In Praise of Idleness
By Bertrand Russell
[1932]
Like most of my generation, I was brought up on the saying: 'Satan finds some mischief for idle hands to do.' Being a highly virtuous child, I believed all that I was told, and acquired a conscience which has kept me working hard down to the present moment. But although my conscience has controlled my actions, my opinions have undergone a revolution. I think that there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what always has been preached. Everyone knows the story of the traveler in Naples who saw twelve beggars lying in the sun (it was before the days of Mussolini), and offered a lira to the laziest of them. Eleven of them jumped up to claim it, so he gave it to the twelfth. this traveler was on the right lines. But in countries which do not enjoy Mediterranean sunshine idleness is more difficult, and a great public propaganda will be required to inaugurate it. I hope that, after reading the following pages, the leaders of the YMCA will start a campaign to induce good young men to do nothing. If so, I shall not have lived in vain.
Before advancing my own arguments for laziness, I must dispose of one which I cannot accept. Whenever a person who already has enough to live on proposes to engage in some everyday kind of job, such as school-teaching or typing, he or she is told that such conduct takes the bread out of other people's mouths, and is therefore wicked. If this argument were valid, it would only be necessary for us all to be idle in order that we should all have our mouths full of bread. What people who say such things forget is that what a man earns he usually spends, and in spending he gives employment. As long as a man spends his income, he puts just as much bread into people's mouths in spending as he takes out of other people's mouths in earning. The real villain, from this point of view, is the man who saves. If he merely puts his savings in a stocking, like the proverbial French peasant, it is obvious that they do not give employment. If he invests his savings, the matter is less obvious, and different cases arise.
One of the commonest things to do with savings is to lend them to some Government. In view of the fact that the bulk of the public expenditure of most civilized Governments consists in payment for past wars or preparation for future wars, the man who lends his money to a Government is in the same position as the bad men in Shakespeare who hire murderers. The net result of the man's economical habits is to increase the armed forces of the State to which he lends his savings. Obviously it would be better if he spent the money, even if he spent it in drink or gambling.
But, I shall be told, the case is quite different when savings are invested in industrial enterprises. When such enterprises succeed, and produce something useful, this may be conceded. In these days, however, no one will deny that most enterprises fail. That means that a large amount of human labor, which might have been devoted to producing something that could be enjoyed, was expended on producing machines which, when produced, lay idle and did no good to anyone. The man who invests his savings in a concern that goes bankrupt is therefore injuring others as well as himself. If he spent his money, say, in giving parties for his friends, they (we may hope) would get pleasure, and so would all those upon whom he spent money, such as the butcher, the baker, and the bootlegger. But if he spends it (let us say) upon laying down rails for surface card in some place where surface cars turn out not to be wanted, he has diverted a mass of labor into channels where it gives pleasure to no one. Nevertheless, when he becomes poor through failure of his investment he will be regarded as a victim of undeserved misfortune, whereas the gay spendthrift, who has spent his money philanthropically, will be despised as a fool and a frivolous person.
All this is only preliminary. I want to say, in all seriousness, that a great deal of harm is being done in the modern world by belief in the virtuousness of work, and that the road to happiness and prosperity lies in an organized diminution of work.
First of all: what is work? Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first kind is unpleasant and ill paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid. The second kind is capable of indefinite extension: there are not only those who give orders, but those who give advice as to what orders should be given. Usually two opposite kinds of advice are given simultaneously by two organized bodies of men; this is called politics. The skill required for this kind of work is not knowledge of the subjects as to which advice is given, but knowledge of the art of persuasive speaking and writing, i.e. of advertising.
Throughout Europe, though not in America, there is a third class of men, more respected than either of the classes of workers. There are men who, through ownership of land, are able to make others pay for the privilege of being allowed to exist and to work. These landowners are idle, and I might therefore be expected to praise them. Unfortunately, their idleness is only rendered possible by the industry of others; indeed their desire for comfortable idleness is historically the source of the whole gospel of work. The last thing they have ever wished is that others should follow their example.
From the beginning of civilization until the Industrial Revolution, a man could, as a rule, produce by hard work little more than was required for the subsistence of himself and his family, although his wife worked at least as hard as he did, and his children added their labor as soon as they were old enough to do so. The small surplus above bare necessaries was not left to those who produced it, but was appropriated by warriors and priests. In times of famine there was no surplus; the warriors and priests, however, still secured as much as at other times, with the result that many of the workers died of hunger. This system persisted in Russia until 1917 [1], and still persists in the East; in England, in spite of the Industrial Revolution, it remained in full force throughout the Napoleonic wars, and until a hundred years ago, when the new class of manufacturers acquired power. In America, the system came to an end with the Revolution, except in the South, where it persisted until the Civil War. A system which lasted so long and ended so recently has naturally left a profound impress upon men's thoughts and opinions. Much that we take for granted about the desirability of work is derived from this system, and, being pre-industrial, is not adapted to the modern world. Modern technique has made it possible for leisure, within limits, to be not the prerogative of small privileged classes, but a right evenly distributed throughout the community. The morality of work is the morality of slaves, and the modern world has no need of slavery.
It is obvious that, in primitive communities, peasants, left to themselves, would not have parted with the slender surplus upon which the warriors and priests subsisted, but would have either produced less or consumed more. At first, sheer force compelled them to produce and part with the surplus. Gradually, however, it was found possible to induce many of them to accept an ethic according to which it was their duty to work hard, although part of their work went to support others in idleness. By this means the amount of compulsion required was lessened, and the expenses of government were diminished. To this day, 99 per cent of British wage-earners would be genuinely shocked if it were proposed that the King should not have a larger income th
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本项目是一款基于uni-app、uviewUI和colorUI框架构建的微信小程序记事本源码,采用Vue.js进行前端开发。整个项目文件共包含3705个文件,其中JavaScript文件2252个,JSON文件332个,Markdown文件279个,Vue组件116个,WXML模板58个,Map文件54个,WXSS样式文件52个,NPM忽略文件35个,YAML文件34个,TypeScript文件30个。后端基于Node.js搭建,并已部署至云服务器,方便用户使用和扩展。
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基于uni-app、uviewUI、colorUI的微信小程序记事本设计源码 (2000个子文件)
icon.css 70KB
main.css 63KB
view.css 55KB
view.css 55KB
view.css 55KB
uniicons.css 8KB
animation.css 3KB
iconfont.css 303B
iconfont.css 303B
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iconfont.css 303B
iconfont.css 303B
iconfont.css 303B
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__uniappview.html 786B
__uniappview.html 786B
__uniappview.html 786B
example.html 200B
app-service.js 2.61MB
app-view.js 1.47MB
vendor.js 852KB
vendor.js 840KB
view.umd.min.js 366KB
view.umd.min.js 366KB
view.umd.min.js 366KB
app-service.js 294KB
app-service.js 294KB
app-view.js 269KB
app-view.js 269KB
vendor.js 268KB
__uniappquill.js 211KB
__uniappquill.js 211KB
__uniappquill.js 211KB
errors.js 172KB
psl.js 149KB
acorn_csp.js 132KB
acorn.js 130KB
psl.min.js 125KB
u-avatar.js 121KB
u-avatar.js 120KB
ssl_profiles.js 81KB
lodash.min.js 71KB
uri.all.js 56KB
u-transition.js 53KB
u-transition.js 52KB
__uniappes6.js 51KB
__uniappes6.js 51KB
__uniappes6.js 51KB
index.js 45KB
login.js 45KB
add.js 43KB
user.js 43KB
acorn_loose.js 41KB
register.js 41KB
index.js 41KB
u-input.js 40KB
u-input.js 40KB
u-checkbox.js 40KB
source-map-consumer.js 39KB
u-popup.js 39KB
async-validator.js 38KB
semver.js 38KB
__uniappchooselocation.js 38KB
__uniappchooselocation.js 38KB
__uniappchooselocation.js 38KB
u-popup.js 37KB
u-textarea.js 37KB
u-textarea.js 37KB
parser.js 35KB
index.js 35KB
u-text.js 35KB
u-text.js 35KB
u-icon.js 35KB
u-icon.js 35KB
u-form-item.js 35KB
u-form-item.js 35KB
u-tag.js 35KB
u-loading-icon.js 35KB
u-loading-icon.js 35KB
u-loadmore.js 34KB
dashdash.js 34KB
u-loadmore.js 34KB
u-checkbox-group.js 34KB
u-back-top.js 34KB
add.js 33KB
u-overlay.js 32KB
u-overlay.js 32KB
register.js 32KB
u-link.js 32KB
u-link.js 32KB
u-line.js 32KB
u-line.js 32KB
user.js 32KB
u-safe-bottom.js 31KB
u-status-bar.js 31KB
u-safe-bottom.js 31KB
u-status-bar.js 31KB
login.js 31KB
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