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Laziness Isn’t An Allergy to Effort — It’s a Sign of a Pretty Good Life
Why sloth isn’t the “gateway sin” anymore
The fear of laziness is rooted deeply in the Western culture.
Dante imagined hell as a place where people are forced to do the work they were too lazy to do in their lifetimes. Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe is a castaway who turns a deserted island into a habitable place thanks to his sheer determination and work ethic. Any tech-billionaire news profile is quick to remind us how these billionaires worked 16-hour days before anyone bothered to write profiles on them.
‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread’ (Genesis 3.19). Hard work is a crucial element of the punishment meted out by God for humankind’s disobedience. Cast out from the presence of God, Adam and Eve and their descendants are obliged to toil in order to feed themselves. (Source)
What we fail to understand is that laziness was a mortal sin for most of human history. Before we started producing more goods we can consume, most people had to work their butts off just to survive the winter. “You reap what you sow” was a survival…
