If the ordinary wage-earner worked four hours a day, there would be
enough for everybody and no unemployment -- assuming a certain very
moderate amount of sensible organization. This idea shocks the
well-to-do, because they are convinced that the poor would not know how
to use so much leisure. In America men often work long hours even when
they are well off; such men, naturally, are indignant at the idea of
leisure for wage-earners, except as the grim punishment of unemployment;
in fact, they dislike leisure even for their sons. Oddly enough, while
they wish their sons to work so hard as to have no time to be civilized,
they do not mind their wives and daughters having no work at all. the
snobbish admiration of uselessness, which, in an aristocratic society,
extends to both sexes, is, under a plutocracy, confined to women; this,
however, does not make it any more in agreement with common sense.
The wise use of leisure, it must be conceded, is a product of civilization and education. 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.
In the past, there was a small leisure class and a larger working class. The leisure class enjoyed advantages for which there was no basis in social justice; this necessarily made it oppressive, limited its sympathies, and caused it to invent theories by which to justify its privileges. These facts greatly diminished its excellence, but in spite of this drawback it contributed nearly the whole of what we call civilization. It cultivated the arts and discovered the sciences; it wrote the books, invented the philosophies, and refined social relations. Even the liberation of the oppressed has usually been inaugurated from above. Without the leisure class, mankind would never have emerged from barbarism.
- In Praise of Idleness by Bertrand Russell - Read the whole thing, its brilliant (although I don't agree with everything in the essay).
The wise use of leisure, it must be conceded, is a product of civilization and education. 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.
In the past, there was a small leisure class and a larger working class. The leisure class enjoyed advantages for which there was no basis in social justice; this necessarily made it oppressive, limited its sympathies, and caused it to invent theories by which to justify its privileges. These facts greatly diminished its excellence, but in spite of this drawback it contributed nearly the whole of what we call civilization. It cultivated the arts and discovered the sciences; it wrote the books, invented the philosophies, and refined social relations. Even the liberation of the oppressed has usually been inaugurated from above. Without the leisure class, mankind would never have emerged from barbarism.
- In Praise of Idleness by Bertrand Russell - Read the whole thing, its brilliant (although I don't agree with everything in the essay).
No comments:
Post a Comment