leisure and its source

"A culture too busy, too technologically absorbed, too focused on making money to cultivate the leisure and reflection that art demands runs the risk of losing sight both of what it is and what it wants to be."

Yes, any activity that becomes obsessive, whether technology, making money, eating , whatever, becomes an obstacle. I agree we need leisure to appreciate beauty, the arts, philosophy, etc. Leisure means we don't have to spend all of our energy and time finding sustenance for ourselves and loved ones. Only people with full bellies have time to contemplate philosophy and fine art. Where does leisure come from? In earlier societies, slaves did the grunt work that yielded leisure for a few masters. In modern Western societies, machines, i.e. technology fills this role. Without technology, most of us would probably be spending our days in the fields picking crops. Similarly with making money, we are blessed in the West with a more or less capitalistic system which turns out to be the most efficient system by far at creating new wealth that raises the level of the society as a whole. So I agree technology and money making can be problematic if they crowd out all other factors in our attention, but we should be grateful that we have the technology and economic system we do because they make possible the freedom to choose to be reflective, appreciate beauty, etc.