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Quitting the Paint Factory by Mark Slouka - Sebastian - 2011-07-05
This is an essay I found linked somewhere, and thought it was worth sharing. Some people here will certainly find it interesting too.
Quitting the Paint Factory by Mark Slouka
It talks mainly about the madness of modern work ethic and a vindication of idleness.
Here is a little fragment:
Quote:Ah, but here’s the rub: Idleness is not just a psychological necessity, requisite to the construction of a complete human being; it constitutes as well a kind of political space, a space as necessary to the workings of an actual democracy as, say, a free press. How does it do this? By allowing us time to figure out who we are, and what we believe; by allowing us time to consider what is unjust, and what we might do about it. By giving the inner life (in whose precincts we are most ourselves) its due. Which is precisely what makes idleness dangerous. All manner of things can grow out of that fallow soil. Not for nothing did our mothers grow suspicious when we had “too much time on our hands.” They knew we might be up to something. And not for nothing did we whisper to each other, when we were up to something, “Quick, look busy.”
Quitting the Paint Factory by Mark Slouka - damicore - 2011-07-05
That certainly looks like some nice food for the brain.
Did you forget to post the complete article?
Quitting the Paint Factory by Mark Slouka - Sebastian - 2011-07-06
Of course not. I mean... how could I had made such a mistake like... oh wait...
Quitting the Paint Factory by Mark Slouka - liosama - 2011-07-06
He cites it in there, but the first thing I thought of reading the title was ofc
http://www.zpub.com/notes/idle.html
Edit: Holy shit reading this while listening to Radiohead's Little by Little is mesmerizing.
Quitting the Paint Factory by Mark Slouka - Thora - 2011-07-06
Thanks Sebastian and Liosama.
The first thing that came to mind after reading the quote was 徒然草 (Essays in Idleness).
"Yoshida Kenko (1283-1350 CE) in his early career as a Japanese court official also emerged as a celebrated poet. At age 41 he became a Zen Buddhist monk. His subsequent Essays in Idleness shows the application of Zen to a philosophy of social life. In Kenko’s writings we see the Buddhist ideals of naturalness, humility, simplicity, and meditation worked out in relation to daily affairs. Kenko’s Essays, probably written about 1340 CE, contains 243 sections of various lengths, from short aphorisms to meditations covering several pages. A note of resignation that sometimes occurs in Kenko’s thought is probably due to the experiences of the turbulent period in which the writings were composed [...]
Kenko ranged widely in his choice of subjects, touching on ardent love, social etiquette, house design, drunkenness, thought impressions, and the brief span of life. He urged his readers to make the most of their time on earth, but in this he stressed the virtues of contemplation and thought. "
From http://www.humanistictexts.org/kenko.htm. (Note: Donald Keene's is a more modern translation.)