Comments on: In Praise of Laziness http://anthropik.com/2007/06/in-praise-of-laziness/ se wo were fi na wosan kofa a yenki Fri, 05 Sep 2008 17:32:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.3 By: The Fisherman and the Banker « Reflections, Ideas, and Dreams http://anthropik.com/2007/06/in-praise-of-laziness/#comment-174373 The Fisherman and the Banker « Reflections, Ideas, and Dreams Sun, 07 Oct 2007 00:49:16 +0000 http://anthropik.com/2007/06/in-praise-of-laziness/#comment-174373 [...] June 7th, 2007 in parables I recently came across this story on The Anthropik Network, and I think it succinctly illustrates some of the most fundamental distinctions between a [...] […] June 7th, 2007 in parables I recently came across this story on The Anthropik Network, and I think it succinctly illustrates some of the most fundamental distinctions between a […]

]]> By: Dead in the Midwest - del.icio.us bookmarks for 06-09-2007 http://anthropik.com/2007/06/in-praise-of-laziness/#comment-145867 Dead in the Midwest - del.icio.us bookmarks for 06-09-2007 Sun, 24 Jun 2007 21:38:12 +0000 http://anthropik.com/2007/06/in-praise-of-laziness/#comment-145867 [...] In Praise of Laziness (The Anthropik Network)(tags: culture life psychology society work civilization racism huntergatherer agriculture ) [...] […] In Praise of Laziness (The Anthropik Network)(tags: culture life psychology society work civilization racism huntergatherer agriculture ) […]

]]> By: Ian M http://anthropik.com/2007/06/in-praise-of-laziness/#comment-134485 Ian M Tue, 12 Jun 2007 00:36:21 +0000 http://anthropik.com/2007/06/in-praise-of-laziness/#comment-134485 more like binged out... it takes a lot to deny or drown the sorrows of a saddled heart after all. *clink* more like binged out…

it takes a lot to deny or drown the sorrows of a saddled heart after all.

*clink*

]]> By: Giulianna Lamanna http://anthropik.com/2007/06/in-praise-of-laziness/#comment-134147 Giulianna Lamanna Mon, 11 Jun 2007 14:45:50 +0000 http://anthropik.com/2007/06/in-praise-of-laziness/#comment-134147 I'm guessing Britons originally had the same attitude towards work that Americans do now, but eventually burned out? Maybe we're on the same track. I’m guessing Britons originally had the same attitude towards work that Americans do now, but eventually burned out? Maybe we’re on the same track.

]]> By: Jason Godesky http://anthropik.com/2007/06/in-praise-of-laziness/#comment-134120 Jason Godesky Mon, 11 Jun 2007 13:48:09 +0000 http://anthropik.com/2007/06/in-praise-of-laziness/#comment-134120 Cheeba, one of the really perverse things about the hours Americans pull is that we do it to ourselves. We invest ourselves in our jobs, define ourselves by them. Couples are getting seperate bedrooms so they won't disturb each other from their brief sleeping periods between work; when do they ever get to see each other? Archangel, yes, the irony occurred to me, too. :) VenusPluto, the stereotype of the glum Briton and the plucky American would certainly seem to reinforce that impression, no? Cheeba, one of the really perverse things about the hours Americans pull is that we do it to ourselves. We invest ourselves in our jobs, define ourselves by them. Couples are getting seperate bedrooms so they won’t disturb each other from their brief sleeping periods between work; when do they ever get to see each other?

Archangel, yes, the irony occurred to me, too. :)

VenusPluto, the stereotype of the glum Briton and the plucky American would certainly seem to reinforce that impression, no?

]]> By: venuspluto67 http://anthropik.com/2007/06/in-praise-of-laziness/#comment-133228 venuspluto67 Sun, 10 Jun 2007 14:29:59 +0000 http://anthropik.com/2007/06/in-praise-of-laziness/#comment-133228 <blockquote>I think everyone turns up to work every day less out of a remnant of the protestant work ethic and more as a form of subtle self-punishment. We work like we drink - to excess, all the time, in order to numb ourselves to the pain and misery. Not that I do a great deal of either working or drinking nowadays, but...</blockquote> I hear things such as this so often that I can't help but get the idea that the UK, or at least England, is an extraordinarily unhappy society.

I think everyone turns up to work every day less out of a remnant of the protestant work ethic and more as a form of subtle self-punishment. We work like we drink - to excess, all the time, in order to numb ourselves to the pain and misery. Not that I do a great deal of either working or drinking nowadays, but…

I hear things such as this so often that I can’t help but get the idea that the UK, or at least England, is an extraordinarily unhappy society.

]]> By: Archangel http://anthropik.com/2007/06/in-praise-of-laziness/#comment-132700 Archangel Sun, 10 Jun 2007 00:41:30 +0000 http://anthropik.com/2007/06/in-praise-of-laziness/#comment-132700 by the way... praise laziness? :sigh: but i don't <i>feel</i> like it. do i have to? :-D by the way…

praise laziness? :sigh: but i don’t feel like it. do i have to?

:-D

]]> By: cheeba http://anthropik.com/2007/06/in-praise-of-laziness/#comment-132166 cheeba Sat, 09 Jun 2007 13:05:03 +0000 http://anthropik.com/2007/06/in-praise-of-laziness/#comment-132166 "No one in the industrialized world works as long as people in the United States, with work-weeks now regularly stretching into 60 or 70 hours or longer." FWIW, saw this the other day http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6730381.stm - an ILO report saying that more Britons work long hours than anywhere else 25% more than 48 hours a wk. Not that that's exactly the same as working the longest hours, which is what you said. Nor is it a great source of national pride! But I was pretty surprised, since I had always heard that things were more extreme in the US. From my limited knowledge, it seems to me that, at least outside of McWalMart jobs, Americans hate their jobs slightly less (/believe in their worth slightly more?) than Britons, and so find it slightly less damaging to work hard in them. Maybe the work ethic still has more of a purchase on people's minds over there. Most people in the UK suspect their jobs are completely pointless, and don't derive a great sense of social worth from them either and we have some of the lowest productivity in the developed world as a result, despite the long hours. I think everyone turns up to work every day less out of a remnant of the protestant work ethic and more as a form of subtle self-punishment. We work like we drink - to excess, all the time, in order to numb ourselves to the pain and misery. Not that I do a great deal of either working or drinking nowadays, but... But someone's probably going to tell me this is all true of the States as well, aren't they? “No one in the industrialized world works as long as people in the United States, with work-weeks now regularly stretching into 60 or 70 hours or longer.”

FWIW, saw this the other day

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6730381.stm

- an ILO report saying that more Britons work long hours than anywhere else 25% more than 48 hours a wk. Not that that’s exactly the same as working the longest hours, which is what you said. Nor is it a great source of national pride! But I was pretty surprised, since I had always heard that things were more extreme in the US.

From my limited knowledge, it seems to me that, at least outside of McWalMart jobs, Americans hate their jobs slightly less (/believe in their worth slightly more?) than Britons, and so find it slightly less damaging to work hard in them. Maybe the work ethic still has more of a purchase on people’s minds over there.

Most people in the UK suspect their jobs are completely pointless, and don’t derive a great sense of social worth from them either and we have some of the lowest productivity in the developed world as a result, despite the long hours.

I think everyone turns up to work every day less out of a remnant of the protestant work ethic and more as a form of subtle self-punishment. We work like we drink - to excess, all the time, in order to numb ourselves to the pain and misery. Not that I do a great deal of either working or drinking nowadays, but…

But someone’s probably going to tell me this is all true of the States as well, aren’t they?

]]> By: Supernatural Things » Two Must-Reads http://anthropik.com/2007/06/in-praise-of-laziness/#comment-131819 Supernatural Things » Two Must-Reads Sat, 09 Jun 2007 03:05:40 +0000 http://anthropik.com/2007/06/in-praise-of-laziness/#comment-131819 [...] The first one is “In Praise of Laziness“, and I have my friend Gyrus to thank for the link. (Thanks Gyrus). Don’t let the title fool you into any obvious mis-pre-conceptions. The obvious, after all, decieves by its rapid commonness. Rather, go ahead and let it fool you, but then prepare to get served. Some highlights: …the distinction between “work” and “play” is nowhere nearly as clear-cut in forager societies as it is in our own. Foragers mix the two liberally, breaking up their work haphazardly, and often playing while they work (or working while they play). The definition of work which inflates the total to 40-45 hours per week includes every activity that might be considered, regardless of its nature. Even the most unambiguous “work” of foragers is often the stuff of our own vacations: hunting, fishing, or a hike through the wilds. Sitting Bull expressed it quite well: “White men like to dig in the ground for their food. My people prefer to hunt the buffalo as their fathers did. White men like to stay in one place. My people want to move their tepees here and there to the different hunting grounds. The life of white men is slavery. They are prisoners in towns or farms. The life my people want is a life of freedom. I have seen nothing that a white man has, houses or railways or clothing or food, that is as good as the right to move in the open country, and live in our own fashion. … The white men had many things that we wanted, but we could see that they did not have the one thing we liked best—freedom. I would rather live in a tepee and go without meat when game is scarce, than give up my privileges as a free Indian, even though I could have all that white men have.” Rather than laziness, the choice of hunting and gathering over agriculture was simply good sense. But what of the notion of “laziness” itself—that the avoidance of labor is a question of moral standing? Rationally, we would think of work as an investment to obtain what we want, so that if it had any moral value at all, it would have to be as a function of what that thing is we’re working for. By the same logic, it should be virtuous to pay $100 for a stick of gum. Our deification of labor is fundamentally irrational—the Protestant work ethic the logical result only from the assumptions of a cruel and capricious god ruling over a clockwork universe… …Such an approach is obviously at odds with the basic nature of the world, but similar themes were nonetheless picked up by Darwin, who set the tone for our view of nature “red in tooth and claw.” Darwin saw his theory of natural selection arising from the incredible lethality and ruthlessness of the natural world. This narrative has remained in place, even while the evidence to support it has eroded completely away… …in contrast, “Idle Theory” presents “Survival of the Idlest.” It provides little challenge to the basic notion of evolution or even natural selection, but it does overturn the Darwinian model of life as a constant war. Instead, animals that spend the least energy providing for their survival are the most likely to survive. [...] […] The first one is “In Praise of Laziness“, and I have my friend Gyrus to thank for the link. (Thanks Gyrus). Don’t let the title fool you into any obvious mis-pre-conceptions. The obvious, after all, decieves by its rapid commonness. Rather, go ahead and let it fool you, but then prepare to get served. Some highlights: …the distinction between “work” and “play” is nowhere nearly as clear-cut in forager societies as it is in our own. Foragers mix the two liberally, breaking up their work haphazardly, and often playing while they work (or working while they play). The definition of work which inflates the total to 40-45 hours per week includes every activity that might be considered, regardless of its nature. Even the most unambiguous “work” of foragers is often the stuff of our own vacations: hunting, fishing, or a hike through the wilds. Sitting Bull expressed it quite well: “White men like to dig in the ground for their food. My people prefer to hunt the buffalo as their fathers did. White men like to stay in one place. My people want to move their tepees here and there to the different hunting grounds. The life of white men is slavery. They are prisoners in towns or farms. The life my people want is a life of freedom. I have seen nothing that a white man has, houses or railways or clothing or food, that is as good as the right to move in the open country, and live in our own fashion. … The white men had many things that we wanted, but we could see that they did not have the one thing we liked best—freedom. I would rather live in a tepee and go without meat when game is scarce, than give up my privileges as a free Indian, even though I could have all that white men have.” Rather than laziness, the choice of hunting and gathering over agriculture was simply good sense. But what of the notion of “laziness” itself—that the avoidance of labor is a question of moral standing? Rationally, we would think of work as an investment to obtain what we want, so that if it had any moral value at all, it would have to be as a function of what that thing is we’re working for. By the same logic, it should be virtuous to pay $100 for a stick of gum. Our deification of labor is fundamentally irrational—the Protestant work ethic the logical result only from the assumptions of a cruel and capricious god ruling over a clockwork universe… …Such an approach is obviously at odds with the basic nature of the world, but similar themes were nonetheless picked up by Darwin, who set the tone for our view of nature “red in tooth and claw.” Darwin saw his theory of natural selection arising from the incredible lethality and ruthlessness of the natural world. This narrative has remained in place, even while the evidence to support it has eroded completely away… …in contrast, “Idle Theory” presents “Survival of the Idlest.” It provides little challenge to the basic notion of evolution or even natural selection, but it does overturn the Darwinian model of life as a constant war. Instead, animals that spend the least energy providing for their survival are the most likely to survive. […]

]]> By: jhereg http://anthropik.com/2007/06/in-praise-of-laziness/#comment-131350 jhereg Fri, 08 Jun 2007 18:31:37 +0000 http://anthropik.com/2007/06/in-praise-of-laziness/#comment-131350 <blockquote>He can't live without television.</blockquote> Hell, my problem is that I can't hardly live [b]with[/b] television!

He can’t live without television.

Hell, my problem is that I can’t hardly live [b]with[/b] television!

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