THE USEFULNESS OF THE USELESS

Nuccio Ordine, Alastair Mcewen, translator, Paul Dry Books, Softcover $16 (176pp) 978-1-58988-116-7

Happiness studies have shown repeatedly that people with accumulated wealth are less fulfilled than those with little money. How, then, to explain the glorification of profit and the insatiable quest for riches that pervades our culture? What gives?

From Hippocrates, Plato, and Seneca to Montaigne and Cervantes, countless great minds have viewed the love of money as a soul-withering sickness. And it’s not just material things. The constant study of useful, utilitarian knowledge seems to crush the creative spirit as well.

This small, brilliantly argued work champions playfulness and the enjoyable activities that serve no useful purpose as imperative if one hopes to understand art, love, truth, and human dignity.