Summary
Workaholism has also had its discontents. "Industry and utility are the angels of death who, with fiery swords, prevent man's return to Paradise," wrote the German Romantic ironist Friedrich Schlegel. He condemned the predominant lifestyle of his time (circa 1800) as one of "empty, restless striving," which he dismissed as "a Nordic bad habit."
In 1883, [Marx]'s son-in-law, the French labor activist Paul Lafargue, published a pamphlet called "The Right to Be Lazy." He quoted the Greeks and Jesus on the virtues of idleness and declared that Jehovah himself toiled six days, then lay on the couch watching football for the rest of time. He indicted the capitalist as a slave driver, but was equally distressed by what he saw as the worker's masochistic lust for labor, even when technology might have eased his lot. "The blind, perverse and murderous passion for work transforms the liberating machine into an instrument for the enslavement of free men," he wrote. And this was before email.The Take Backers may be Utopians, but they are also realists. So, alas, they are selling vacations as good for families, health and even corporate productivity. "This is not about slacking, not about being lazy," campaign spokesman Joe Robinson made clear. "Vacations ate as important to your health as checking your cholesterol or getting exercise." Gee, maybe I should schedule a colonoscopy while I'm away from my desk.See the full content of this document
Extract
The Right to Be Lazy
As you read this, I am on vacation. That's not something many can say in this country. Only 14 percent of American workers get a paid vacation of two weeks or more. One in three women (including me) and one in four men get no paid'time at all. By contrast, every European country guarantees four or five weeks off, and even the famously industrious Japanese get a ...
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