Idleness

During the workshop groups one of our topics was based on idleness the lecture was interesting, which made me realize that as humans we take work as something valuable. Bertrand Russle defines what work is in two ways 1) altering the position of matter, 2) telling people what to do. He concludes onto saying that the second kind of work is capable of indefinite extension which means that there are those who take orders from others and there are those who give orders usually those two ideas are given by men. Many people may see idleness as being lazy. my personal view about idleness is that people who are labeled ‘idle’ I see them as being laid back who have a relaxing attitude towards things and sitituations, some may argue that idleness is being ‘lazy’. According to Bertrand Russle “for us all to be idle in order that we should all have our mouths full of bread” therefore it is ok for a man to be idle if he provides for himself, Russel gives the example of ‘landowners’ “the land owners 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”. However, Russle also says that work is a good in itself he carries on to saying that the morality of work is the morality of slaves, and the modern world has no need of slavery. He carries onto saying that idleness was rejected for religious reasons but the reasons now that idleness has been rejected can mainly be based on economics and consumer goods. However the idea of idleness is Non work rather than Leisure, I personally refer idleness to some form of leisure maybe because I can be idle at many times. Russle suggests that work is not a key of leisure “it is insured that the unavoidable leisure shall cause misery all around instead of being a universal source of happiness”. Most humans enjoy being idle nearly everyone can be idle at times, Oasis have given a good example about being idle with their song ‘the importance of being idle (2004) ’ the link below is a link to the song http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jySfU10IQu4 . One example that was used in lecture to show people being idle was the classic song by the beteals ‘im only sleeping’ (1966) the link below shows the lyrics, the lyrics give an example what idleness can actually be. http://artists.letssingit.com/beatles-the-lyrics-im-only-sleeping-p2bz29s I agree with Jaide that Meena’s lecture was an eye opener towards idleness. i also agree with jaide that it is unfair for for those who are exploited, However, i do not agree with jaide that is unfair for those who are being idle my personal view is that people can be idle and work at the same time. My view about being idle after the lecture was that people can be idle if they want too. Meena used the example of the Bollywood movie ‘dil chata hai’ to show a different way of being idle. I thought that was a good example because that’s how I usually referred of people being idle, having a good time with their friends a just relaxing.