Potential...................................

     The flow experience, like everything else, is not "good" in an absolute sense.  It is good only in that it has the potential to make life more rich, intense, and meaningful;  it is good because it increases the strength and complexity of the self.  But whether the consequences of any particular instance of flow is good in a larger sense needs to be discussed and evaluated in terms of a more inclusive social criteria.  The same is true, however, of all human activities, whether science, religion, or politics.  A particular religious belief may benefit a person or a group, but repress many others.  Christianity helped to integrate the decaying ethnic communities of the Roman Empire, but it was instrumental in dissolving many cultures with which it later came into contact.  A given scientific advance may be good for science and a few scientists, but bad for humanity as a whole.  It is an illusion to believe that any solution is beneficial for all people and all the times;  no human achievement can be taken as the final word.  Jefferson's uncomfortable dictum "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" applies outside the fields of politics as well;  it means that we must constantly reevaluate what we do, lest habits and past wisdom blind us to new possibilities.

-Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,  Flow:  The Psychology Of Optimal Experience