or die of thirst or die out. And, of course, the drive that nature imparts for procreation.
Is pretending (e.g. acting) intrinsically frivolous or wasteful or unproductive? Is it a bad use of time and energy? It is if it doesn't increase our knowledge of ourself, our society or existence in general. This leads us to who is doing the acting and who is doing the watching where acting's main purpose is to tell a story. What if the so-called "story" is incidental and the "being" of everything is the message? And, any story has that in it, as does ordinary living, if we could only see it or feel it.
So, acting and pretending and generally being unproductive is like everything else - it depends on who's doing it, who's witnessing it, what's needs to be done and if it's done, the society, the economy, the beliefs and probably, most of all, the attention and concentration that devoted to observing and understanding whatever we see and feel at all times whether it's supposedly "unreal" or, even more, if it's supposedly "real".
Pretending a World, Louis Evan Palmer, The Way It Can Be, http://twicb.blogspot.com
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Copyright 2012 Louis Evan Palmer He lives in Ontario Canada. His short stories have appeared in numerous publications.
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