The pleasures of idleness
The secret of complete freedom, from worry and anxiety, lies in doing nothing; work is the source of nearly all the misery in the world. Any evil you would come to name comes from working or from living in a world designed for work.
Introduction
Sipping the hot coffee mug, while lazily sitting beside the window of your room and enjoying the rich scent of coffee, is a moment that automatically stimulates the thought process. Thought process opens up the knot of exploration; exploring our self, thinking about some of our favorite art, book or an activity that we have admired the most in the past, initiates the process of realization. Realization brings to our mind the problems or talents lying in our subconscious or which we have been forgotten since long. We may come to know about some past problem and process of realization may provide us with a solution as Archimedes was provided with the solution of his problem when he was taking a respite sitting in the tub of pleasantly warm water. Exploring ourselves can reveal some novel ideas of writing on any social or literary issues; the novel and productive ideas of Democritus, Bertrand Russell, or Shelly would not have came to light if they had no idleness for pondering over their ideas. It does not mean not even lifting a finger, or refusal of jobs, but it means work for dignity, self-pleasure and mutual happiness, and not for slavery or self-denial. Innovation and creativity in society demands a steady relationship between useful work and productive idleness, without it life becomes dull.
Development provides abundance and leisure
Improved capacity of producing mass living means; easy availability of life means, on not so high prices, makes the distribution of comfort possible between high and low classes.
Higher rates of production can easily provide many hours of idleness
Despite high availability of living means, idleness is a distant dream
More development brought more emphasized notion of work; owners of business, factories and trade promoted the virtue of unending work.
The desirable activities are considered those that bring a material profit.
The beautiful balance of work and idleness in old civilizations
Prior to the development of industries and jobs in factories craftsmen did their work in proportion to their daily requirements, and the idle time was used as per their free will
Idleness is a product of the civilization and education of a society
Without leisure, a man is cut off from many of the best things of his personality and his environment.
World’s most valuable knowledge, theories, and literature, are a blessing of idleness.
Happiness is always driven from the moments of idleness
Laziness initiates high thinking process; Descartes said, ‘I lie in bed thinking, therefore, I am’. It alone makes us notice and learn and enable us to analyze process which we would otherwise know nothing about.
Doing nothing can save the world from miseries; when you are doing nothing, you are not harming anyone. Infirmity
Idleness should not be unbalanced; unbalanced idleness should be avoided to escape inefficiency
Conclusion
We should strive hard to get idleness, the most natural gift of our ancestors