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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