Pat's recent thread "Keep up with me you slackers!" led me to (in my slack time) find the following...
The Slacker Defense
To other people, it may appear that slackers do not do very much actual work, schoolwork, or much of anything. However, individuals considered to be slackers may in fact be very active, though not always in activities that society deems to be most important (such as writing in Wikipedia or on the C-brat site (PAT!) instead of getting a "real" job).
Hard work for its own sake is a fairly modern phenomenon, becoming culturally acceptable during the Protestant Reformation. A positive view on work was not a cultural norm for Hebrew, classical, or medieval cultures. Greek society recognized that work was necessary for the satisfaction of material needs, but philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle made it clear that the purpose for which the majority of men labored was "in order that the minority, the élite, might engage in pure exercises of the mind--art, philosophy, and politics". The Greeks believed that a person's prudence, morality, and wisdom was directly proportional to the amount of leisure time that person had.
Contrary to what some may believe, in some philosophies laziness is a virtue (especially constructive laziness). To paraphrase Sun Tzu, "When the superior man refrains from acting, his force is felt for a thousand li (576km / 357.9mi)."
So when I'm not posting, I'm just being virtuous. :wink:
See this link for the full wikipedia text on slackers...
The Slacker Defense
To other people, it may appear that slackers do not do very much actual work, schoolwork, or much of anything. However, individuals considered to be slackers may in fact be very active, though not always in activities that society deems to be most important (such as writing in Wikipedia or on the C-brat site (PAT!) instead of getting a "real" job).
Hard work for its own sake is a fairly modern phenomenon, becoming culturally acceptable during the Protestant Reformation. A positive view on work was not a cultural norm for Hebrew, classical, or medieval cultures. Greek society recognized that work was necessary for the satisfaction of material needs, but philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle made it clear that the purpose for which the majority of men labored was "in order that the minority, the élite, might engage in pure exercises of the mind--art, philosophy, and politics". The Greeks believed that a person's prudence, morality, and wisdom was directly proportional to the amount of leisure time that person had.
Contrary to what some may believe, in some philosophies laziness is a virtue (especially constructive laziness). To paraphrase Sun Tzu, "When the superior man refrains from acting, his force is felt for a thousand li (576km / 357.9mi)."
So when I'm not posting, I'm just being virtuous. :wink:
See this link for the full wikipedia text on slackers...
:roll: