Process
Status Items Output None Questions None Claims None Highlights Done See section below
Highlights
id530435119
What many people consider to be a “lazy disposition” might be better explained as paralyzing fear and lack of self-confidence in one’s ability to accomplish a task, a need for nurture or relaxation, passive rebellion against a task or a person, or even outright depression preventing people from doing something as simple as getting out of bed.
id530448908
John Locke—a philosopher venerated in American history because of his influence on the founding fathers’ conception of property—was one of the earliest white people to accuse non-white people of “laziness.” He argued that Native Americans were not entitled to lands they had been living in for centuries because they didn’t “labor in” or “improve it,” which was related to his central thesis that agriculturalists who mix their labor with the soil are entitled to it (conveniently the kind of “labor” that European settler colonists practiced
id530448951
Perhaps Locke was a disinterested intellectual grappling with serious thoughts about freedom and property. Or perhaps he was a self-serving and hypocritical advocate for expropriating Native lands because he had significant investments in the English slave trade through the Royal African Company and the Bahama Adventureres Company, and was intimately involved with American colonialism. He even assisting in drafting the Fundamental Constitutions of Carolina, a document which stipulated “Every freeman of Carolina shall have absolute power and authority over his negro slaves.” Much of his work served as convenient justifications for the rich to remain rich, no matter how little they actually worked.
id530449389
The widespread belief that the rich are rich because they work hard, and that the poor are poor because they are lazy and refuse to “pull themselves up by their own bootstraps,” are, like the concepts of meritocracy and the “unworthy” or “undeserving” poor, very old ideas, conveniently resurrected whenever necessary to justify suffering.
id530449468
Instead of questioning why we lack adequate public transportation or paid medical leave, we are left with poor-shaming anecdotes that should “motivate” us all to work harder.
id530449648
Aside from the absurdity of knowing that the phrase “pulling oneself up by one’s bootstraps” was originally intended to prove the absurdity of succeeding without outside help (because the very act is literally impossible to perform
✏️ The sheer power of capitalist propaganda.. To take something like this phrase and pervert it from meaning capitalism is bad towards capitalism is good. Same thing with the monopoly board game 🔗 View Highlight
id530450657
they are not rich because they work hard. They’re rich because a capitalist society heavily rewards those who have a lot of investments. Capitalists are quite literally people who receive money from owning a lot of investments, rather than working for every dollar like everyone else.
id530452959
There are men who, through ownership of land, are able to make others pay for the privilege of being allowed to exist and to work. These landowners are idle, and I might therefore be expected to praise them. Unfortunately, their idleness is only rendered possible by the industry of others; indeed their desire for comfortable idleness is historically the source of the whole gospel of work. The last thing they have ever wished is that others should follow their example.