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I've always wondered where the notions of procrastination and laziness came from. No one actively compromises their survivability through either. To me it seem

I've always wondered where the notions of procrastination and laziness came from. No one actively compromises their survivability through either. To me it seems like the notion came from our history of servitude. Of course a Lord is going to pressure his peasants to work harder. So of course the head of a hide is going to be pressuring his nephews to get working. Laziness and procrastination only become negative in the concept that we have to work 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. I'm sure the generation before Henry Ford reduced work hours to 8 hour days and work weeks to 5 days thought their kids were lazy. Who wouldn't when you're working 12 hour days 6 days a week! My son might be of the generation working 4 hour days 4 days a week. He might be of the generation where mandatory work is a thing of the past.

visakanv 12y ago
Your perspective is completely consistent with my experience. For most of human history, we probably hunted animals in short bursts of activity then sat around "procrastinating". Laziness as a term is almost a subtle act of violence, useful for policing the behavior of others. The idea that we should spend most of our time actively working on things or working towards things is kind of odd when you examine it closer.
vidarh 12y ago
> I'm sure the generation before Henry Ford reduced work hours to 8 hour days and work weeks to 5 days thought their kids were lazy. I doubt it... At the very least you need to go much further back than Ford. While Ford was one of the earlier industrialists to willingly accept and embrace the 8 hour day, it was by no means his doing. AFL and other unions had been fighting for working hours reductions for decades by then - with loss of life on more than once occasion - , and gradually started getting concessions. The first widespread demands for an 8 hour day in the US happened 30 years or so before Ford was even born. The first attempt at introducing 8 hour working day for federal employees passed in 1868, when Ford was 5. New York got partial 8 hour working days (for certain traides) from 1872. In 1889, the Second International agreed with the AFL to make May 1st 1890 a day for demonstrations in commemoration of the Haymarket massacre, and in support of the 8 hour working day. And so, the US unions fight for the 8 hour working day is actually directly responsible for May 1st as the international day for labour demonstrations. It wasn't until 1914 that Ford cut working hours from 9 to 8, at a point when millions of workers in other industries had already achieved it. At that point, 8 hour working day had been a labour demand for 2-3 generations already.

visakanv 12y ago

Your perspective is completely consistent with my experience. For most of human history, we probably hunted animals in short bursts of activity then sat around "procrastinating". Laziness as a term is almost a subtle act of violence, useful for policing the behavior of others. The idea that we should spend most of our time actively working on things or working towards things is kind of odd when you examine it closer.

vidarh 12y ago

> I'm sure the generation before Henry Ford reduced work hours to 8 hour days and work weeks to 5 days thought their kids were lazy. I doubt it... At the very least you need to go much further back than Ford. While Ford was one of the earlier industrialists to willingly accept and embrace the 8 hour day, it was by no means his doing. AFL and other unions had been fighting for working hours reductions for decades by then - with loss of life on more than once occasion - , and gradually started getting concessions. The first widespread demands for an 8 hour day in the US happened 30 years or so before Ford was even born. The first attempt at introducing 8 hour working day for federal employees passed in 1868, when Ford was 5. New York got partial 8 hour working days (for certain traides) from 1872. In 1889, the Second International agreed with the AFL to make May 1st 1890 a day for demonstrations in commemoration of the Haymarket massacre, and in support of the 8 hour working day. And so, the US unions fight for the 8 hour working day is actually directly responsible for May 1st as the international day for labour demonstrations. It wasn't until 1914 that Ford cut working hours from 9 to 8, at a point when millions of workers in other industries had already achieved it. At that point, 8 hour working day had been a labour demand for 2-3 generations already.