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jazzy_daveBertrand Russel "In Praise of Idleness" (Routledge)
A collection of essays written between around 1928 and 1932. Title essay is all about how a 4 hour working day for all is the path to a better society. Other ports of call include a praise of "useless" knowledge (exemplified by the etymology of "apricot"); bettering architecture for social purposes; fascism (cross) vs. communism (cross) vs. socialism (tick); the historical cause of cynicism in the educated English speaking youth and irrelevance/ill-definition of the "soul".
Although I agree with pretty much each and every argument in all the essays and love the polemic styling, I struggle with the cocksure armchair philosophizing. Posturing about how people "should" conduct their home life and how educators "should" deal with adolescents tend to come off as stinky academic arrogance. Although, having said that, this stuff was written 70+ years ago and all of it is relevant relevant relevant spot on spot on spot on for the beginning of the 21st century.
An interesting selection of articles and a short read as well.
A collection of essays written between around 1928 and 1932. Title essay is all about how a 4 hour working day for all is the path to a better society. Other ports of call include a praise of "useless" knowledge (exemplified by the etymology of "apricot"); bettering architecture for social purposes; fascism (cross) vs. communism (cross) vs. socialism (tick); the historical cause of cynicism in the educated English speaking youth and irrelevance/ill-definition of the "soul".
Although I agree with pretty much each and every argument in all the essays and love the polemic styling, I struggle with the cocksure armchair philosophizing. Posturing about how people "should" conduct their home life and how educators "should" deal with adolescents tend to come off as stinky academic arrogance. Although, having said that, this stuff was written 70+ years ago and all of it is relevant relevant relevant spot on spot on spot on for the beginning of the 21st century.
An interesting selection of articles and a short read as well.
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