Can idleness be a good thing? By Arjun Gala

Can idleness be a good thing?

By Arjun Gala (L6H2)

Today in Western civilisation, most people’s lives are centred around efficiency and productivity. The end goal is to further our standard of living and commit ourselves to years of work for leisure that seems to be too far in the future to truly enjoy. This leisure often comes in retirement and with the average UK age for this being roughly 64, our society does not allow us to sufficiently enjoy the fruits of our labour. We may be able to take trips abroad or enjoy a weekend away but the main focus of our lives when we are at our peak functioning capacity is work. We are taught from a young age that good grades will take us to a prestigious university and the degree we work for will provide us the chance for employment. This path is our main option should we want a life of leisure in the future.

When thought out like this, it can seem that our society holds the wrong values. Perhaps, therefore, this notion of idleness is a positive direction to move towards. Idleness in this essay will be defined as individuals being given time to embark on journeys not with the purpose of finding what is practical in today’s society, but of simply finding what they enjoy and find of interest. We will also ignore the economic issues with idleness and focus solely on whether it is a concept that will better the lives of humanity.

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The importance of idleness can be first seen through the idea of Existentialism. Sartre found that humans should have an existence before an essence. We understand from this that personality is not built over a previously designed model or with a precise purpose; rather, it is the human being who chooses to sculpt his or her character. However, today’s society prevents this as we see its ideals being instilled into individuals from an early age. This is seen as we often find that it is our occupation that defines us best. Most people can be characterised by their profession as it is what dominates the majority of their lives. We see therefore that the labour market has a significant influence on our lives, and it can be argued that this undue influence in fact changes our beliefs and preferences. Efficiency and productivity are what our lives become centred around as we enter the labour market, and not only is this creating a market society, but it is also removing Sartre’s notion of existence before essence.

Whilst society has not, and will not, become a uniform string of workers that have no sense of individual character, the idea of a capitalist society revolving around furthering one’s standard of living does in fact standardise several aspects of our lives, and this should be thought of as dangerous. It is a greater sense of idleness that resolves this issue as we discover more about our real interests and make rational decisions based not on the economic value of it but on the personal benefit it can bring. A market society that holds people making only economic decisions will continually lose its virtue as

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individuals continually make decisions based on the economic prosperity it can bring, rather perhaps, than on the good it can do. Our society will, in the more dire scenario, become a drastically less virtuous one without an increased sense of idleness to allow ourselves to understand our desires and the societal desires that are most ethical.

Furthermore, it should be argued that an enhanced sense of idleness can also heighten our ability to think critically as a society. Kant argued in his essay “What is Enlightenment?” that we are only enlightened when we are able to use our understanding without the guidance of another. We can find some value in this for today’s society as many are now able to access several opinions, figures, or articles within minutes through a quick Google search. This is perhaps what is most limiting in our society. The need for individual thought has diminished and those who are truly enlightened to the workings of our society are few and far. Kant would likely have been distraught at the state of current Western culture due to this. We should therefore urge for a greater access to idleness in our systems, not only to create a more virtuous society, but also to create a more thought provoked one.

Reducing the influence of work in one’s life is not unheard of. Denmark is a good example of this as they give students less homework and shorter schooling hours from a younger age. They also have an average of 33–

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37-hour work weeks, in comparison to the 44 hour average American work week, and a $20 minimum wage. The evidence for why this works is that Denmark is ranked as one of the happiest countries in the world. Idleness is built into their society, and it holds considerable importance. Whilst they may not be one of the wealthiest countries in the world, they have one the lowest poverty levels, and this should perhaps be stressed more than overall wealth.

If life is about finding happiness and fulfilment, we are clearly putting too much importance on work and the labour market. Idleness by definition can bring us a further sense of individual thought as we spend more time learning about not only what we find interesting but also about what is important to society through a philosophical lens. The enlightenment period caused revolution and the liberalisation of society in the 18th century, but we perhaps need a second wave in order to realise what should drive our society.

From this, we can understand the benefits and perhaps need of idleness in our society. However, it should be noted that lives being characterised or defined by an occupation can be seen as a positive outcome for a society. One could argue that many would find themselves down a nihilist route with a greater access to idleness. The meaning of life may be questioned with the requirement of us finding employment and prosperity losing significance and its critical role in society. We must

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therefore go about this concept with caution and perhaps see its virtue in simply instilling values in lives from an early age. Giving people the importance and benefits of idleness at an earlier stage in life can perhaps create a society which naturally accepts it, bringing us into a more virtuous and enlightened age.

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