If you read the Unabomber's Manifesto, he talks a LOT about how we've come to take on all these meaningless tasks and goals, "surrogate activities", to satisfy/pacify our need for attaining power, the "power process", and the amount of effort needed to achieve our goals.


"When people do not have to exert themselves to satisfy their physical needs they often set up artificial goals for themselves. In many cases they then pursue these goals with the same energy and emotional involvement that they otherwise would have put into the search for physical necessities."

"In modern industrial society only minimal effort is necessary to satisfy one's physical needs. It is enough to go through a training program to acquire some petty technical skill, then come to work on time and exert very modest effort needed to hold a job. The only requirements are a moderate amount of intelligence, and most of all, simple OBEDIENCE. If one has those, society takes care of one from cradle to grave."


I've only gotten halfway through his rants and ramblings, but a lot of it is very sound.