The contingency of convenience

Consider the nature of convenience. Many devices that are made to give us more leisure time, the so-called "labour-saving" technologies, are arrayed to deliver us into dependence. In much the way that a division of labour allows for a diversification of tasks that produce a grueling monotony of production; the convenient steals from us the diversity of our own experience. When the difficult is challenged, the reward is skill and knowledge. When convenience is employed, all that we gain is a void, an ignorance longing to be filled. The impoverishment of our experience is tied to the increase in convenience.
In the same way that a journey provides for a multiplicity of experiences gleaned from a changing landscape, the difficult provides for a new range of powers that arise from the challenges encountered. One can only become what is hidden inside of oneself through a process of exploration and contemplation. The difficult is what offers the road for this peculiar journey.
The old adage (often employed against charity), "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day; teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime" applies exactly to the virtue of rejecting convenience. What we learn to do is never lost. In learning to do something we expand the range of our possibilities, consequently becoming less dependent on the convenient. Furthermore, we fill our time with meaningful activity thereby requiring less entertainment.
This process makes us better. We feel more certain of ourselves, we become smarter and are less apt to fall prey to the chorus of advertisers. Convenience leads to dependence, dependence leads to victimization. To the extent that we seek our own freedom and satisfaction, we serve ourselves best by rejecting the ethic of convenience.