Why is laziness considered a moral failure in so many cultures?
Inactivity, procrastination, goofing off, binging, gaming, having too much time on your hands – unless there is some direct productive benefit coming out of it, our society tends to condemn it at a moral level. Doesn’t this seem like a contradiction? Our technological drive is, very generally speaking, to make life easier, reduce effort, and create more free time, but we don’t respond to this culturally by doing less. Instead, we are busier than ever, more stressed than ever, and forced into taking serious breaks only by burnouts or layoffs.
So why then, even if we have the means and the privilege, aren’t we lazier? Or are we secretly lazier than we dare to admit? Why isn’t laziness considered a virtue, rather than a vice? Why is (the English) language so full of expressions that extol hard work instead of idleness?
Work hard, play hard.
Join the rat race.
Keep your nose to the grindstone.
Go the extra mile.
No pain, no gain.
And don’t you dare take a regular nap: no, make it a powernap.
Let’s examine the reasons for our moral condemnation of taking things easy in life. Are they cultural? Biological? Economic? Or perhaps even existential?
EXISTENTIAL TUESDAYS
Existential Tuesdays are small weekly* lunch discussions in the Nook of the TUD Library. Practice your critical thinking skills, learn to see the world from different perspectives, and hang out with your fellow deep thinkers in Delft.
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* no sessions during exam weeks or study week
