Really don’t mind if you sit this one out
My word’s but a whisper your deafness a shout – Ian Anderson
The utterly simplified history of human work and idleness:
In the beginning, humans worked to survive. Like any animals. Smart animals… hunters, gatherers, farmers. Then came civilization slavery, in one form or another. Some lucky few gained power over others. Thru force, or cleverness, or other forms of persuasion. Leisure (idleness) was born on the backs of the workers. Anything more past subsistence for the workers supported those who didn’t have to produce. The idle few… exempt from having to produce… the thinkers, the dreamers, the dictators, the politicians, the tax collectors, the idle rich. And these idle few drove civilization forward, albeit not efficiently.
There are two basic forms of idleness. Passive and productive. Neither are a crime. But for every Shakespeare, Newton, da Vinci were hundreds of passive idles accomplishing next to nothing, never shifting from passive to productive.
Economic freedom is a fairly new concept in the course of the history of human work and idleness. But when it sprouted, productivity exploded. Workers found access to idleness… passive and productive. Progress and prosperity so great everyone benefitted (at least some). This “rising tide raised all boats”.
Troubled waters
Millions are trapped in toxic corporate lives. Our culture does not view idleness as honorable. ”Idle hand are the devil’s workshop”. Since the beginning of the western world the idle rich convinced the masses that idleness was evil… except for them. And it still lives on today. People so focused on their jobs, they leave no room for living life. “Work to live, don’t live to work” is ignored. Idleness is crowded out slowly from lives.
And so above. My nutshell summary of Bertrand Russell’s “In Praise of Idleness”, Written in 1935. Russell was not a quack, but a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, writer, essayist, social critic, political activist, and oh yes … a Nobel Prize winner.
“A man who has worked long hours all his life will become bored if he becomes suddenly idle. But without a considerable amount of leisure a man is cut off from many of the best things. There is no longer any reason why the bulk of the population should suffer this deprivation; only a foolish asceticism, usually vicarious, makes us continue to insist on work in excessive quantities now that the need no longer exists.“ – Bertrand Russell
Such Gloom!
Starts in school…
“All in all it’s just another brick in the wall
All in all you’re just another brick in the wall” – Pink Floyd
Intensifies whether in the factory or office…
“Some guys they just give up living
And start dying little by little, piece by piece,
Some guys come home from work and wash up,
And go racin’ in the street” – Bruce Springsteen
Until…
“We are all just prisoners here, of our own device.” – The Eagles
Idleness …save us
Nurture your idleness. They can’t really take it from you. Only if you let them. Be fantastic at work. But leave work behind and walk out the door while the sun still shines. Refuse the 15 hour work day. Turn off your phone. Go racing in the streets. Or kite surfing. Paint. Draw. Write. Create. Think.
People commit suicide every day. For some it is quick. For others, it takes decades to die a shallow zombie death where only work exists.
Have a life. If you have one, you will never be the sad soul who someday says, “I don’t really like my job, but I would be bored in retirement”