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The Loafer’s Way, Part 1
July 10th, 2007
I went window shopping at the pet store the other day to see all the cute kittens and puppies that I, Bubble Girl, can’t have. It’s been pretty warm here, and Kitty is sensibly drowsing in her food bowl.
I’m reading the perfect book for summer: How To Be Idle: The Loafer’s Manifesto, by Tom Hodgkinson. If you are a workaholic, this book will show you the error of your ways, how working your fingers to the bone really does just get most of us boney fingers. If you are a would-be idler with one foot in the office and one in the hammock - c’est moi - this book is all you need to convince you to take the plunge.
Why exactly do we work so hard for so very, very little? Because we think we want stuff, need stuff, care about stuff. It’s true that certain stuff, such as food and a roof over one’s head, are important, and thus jobs have their place. But how much consumption do we do that is ultimately pointless?
How much crap do we buy because we think it will bring us happiness - “This is the lipstick that will change your life!” as a friend of mine jokingly said to me once - only to find we’re simply that much more in debt, waiting for the next new crap?
Constant consumption seems to me to be an attempt to fill from without the creative void within. With no time or support for nurturing our own creativity, we consume someone else’s. Chuck the plastic wrapper into the landfill and move on to the next thing. Work, consume, die.
If you really think about this, be careful, because you could end up doing serious self-reflection and reorganization of priorities, a subversive act which, the Idle author argues, is precisely why the “hard work” ethic was created by the ruling classes in the first place. Convince the rabble that they are morally obligated to work their asses off, and they’ll never have the time or energy to figure out you are full of shit.
Technorati Tags: idleness, The Idler, work, kittens
Filed under 9 to 5, Act Uppity, Bibliophile, Rib Eye |2 Responses to “The Loafer’s Way, Part 1”
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How right he is. I was checking out you-know-who’s new site a couple of weeks ago and found a post about simplifying and downsizing. Considering the source, it made a lot of sense. A pleasant surprise.
How can you resist that face? Oooh! I just want to squeeze that kitty (in a gentle way, of course).