Resembling most of my age group, I was brought up on the proverb: ‘Satan finds some mischief for idle hands to do.’ As a highly righteous child, I assumed all that I was told, and developed a ethics which has kept me functioning hard down to the current moment. But although my ethics has organized my actions, my attitudes have experienced a rebellion. I consider that there is distant too much work done in the world, that huge damage is produced by the confidence that work is righteous, and that what needs to be addressed in modern developed states is quite dissimilar from what always has been addressed. Everybody knows the story of the tourist in Naples who saw twelve vagabonds deceitful in the sun and presented a lira to the idlest of them. Eleven of them hopped up to claim it, so he provided it to the twelfth. This tourist was on the accurate lines. But in states which do not relish Mediterranean daylight indolence is more problematic, and a great public propaganda will be obligatory to invest it.
“All serious innovation is only rendered possible by some accident
enabling unpopular persons to survive.”
Above all, there will be pleasure and delight of life, instead of worn worries, exhaustion, and indigestion. The work demanded will be sufficient to make relaxation pleasant, but not sufficient to yield fatigue. Meanwhile men will not be tired in their extra time, they will not request only such wharfs as are sedentary and tame. At least one percent will perhaps offer the time not spent in specialized work to quests of some public position, and, since they will not be contingent upon these pursuits for their living, their novelty will be unobstructed, and there will be no need to reproduce to the values set by developed specialists.
“A prominent citizen in a small city State, such as Athens or Florence, could without difficulty feel himself important. The earth was the center of the Universe, man was the purpose of creation, his own city showed man at his best, and he himself was among the best of his own city. In such circumstances Æschylus or Dante could take his own joys or sorrows seriously. He could feel that the emotions of the individual matter, and that tragic occurrences deserve to be celebrated in immortal verse. But the modern man, when misfortune assails him, is conscious of himself as a unit in a statistical total; the past and the future stretch before him in a dreary procession of trivial defeats. Man himself appears as a somewhat ridiculous strutting animal, shouting and fussing during a brief interlude between infinite silences.”
But it is not only in these special cases that the compensations of freedom will appear. Average men and women, having the chance of a happy life, will become more kindly and less hounding and less motivated to view others with misgiving. The perception for war will expire out, partially for this reason, and partially because it will contain long and severe work for all. Good environment is, of all ethical potentials, the one that the world requirements most, and good nature is the result of comfort and safety, not of a life of laborious fight. Current methods of creation have given us the prospect of ease and safety for all; we have selected, instead, to have overburden for some and hunger for others. Previously we have sustained to be as energetic as we were before there were machineries; in this we have been silly, but there is no reason to go on being silly persistently.
“Modern methods of production have given us the possibility of ease and security for all; we have chosen, instead, to have overwork for some and starvation for the others. Hitherto we have continued to be as energetic as we were before there were machines; in this we have been foolish, but there is no reason to go on being foolish for ever.”
In an operative and appropriate civilization machinery would be a means of decreasing the quantity of period any and all individuals have to work without decreasing their superiority of life and salary. There is unquestionably nonentity incorrect with having more spare time to spend with family and friends and enjoying life with fulfilling hobbies like gardening and writing something.
“The modern man thinks that everything ought to be done for the sake of something else, and never for its own sake.”
The idea of responsibility there has been a resources used by the power holders to persuade others to live for the welfares of their controllers rather than for themselves. Of course the power holders hide this information from themselves by handling to believe that their benefits are equal with the superior benefits of humankind. Occasionally this is factual for example, working part of their relaxation in creating an enduring influence to cultivation which would have been incredible underneath a just financial classification. Leisureliness is vital to people, and in previous times freedom for the few was only condensed likely by the efforts of the numerous. But their efforts were valued, not because work is upright, but since relaxation is good. And with contemporary method it would be likely to allocate relaxation justly without damage to cultivation.
“If, at the end of the war, the scientific organization, which had been created in order to liberate men for fighting and munition work, had been preserved, and the hours of work had been cut down to four, all would have been well. Instead of that the old chaos was restored, those whose work was demanded were made to work long hours, and the rest were left to starve as unemployed. Why? Because work is a duty, and a man should not receive wages in proportion to what he has produced, but in proportion to his virtue as exemplified by his industry.”