In Praise of Idleness by Bertrand Russell. It’s short and brilliant.
Then visit Chris McLaren’s commentary. I posted a rather long and burbly comment there.
I want to start the Leisure Party now. Or maybe the Idle Society nonprofit group.
I also want to do a condensed translation of Russell’s essay called “Slacker Fu is Mighty.”
And write a song called, “Idle hands do God’s work.” ‘Cause it’s harder to find a greater bunch of slackers than Zarathushtra, Moses, Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad. Whenever there was work to be done, they were off in the desert or up a mountain. And when Moses and Jesus got around to rebelling, who did they rebel against? Rich bastards who wanted to make people work all the time.
But what I should do is get back to writing my recalcitrant novel, so I will.
There’s always Utah Philips’s Sloth and Indolence party under which he has run for president of the US on a platform promise to do nothing, sit on his butt, and shoot pool.
Sounds like a great president from here.
Here’s hoping that the creative process is more about constructive use of leisure, than it is like labour.
How about the slogan “They also serve who only stand and wait.”?
Blue Jean
i’m surprised to see the russell recommendation. that’s one of his i haven’t read, but if you’re interested in his more “out there” shit, check out “the philosophy of logical atomism” - it’s incredibly accessible, and he ends up concluding pretty much that nothing exists. very… intriguing.
Ummm…I think you might be romaticising these guys a bit…
Let’s start with Mohammed, a wealthy and vigourous bandit/military commander:
He was certainly never poor. He was a member of one of Mecca’s leading families (though he did not participate in its inheritance scheme). He married his wealthy employer and had a pretty easy life thereafter. Though he was kicked out of Mecca for stirring up trouble (insulting other people’s religion), when he got to Medina, he was given land and built a comfortable house.
After breaking with the Jews and with limited commercial resources, he and his followers resorted to banditry attacking at least one Meccan caravan. He then went about systematically assinating those in Medina he perceived as slighting him and on a pretext expelled the Jews (who happenned to run the marketplace).
After a number of battles with the Meccan army he secured Medina and then went about slaughtering any opposing forces in the area. For example, the Jews of the Qurayza tribe near Medina - 700 (some say as many as 900) of whom were beheaded in the market square for “treason”. The women and children are kept as slaves, the normal procedure in those days.
Rebelling against the rich? Nope. Conducting a systematic campaing of murder to benefit his own position? you be the judge…
And don’t get me started on the 13 wives, the “concubines”, the teenage Jewish slave girls… imagine how much work that was!
Now Zarathustra was born a nobleman, became a priest (no vows of poverty in those days) and after stirring up trouble, fled to a king Hystapes where he lived happily ever after at court.
Moses, a slacker? Lived the high life in Egypt, then got a hair up to “free his people”. Hey it takes some effort to stay lost in the desert that long given the well established trade routes from what is now Lebanon into Egypt. Then the guy skips one party to chat with the big fella and you call him a slacker…
Buddha - rich bastard who went off to sit around a beg. Him I’ll grant you as a slacker. But coming up with a whole religion based on sitting around - that must have taken some work at least…
Jesus - carpentry with hand tools is hard work (Remember Abe “rail splitter” Lincoln?). And wandering around the countryside on foot is probably just as hard. Now he did take that one vacation in the desert, but I have it on good authority that the spa was closed that month.
So get to work - go stir up trouble somewhere!
-bc
Jeffy, Utah Philips is one of my heroes. I did a cursory google to see if the party is more than a footnote in his career, and didn’t find anything, alas.
Chris, so far as I can tell, most creative people work something like the four-hour day: you need time for both work and thought. Yes, work is a form of thought, but, oh, how I wish people who pride themselves on their desk jobs would dig a few ditches and then talk to me.
Blue, I should add that to my list of stupid things people say. ‘Cause the people referred to there were working mighty hard at home.
Stranger, I’ll definitely be checking out more Russell.
BC, me, romanticizing? Say it isn’t so!
The life of Muhammed is challenging. I’ve read some critics and some apologists, and I haven’t come to any hard conclusions, except I don’t like his apparent willingness to have his followers go to war, and if he took in women to protect them, that’s one thing, but if he took “wives” as we understand the word, the guy who wrote the Qu’ran should’ve been able to count to four.
On the other hand, Muhammed also rejected palaces and chose a moderate home, so he’s a useful model of the Middle Way and a rebuke to rich people everywhere. Obviously, must do more research!
I do think someone could have fun comparing the life of Buddha with the life of Moses. I think I’ve seen theories that both figures come from the same myth.
But I’ll hang onto Jesus as one of the greatest slackers of all time. He’s born. At 14, he buggers off to the big city. What he does after that, we dunno, except for a vague assurance that he obeyed his family, which is at odds with his teachings to ignore your family and chase the truth. At 30, he shows up as a slacker, hanging out with the Baptist’s bunch of gainfully unemployed, and he wonders around begging until the Romans kill him. Heck, you could argue that his tragic flaw came when he decided to actually do some work and raise a rebellion in Jerusalem.
Work kills in so very many ways.
Blue, oh! ‘Cause I went straight for the serious, I forgot to say I think that’s funny, and if I ever do a web page to promote idleness, I’ll include that.
Will, a book recommendation: The Scimitar and the Veil: Extraordinary Women of Islam, by Jennifer Heath. Among other things it gives what I thought was a useful (if biased) picture of Mohammed’s life, from the point of view of the women in it.
(No mustarjils, though. Bummer, that.)
I just read someone somewhere (how’s that for perfect slacker research) who talks about farming as being an exercise in patience. Farmers do a lot of waiting.
Now, I’m not saying they’re not working, as well, but they have to learn the balance of starting something, then leaving it alone for a while, and not just niggling at it constantly.
Waiting for it to rain. Then for it to stop raining….
LOL! No offense taken, Will; though you’re sweet to explain; thanks! That quote comes from Milton, who, while not one of my favorite poets (mostly because he’s a sexist SOB), does have a point in that we all serve God’s (or Goddess’s, or Whoever’s) purpose, even if it seems like we’re standing around, doing nothing. I agree that a lot of people sound dumb when they’re saying it, but then again, a lot of folks have no idea what it means.
I used to quote that line to my bosses when I was waiting tables; they never saw the humor in it, which amused me no end. ;-)
Blue Jean
PS: In a way, it relates to your own paragraph about how writing isn’t just clacking away at your computer/typewriter/quill/hammer and chisel; you do the real work of writing in your head, which can occur at any time, even when it seems to everyone else that you’re sleeping/meditating/staring off into space.
(Sez I, after staring off into space for a few minutes.)
Blue Jean
David, mustarjils must be a little too extraordinary. Rec noted, though!
Grey, farming used to be a classic example of the four-hour day, except during planting and harvest time.
Blue, yep, “leisure” is a bit fluid if your work involves thought, but it’s a necessary luxury. And, frankly, I wish most of our politicians had a lot more idle time.
I often sign things with “M.I.R.C”, member of the idle rich class, after Shaw’s Man & Superman.