Having spent hours on the road this afternoon schlepping back to Gotham from Cape Cod’s outer extremity, and facing the prospect of a long and early day of toil tomorrow, I’m feeling much too lazy to write anything this evening.
Fortunately, Bill Vallicella has posted up a link I can steal, and it’s just the thing: Bertrand Russell’s In Praise of Idleness — a wry meditation, very much “of its time”, from the apex of the Progressive era. I’d never read it before. Can’t imagine why.
Here’s something else, too: a curious hypothesis about our obesity epidemic, courtesy of Dennis Mangan.
4 Comments
Bertrand Russell was an evil, albeit a clever communist. Praise him or damn him; either way, you can’t go wrong.
“Evil” seems a bit too strong to me, Henry; the 20th century taught a great many lessons about collectivism that hadn’t yet been learned in 1932, when this item was written — and Russell saw earlier than most Progressives the wickedness at the heart of the Soviet regime.
He took many political positions with which I disagree, but I think that he based them on what he imagined to be virtuous principles (though one could say that about most people, I suppose).
Well, yes, evil is a bit strong. Who knows what lurks in the hearts of men, beyond a shadow of a doubt?
That essay reminded me of how naive Russell was concerning Russia. I don’t want to quote too much here, but read the paragraph that starts with: “The victory of the proletariat in Russia …” Incredible!