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:
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.”
Edited: 2011-07-06, 2:10 am
