the struggle is real

St Ambrose talks today in A Year with the Church Fathers about spectators and athletes. He says that athletes train and toil and struggle and have a tough time of it, while spectators just sit in the stands and eat treats and have a good time. It seems unfair, until you get to the part where the athletes get their rewards. The spectators just get to watch as the athletes receive their crowns.

This reminds me of the latest ideas to come out of silicon valley. They're saying that robots are going to start taking over our jobs, but we don't need to worry about it, because they're pushing for Universal Basic Income, which means people can just stop working but get paid anyway. They say the idea of working for a living is a thing of the past. We'll all just enjoy ourselves and watch movies and enjoy leisure time while the robots do all of our work.

There are so many things wrong with this idea, I don't know where to start. The biggest problem that comes to mind is that this utopian view assumes that when people don't have to work, they'll just do good things all the time. But history teaches us that when people don't have work to do, they get into trouble.

But when we take that idea, and compare it to the advice from St Ambrose, we see something interesting. Those who "swim upstream" and "compete in the race" will still be doing this even if there are robots everywhere. And they'll see the results of their work. Those who spectate, whether because robots are doing their jobs or because they're not athletes, may seem to have an easy time of it in the short run, but they'll be deprived of the satisfaction of the prize in the end.

Let's cast aside every hindrance, and run the race set before us. Robots or no robots.

God, thanks for giving us wisdom that survives the ages.