If you watch this clip - a 4+ minute segment of Robin Williams on the Actor Studio - you will hear how one audience member laughed so hard that the person had a hernia and was taken to hospital. It brings to mind something that Rudolf Steiner spoke about in a 1922 series of lectures on economics that the spiritual workers value is measured in labour saved. He was thinking of the priest, the doctor and the teacher, how they helped improve the lives of those producing goods and services - the doctor by healing patients to return to work, the teacher by teaching, the priest by helping people live moral lives. A comedian like Williams can be thought of as spiritual worker - making us laugh. Viewed narrowly, the humour led to more labour , as one person had to go to hospital. Overall though, given the health benefits of laughter - in this case side-splitting humour - we can see that Mr. Williams had a net positive effect on the health of the audience and thus saved labour, through less visits to the doctor, or less days at home with illness. So we can see that his wealth is attributable to this reality - of bringing happiness and laughter to so many, so often - so that the collective health of the society has been improved, and thus labour has been saved, though less visits to the hospital/doctor etc. Oh and I hope you enjoy the clip - you can find the whole segment on you tube. https://youtube/watch?v=U48KpK1srx4
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 05:01:19 +0000
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