On Leisure
By: Bertrand Russell
From: Basic Writings
Exercises: J. Geffen
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1.
If wars are eliminated and production is organized scientifically, it is probable
that four hours work a day will suffice to keep everybody in comfort. It will be an
open question whether to work that amount and enjoy leisure, or to work more and
enjoy luxuries; presumably some will choose one course, some the other. The hours of
leisure will, no doubt, be spent by most people in dancing, watching football, and
going to the movies. Children will be no anxiety, since the State will care for them;
illness will be very rare; old age will be postponed by rejuvenation till a short time
before death. It will be a hedonist’s paradise, in which almost everyone will find life
so tedious as to be scarcely endurable.
2.
In such a world, it is to be feared that destructive impulses would become
irresistible. Life in the past has been kept serious by danger, and interesting by being
serious. Without danger, if human nature remained unchanged, life would lose its
flavour, and men would resort to all kinds of decadent vices in the hope of a little
excitement.
3.
Is this dilemma inescapable? Are the more sombre aspects of life essential to
what is best in it? I do not think so. If human nature were unchangeable – as ignorant
people still suppose it to be – the situation would, indeed, be hopeless. But we now
know, thanks to psychologists and physiologists, that what passes as ‘human nature’
is at most one-tenth nature – the other nine-tenths being nurture. What is called human
nature can be almost completely changed by changes in early education. And these
changes could be such as to preserve sufficient seriousness in life without the spice of
danger, if thought and education were devoted to that end. Two things are necessary
for this purpose: the development of constructive impulses in the young, and
opportunities for their existence in adult life.
4.
Hitherto, defence and attack have provided most of what is serious in life. We
defend ourselves against poverty, our children against an indifferent world, our
country against national enemies; we attack, verbally or physically, those whom we
regard as hostile or dangerous. But there are other sources of emotions which are
capable of being quite as powerful. The emotions of aesthetic creation or scientific
discovery may be as intense and as absorbing as the most passionate love. And love
itself, though it may be grasping and oppressive, is also capable of being creative.
Given the right education, a very large percentage of Mankind could find happiness in
constructive activities, provided the right kind were available.
5.
And this brings us to our second requisite. There must be scope for constructive
initiative, not only for useful work ordered by a superior authority. There must be no
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barrier to intellectual or artistic creation, nor to human relations of a constructive kind,
nor to the suggestion of ways in which human nature might be improved. If all this is
the case, and education is of the right kind, there will still be room for serious and
strenuous living on the part of those who feel the need for it. In that case, but in that
case only, a community organized so as to eliminate the major evils of life as we
know it might be stable, because it would be satisfactory to its more energetic
members.
6.
This is, I must confess, the matter upon which I feel that our civilization is most
likely to go wrong. There is need of much organization – and, where there must be so
much, there is almost sure to be more than there ought to be. The harm that this will
do will be the diminution of opportunities for individual effort. Vast organizations
produce a sense of impotence in the individual, leading to a decay of effort. This
danger can be averted if it is realized by administrators – but it is of a kind which
most administrators are constitutionally incapable of realizing. Into every tidy scheme
for arranging the pattern of human life it is necessary to inject a certain dose of
anarchism – enough to prevent immobility leading to decay, but not enough to bring
about disruption. This is a delicate problem – not theoretically insoluble, but hardly
likely to be solved in the rough-and-tumble of practical affairs.
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EXERCISE I
Fill in the blank spaces in the passage that follows with the appropriate words. The
first and last letters of these words are given.
Economists have long claimed that our system of p_______________n is totally
irrational, and if it could be o_______________d in a more rational manner, so that
waste might be e_______________d, we could all live in c_______________t. They
further claim that given our level of technological know-how there is no reason why
we should not all enjoy l_______________e, or, if we insist on working harder, we
could easily enjoy l_______________s. It is of course doubtful whether the majority
of people will know how to enjoy this earthly “p_______________e”. A world free
from a_______________y and material cares might turn out to be
t_______________s enough to make life hardly tolerable. But on the other hand,
seeing that a few short hours of work will s_______________e to provide for our
material comforts, there might be some few people who will manage to make good
use of their spare time.
EXERCISE II
Fill in the blank spaces in the passage that follows with the appropriate words. The
first and last letters of these words are given.
Let us imagine for a moment a state in which the sorrows of advanced age have
been put off by r_______________n and we are allowed to enjoy our old age in
c_______________t. Isn’t it just possible that life might, under these circumstances,
become barely e_______________e? It is all very well to enjoy l___________e when
you have lived strenuously, and are looking forward to some rest and relaxation, but
to simply vegetate without a care in the world may in itself be far more
d_______________e than all the labour in the world. Anxiety and the need to
overcome difficulties have added f_______________r to a life that might otherwise
become unrewarding and futile. Man could very well cultivate v_______________s
not because of his natural wickedness, but simply because he might be looking for
some e_______________t. And once the need to struggle for survival is removed, we
might all become d_______________t. The pessimists amongst us would indeed
claim that moral degeneration is the inevitable concomitant of luxurious living.
EXERCISE III
Fill in the blank spaces in the passage that follows with the appropriate words. The
first and last letters of the words are given.
It seems to be our fate to be faced with an almost insoluble d______________a.
Hitherto, the s______________e elements of life have kept it serious and worthwhile.
The need to struggle against a h_______________e environment and threatening
p___________y, these are the factors that have kept our life serious. Will life become
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a farce if poverty is e_____________d? Is constant struggle the s_____________e
that keeps us vigorous? Is it really that i_______________t to claim that once the
o_______________s for strenuous living have been done away with, we are bound to
decay? There are of course those who claim that man will find an outlet for
c_______________e impulses in artistic work and a_______________s of the spirit.
But are we sure that the d_______________e ones will not prevail?
EXERCISE IV
A. Note the following words. B. Fill in the blank spaces in the passage that follows
with one of these words. Be sure to use each word only once.
1. nurture
2. suffice
3. eliminated
4. destructive
5. decadent
6. flavour
7. hedonists
8. intense
9. psychologists
10. nature
Among _______________ there are still sharp controversies as to how human
_______________ is in fact shaped. There are those who argue that most character
traits are inherited, whereas the other school claims that _______________ accounts
for what we consider to be human nature. This question is highly relevant nowadays
since the possibility has arisen that _______________ wars, and poverty, might be
_______________, and in consequence, our physical and psychological environment
might change beyond recognition. But the thoughtful amongst us are not sure whether
this prosperous new world will benefit anybody except the _______________. Will
the other human activities _______________ to keep us alert and vigorous, or shall
we all become _______________? Is artistic work capable of arousing feelings as
_______________ as those aroused by struggle? Will life retain its _______________
or shall we find our world tedious beyond endurance?
EXERCISE V
A. Note the following words. B. Fill in the blank spaces in the passage that follows
with one of these words. Be sure to use each word only once.
a. irresistible
d. scope
g. diminution
j. science(s)
b. rejuvenation
e. strenuously
h. decay
c. essentially
f. vices
i. Insoluble
The temptation to speculate about the possibility of death being put off by
_______________ is almost _______________. But is a long life
_______________more worthwhile than a short one? Shall we necessarily be wiser
and more virtuous, or shall we simply indulge in our _______________ longer than
we do at present? Will not material security narrow the _______________ of human
initiative? Those who insist on living _______________ will surely claim that given a
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life of plenty the _______________ of the human race is inevitable. Once the need to
struggle for achievement has been removed, the immediate result must be a
_______________ of constructive initiative. Much as we should like to believe that
the problem is not _______________, no answer to it seems to be forthcoming. Nor
has _______________, our new God, provided an answer so far.
EXERCISE VI
A. Note the expressions listed below. B. Fill in the blank spaces in the passage that
follows with one of these expressions. Be sure to use each expression only once.
a. keeping everybody in comfort
b. hedonist’s paradise
c. scarcely endurable
d. resort to decadent vices
e. the sombre aspects of life
f. capable of being creative
g. find happiness in constructive activities
h. superior authorities
i. serious and strenuous living
j. likely to go wrong
k. constitutionally incapable
l. theoretically insoluble
A good many psychologists will claim that it is _______________________
that have kept it serious and worthwhile. Illness, poverty, and the constant need to
struggle, those are the elements that have prevented degeneration. Hence, if we
achieve the possibility of _______________________, and consequently do away
with the need for _______________________, the human race is bound to decay. The
more active members of the community, those that are _______________________,
will find life so unchallenging as to be _______________________. The idle, or to
put it more charitably, the less active ones, may find this world
_______________________, but lacking the restraint of a hostile environment, even
they may _______________________ in their search for anything that might enliven
their tedious lives. Such a world is liable to be intolerable to those who are
_______________________ of living without an ever present challenge. Hence, it
appears that any planning by _______________________ aimed at solving this
dilemma, which is not necessarily _______________________, is in the long run
_______________________ precisely because the more active members of the
community, who usually _______________________, are not likely to find an outlet
for their creative energies.