Seven Deadly Virtues
(Page 2 of 4)
September/October 1996
Tom Hodgkinson, Utne Reader
IDLER'S VIRTUE: LAXITY
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Blaise Pascal, the great 17th century French writer, was of the opinion that the only reason people ever do anything is to avoid thinking--and thus avoid facing up to the human condition, which is characterized by 'inconstancy, boredom, anxiety.' Lying around in a state of inertia and letting the world take its course is, therefore, usually a far more appropriate response to the pressures of the world than--God forbid--trying to do something about it. For many artists and writers, the creative act is a way of avoiding getting out of bed in the morning or, worse, holding down a job. The great idler Samuel Johnson, for instance, rarely rose before midday, and Mark Twain did most of his best writing in bed.
2. SO-CALLED VIRTUE: SILENCE
'Silence is golden,' goes the old saying. Personally, I've never understood what that meant. But I do know that people who sit quietly in the corner are unlikely to get what they want. Encouraging children to be silent is to deny them their true nature. How many times have you read that a convicted serial killer was 'such a quiet boy'?
IDLER'S VIRTUE: GOOD CHEER
When they're not sleeping, idlers love to shout, sing, laugh heartily, and raise hell. They would rather crank up the Bad Brains than sit around the family dinner table listening to cutlery chinking against crockery. Noise is communal and joyful, a release from everyday struggle. Anti-noise measures are another form of government control, as we in England discovered recently when the authorities cracked down on rave culture.
3. SO-CALLED VIRTUE: ORDER
The abominable lust for order serves only to make the majority of the human race--which has no such obsession--feel guilty. The orderly type in the office is always organizing meetings but never comes up with any new ideas. Her desk is an acre of white space, her files pristine shrines. We need to have these sorts around, I guess, but do you really want to be one of them? And here's the most maddening part: Even though they've failed to make the world any more rational, they're so well organized that they can maneuver themselves into positions of power, from which they can order the rest of us around.
IDLER'S VIRTUE: CHAOS
Science has recently demonstrated that the fundamental organizing principle of the universe is chaos. This is not news to the idling set. We have always recognized that embracing chaos is the best route to a fulfilling life. A cluttered desk is the sign of a truly liberated mind.