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Sample Essay On "In Praise of Idleness" (For My Students)

According to a popular saying, “idle hands do the devil’s work.” What does this saying mean, and does the author of “In Praise of Ideleness” agree with this saying? Summarize and evaluate his argument.

The saying, “idle hands do the devil’s work,” means that if you aren’t doing any work (have “idle hands”), you are actually “working” for the devil. In other words, if you don’t have any work to do, you will spend your time doing bad things. The idea behind the saying is that work is good, and good people are always working. Russell does not agree with this saying. In his essay, “In Praise of Idleness,” he first defines work and then explains why, according to his definition, work is not a good thing. Finally, he imagines how the world might be better if there were less work. In this essay, I will explain what he thinks about work, and then I will give my opinion.
         According to Russell, work is basically moving things from one place to another. For example, building a house would be work, because to build a house, we have to move bricks, wood, and so on. In comparison, studying would not be as much work, because we only have to turn the pages of a book or move a pen on a piece of paper. Based on this definition, we can see why there is nothing good about work. We don’t like to move things unless we need to. We might build a house because we need somewhere to live – but there’s no reason to build a house if we don’t need somewhere to live. Moving things when you do not need to just makes you tired and annoyed.
         Russell believes that as technology becomes more and more advanced, we need to do less and less work. In the past, before we had machines, we had to do work very hard in order to get what we need to live. Today, machines have made our lives much easier – we can get most of the things we need without working very hard. This should have made us happier. However, because of our economy, we still need to work to make money. As new machines are invented, many of us lose our jobs. In the end, some of us still have to work just as hard, while others have no job or money.
Russell thinks we should find a better way. He says that if everyone worked four hours a day, we would be able to produce all the things we need. But we would also have more free time. More free time and less work means we would have more time and energy for our hobbies. This would make everyone happier.
I agree with Russell. We would be happier if we worked less. But I don’t think it will be easy to make this happen. Because of our economy and our society, we will always need to work to make money. Also, if we did not work hard every day, we might become lazy. During summer break, I have no job, but I do not paint or write or dance. Instead, I just spend all day on my computer. Sometimes, I find I work hardest when I’m busiest: it is because I have so little free time that I value my free time so much.

In conclusion, Russell’s idea is interesting, but I do not think it is realistic.

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