In the last few days before the winter break, classrooms suddenly find their attendance plummeting. This presents a catch-22 for teachers as they still plan for the days, but the lack of attendance means they need to modify their plans, to which students remark that nothing is planned and thus don’t need to attend. I admire the teachers who dig in and still plan assignments, tests or quizzes for these days as they commit to the end.

Unfortunately, our current education system accommodates such behaviour and fighting against the current requires a huge resource of energy. Until (If?) we rebuild the dam, is this really worth the battle?

Despite the context, this post is not about the attendance habits of teenagers in school, but rather the insistence on avoiding idleness in our lives. I was struck by an essay in this regard by Bertrand Russell in 1935, who argued for us to all work less so that we may all have more leisure:

“The idea that the poor should have leisure has always been shocking to the rich. In England in the early nineteenth century fifteen hours was the ordinary day’s work for a man; children sometimes did as much, and very commonly did twelve hours a day. When meddlesome busy-bodies suggested that perhaps these hours were rather long, they were told that work kept adults from drink and children from mischief. When I was a child, shortly after urban working men had acquired the vote, certain public holidays were established by law, to the great indignation of the upper classes. I remember hearing an old Duchess say, “What do the poor want with holidays? they ought to work.” People nowadays are less frank, but the sentiment persists, and is the source of much economic confusion.”
-Bertand Russell, In Praise of Idleness

Russell is correct in saying that people nowadays are less frank, but the sentiment of idleness being the devil’s playground has not gone away. Working hard and long has not made us any happier, nor has the increased industry of our world, which has produced more than we can possibly consume in multiple lifetimes.

The world seems to be waking up to Russell’s argument, which actually has its roots in ancient Greece with Seneca, who commented that “busy men find life very short.” So if the current is sweeping us all into accepting that more downtime is going to happen, why fight it?

Hell—some of us may even enjoy it.