That said, it's curious how often some fractional subset of those "frivolities" are something genuinely important. Far back in history, the basis of a lot of sc

That said, it's curious how often some fractional subset of those "frivolities" are something genuinely important. Far back in history, the basis of a lot of science and cultural advancement was through Elites "wasting time" on mathematics, chemistry, and the like. What's interesting now is that the pool of elites in the world large enough to engage in frivolous activity is now so much larger than before. So instead of some royal scion who's very into fox hunting, we have fairly relatively poor people who are passionate about all kinds of other things. I find it hard to be too dismal about more people having the freedom to do things other than backbreaking labor that is necessary to stay alive. How many more people now are able to keep their body in shape and soul happy via "frivolous" artistic ventures or sports? And of those, how many of them refresh themselves by doing something that may ultimately seem as important as Isaac Newton's idle musings about math or Byron's poetry?