The right to be lazy, and other studiesLafargue, Paul
Philosophy
The right to be lazy, and other studies
Lafargue, Paul
Hours of labor; Social problems; Socialism; Working class
Capitalist production, which has overthrown the old conditions of life
and of work, has elaborated new forms, which already can be discerned
without supernatural vision, but which to the intellectuals remain
sealed under seven seals. One of the leading lights of intellectualism,
M. Durkheim, in his book, "The Division of Labor," which made some
noise in university circles, can not conceive of society except on
the social pattern of ancient Egypt, each laborer remaining, his life
through, penned up in one single trade. However, unless one is so
unfortunate as to be affected by the hopeless near-sightedness of the
Ecole Normale, one can not help seeing that the machine is suppressing
trades, one after the other, in a way to let only one survive, that
of the machinist, and that when it has finished its revolutionary
work which the socialists will complete by revolutionizing capitalist
society, the producer of the communist society will plow and sow with
the machine today, will spin, will turn wood or polish steel to-morrow,
and will exercise in turn all the trades to the greater profit of his
health and his intelligence.
The industrial applications of mechanics, chemistry and physics,
which, monopolized by capital, oppress the worker, will, when they
shall be common property, emancipate man from toil and give him leisure
and liberty.
Mechanical production, which under capitalist direction can only buffet
the worker back and forth from periods of over-work to periods of
enforced idleness, will when developed and regulated by a communist
administration, require from the producer, to provide for the normal
needs of society, only a maximum day of two or three hours in the
workshop, and when this time of necessary social labor is fulfilled he
will be able to enjoy freely the physical and intellectual pleasures of
life.
The artist then will paint, will sing, will dance, the writer will
write, the musician will compose operas, the philosopher will build
systems, the chemist will analyze substances not to gain money, to
receive a salary, but to deserve applause, to win laurel wreaths, like
the conquerors at the Olympic games, but to satisfy their artistic and
scientific passion; for one does not drink a glass of champagne or kiss
the woman he loves for the benefit of the gallery. The artist and the
scientist may then repeat the enthusiastic words of Kepler, that hero
of science: "The elector of Saxony with all his wealth can not equal
the pleasure I have felt in composing the Mysterium Cosmographicum."
Will not the intellectuals end by hearing the voice of the socialist
calling them to the rescue, to emancipate science and art from the
capitalist yoke, to liberate thought from the slavery of commercialism?
FOOTNOTES:
[31] Ever since the French Revolution the law has required the words
"Liberté. Egalité. Fraternité." to be placed over the door of every
public building in France.—Translator.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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