Laziness and being inauthentically busy

by phil on Wednesday Aug 26, 2009 12:10 PM
"love of words" method

There are different species of laziness: Eastern and Western. The Eastern style is like the one practised in India. It consists of hanging out all day in the sun, doing nothing, avoiding any kind of work or useful activity, drinking cups of tea, listening to Hindi film music blaring on the radio, and gossiping with friends. Western laziness is quite different. It consists of cramming our lives with compulsive activity, so there is no time at all to confront the real issues. This form of laziness lies in our failure to choose worthwhile applications for our energy.

While I believe that a more accurate picture is that laziness looks the same everywhere, this quote struck me because I've been feeling very busy lately, largely to combat laziness, but perhaps I've given a lazy response to laziness.

(via Sarah)