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While I am neither much into Star Wars nor own any Lego, my take is that in the grand scheme of things, all past times are equally silly. It used to be that some sorts of silliness were seen as appropriate and proper, such as nobles going hunting (despite not being threatened by food scarcity), or people learning an instrument to signal their sophistication, or sports fans of whatever the socially approved sport was getting very excited about it.
Cosplaying as someone caring about federal politics is just as silly as cosplaying as a member of the rebel alliance: you will no more change the outcome of the presidential election than you will change the outcome of the galactic war. (It is a lot more bitter, though, because the cosplayers take it more seriously.)
Learning a dead language like Latin is just as silly as learning a fantasy language like Klingon. The canon of Latin works is well translated into modern languages, you are unlikely to find new insights by reading the originals. (Granted, the number of people who require Latin for their job is slightly higher than the number who require Klingon, but still a tiny fraction of the population.)
Reading Shakespeare is unlikely to give you unique insights into the human condition you could not have gotten from other sources. Read it if you like, but don't pretend that you are doing something more useful with your time than the person who reads YA novels or smut.
Quite frankly, I am a single man in my late thirties who (like most of my generation) is unlikely to ever earn enough to buy a house near their workplace. But my life could be much worse, e.g. if I tried on top of that to permanently cosplay as a responsible adult and forced to pick up some horrible sport (like running) instead of video gaming or to read books which are considered age-appropriate (is Scifi allowed these days?) or waste another half-hour per day into dressing myself instead of simply picking up my jeans from the floor.
There are actually a number of untranslated(at least to English) Latin works out there. Moral Theology by St. Alphonsus of Ligouri is likely the most prominent.
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My dad is into the South Pole in a big way, and owns dozens of books about various Antarctic expeditions. He once attended this event where all the people pretend they're on such an expedition (may have been Scott's, I can't remember) and dress for the occasion.
Sometime later I won free tickets to our city's Comic-Con. I don't have much interest in this sort of thing, but my girlfriend at the time was a big Marvel fan so we went. I was telling my dad about the cosplayers, and he sort of scoffed at what a silly way it was to spend one's time. I pointed out that, while it's certainly silly, it's not objectively more silly than cosplaying as an Antarctic expeditioner in a warm and dry restaurant.
Hard disagree. It's true that the insights gained from Shakespeare can be gained from other sources, because Shakespeare's insights are in the water supply. But spending hours poring over The Tempest at least has a chance of resulting in you understanding something new about the human condition (even if you could have learned the same thing in a shorter period of time from a more accessible source), whereas I think learning anything noteworthy from reading smut is more or less impossible.
While I broad-strokes agree with you that some hobbies considered high-status are no less silly than certain hobbies which are considered low-status, I'm not going to go the full cultural relativist maximally nihilistic "it's all bullshit anyway". I do actually believe that good things are good. Ceterus paribus, pastimes which actively engage the mind, the body or both are more edifying than those which do not. Of course learning Klingon is a waste of time in the scheme of things, but I would still rather someone put the effort into learning Klingon than simply passively watch TOS for the fifteenth time. Even if the only reason you're going to the gym is so that your Thor cosplay is more convincing, that's a hell of a lot better than not working out at all.
I also disagree that your life would be worse if you took up running. I mean, it could be, but I found it did wonders for my mood and energy levels, and I'm far from alone in reporting that experience.
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