In Praise of Idleness

"To have time was at once the most magnificent and the most dangerous of experiments. Idleness is fatal only to the mediocre." -- Albert Camus, A Happy Death

In truth, the quote above has been cheaply lifted from wikiquote. I've never read A Happy Death, nor have I read Bertrand Russell's essay from which I stole the title of the present topic. However, the notion of idleness is one that has become increasingly meaningful in the hustle and bustle of the present 'Western world' ruled by corporate imperialism and the prospect of get-rich-quick schemes.

Firstly, one should make sure to make a distinction between 'idleness' and 'laziness', although contemporary definitions have often blended the two. For example, if I allow my car to idle, I have not shut it off, nor have I made it in any way lazy; I have merely put it in a state of temporary stasis, neither entirely dormant, nor entirely active.

My interpretation of the above quote (and, since I have already admitted that I do not know the context in which it is written), is simply to say that there are those that treat idleness as a from of evasiveness or procrastination, while others treat idleness as a means to gather ones forces for a final onslaught.

Although the depiction of the battle of Stirling in Braveheart is entirely fictitious (it is usually referred to as the Battle of Stirling Bridge, because rather than being an open plain, there existed a bridge which was of tactical importance to the Scots in their victory), one could refer to the Scots as being 'idle' in the manner in which they wait for the English attack, but one could hardly accuse them of begin 'lazy'. It is the same, for example, with Fanon's depiction of the black man in The Wretched of the Earth, with muscles constantly tensed for an attack against the enemy, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually an attack will be inevitable.

And so, it seems that the problem with the 'mediocre' is that they submerge themselves in idleness in order to shirk from or avoid their duties. On the other hand, those that have a more 'advanced' idea of the tactical advantage of remaining idle for a period of time only to use the power reserved by this idleness to explode into vigorous action at a later date, are able to exploit 'idleness' as an opportunity.

In other words, it is the difference between how one approaches one's situation: i.e. it is the difference between 'we must avoid' and 'we must prepare'.