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These newfound beliefs of so many are a product of a culture that has a lot of time on its hands.

And no moral framework in which to apply that time.

A surfeit of riches and a dearth of spirituality.

It's no coincidence that one of the things prisons used to do -- and boot camps STILL do -- is to work their charges like field hands. Get 'em up early, put 'em to work, stay on 'em all day long, and put 'em to bed when they're dead on their feet. Why? Because they don't have time to feel sorry for themselves. They don't have time to miss Mom and Dad or the Gang or the carefree life they used to live. They don't have time or energy to plot and scheme or think of "better ways." It's all they can do to make it through the day.

And at the end, they can look back and say that that day wasn't wasted, that regardless of how trivial the accomplishment, it wasn't directed solely for their own benefit. Their labor went to some goal beyond themselves, even if it was digging a ditch that the next squad had to fill in or chopping weeds out of a roadside ditch.

I don't mean to sound Goebbel-esque, but arbeit can macht frei under the right circumstances. And if it can't, then ennui can't either, that's for certain.

You don't sound Goebbel-esque at all. I think people have a lot of time to feel sorry for themselves nowadays, especially the non-working poor. In fact, even when I have found myself getting into a funk about something, the way I usually get out of it is to turn on the radio and get cleaning! Nothing like washing a dirty floor to get you out of the doldrums (he he).