Journal: Harry Potter = Societal Decay?

About to head to the latest Harry Potter movie, and was musing about the focus on entertainment in Modern America.

There are times, and this is one, when I wonder if Snow Crash was right: "When you get right down to it, there are only three things that America does better than anyone else: Software, Entertainment, and High-Speed Pizza Delivery." I usually question the first two.

But the particular thing on my mind is not how well we *create* entertainment, it's how much we *focus* on it. Are we really so much more productive and smart and etc. than the rest of the world, that we can waste more time each day on TV, internet pron, etc. than we do on productive work? Am I missing some crucial difference? Am I just the dead weight while everyone else is being productive?

In the years of yore, most of America spent free time working at "cottage industries," possibly because there were few widely-available entertainments. One could argue that OSS is the geek equivalent; how much time a week does the average geek spend working on such things? I spend maybe a couple of days a year on productive leisure activities, and a couple weeks a year on basic self-maintenance. The remainder of my free time - about equal to my work time - is spent on the computer (playing), or the TV, or flying to visit friends, or other entertainment.

In a rambling way, I guess I'm asking a question that's been discussed thoroughly, and argued from both sides: Is this society's entertainment focus healthy or sick?