> I do not see the humor or anything profound with it.
A common feature of humor is to reverse something against expectations. Here he sets up a list of grand accomplishments and compares them with leisure and you expect the former to be superior. Then, right at the end of the paragraph, he inverts the expectation and causes you to suddenly reinterpret the whole thing. You think of the downsides of the accomplishments, and that really having a good time is important and maybe human values are messed up, etc. All in a flash at the reversal.
It’s a well known and effective literary effect. The poem ‘Ozymandias’ uses this for dramatic rather than humorous effect, for example.
A common feature of humor is to reverse something against expectations. Here he sets up a list of grand accomplishments and compares them with leisure and you expect the former to be superior. Then, right at the end of the paragraph, he inverts the expectation and causes you to suddenly reinterpret the whole thing. You think of the downsides of the accomplishments, and that really having a good time is important and maybe human values are messed up, etc. All in a flash at the reversal.
It’s a well known and effective literary effect. The poem ‘Ozymandias’ uses this for dramatic rather than humorous effect, for example.