Embracing leisure

“I think that there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what always has been preached.”

There’s a lot packed into that sentence, which is as relevant today as when it was written 86 years ago. It comes from Bertrand Russell’s 1932 essay, In Praise of Idleness (see page 100). In it he urged us to realise we have been duped into working more than we have to. Rather, we should work no more than four hours a day, and spend the rest of our time embracing leisure and “idleness”.

But first things first: is there really too much work done in the world? Given what we hear from