On Bob Cratchet, Laziness, Facebook, and Pit Bulls In a Ring
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An insurance company I used to work for was very late in adopting mechanical calculators when they first came out. It would surely make the clerks lazy.
You run across the meme in one form or another, if you read social history. Serfs, the unemployed, the recipients of charity or government aid, the lame and the blind and the poor are lazy. The employee you exploit unfairly is lazy, the addict, the drunk, the mentally ill, the sick and injured. Easier to call them lazy than provide help.
Poor old Bob Cratchet was lazy for wanting Christmas off from work and the straw man ( or woman) of the lazy welfare recipient is so ingrained in conservative thought that Americans hardly questioned the Great Communicator when he made up his own lazy Welfare Queen.
It’s a way of assuaging conscience for those who have one. It’s a way of forgiving oneself for failures. It was once a way of showing that black people in the American south needed to be enslaved – because they wouldn’t be able to take care of themselves, being lazy and stupid. Had to be whipped because they were lazy. Had to be whipped so that the industrious boss with his work effort didn’t have to pay them.
Related: Dies Irae: Day of Wrath
We’re all liberals and people of conscience, so we all despise slavery and exploitation and so our objectives really put us above question, at least in our own minds. When we catch Mr. Trump calling Hispanic American storm victims lazy, he insinuates that Texans and Floridians are not and are worthy of help and we demonstrate our fury – in words anyway. Words don’t require much work after all, not like voting, but I digress.
Like so many other liberals I go on the blogs and social media and I let everyone know how angry I am and how bad are those who see things differently. Imagine how offended I am and how you might also be if because you mentioned that calling someone lazy for your own financial gain was not the exclusive habit of ante-bellum plantation owners, but a habit of unscrupulous exploiters since the beginning of time, you are declared, in rather irate terms, to be a racist. I’m already white so I must be, I have information and ideas that differ from the official talking points, so I must be and by the power vested in the righteous by Facebook I am condemned. For pointing out the hypocrisy, I am condemned.
Look at where this long struggle has landed us, like pit bulls in the ring while injustice runs rampant.
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I must say your titles compliment your text quite nicely. Kudos.
I actually “do” Facebook albeit under a pseudonym. That way I can be someone else. Fact is were I myself my own survival would be threatened.
I don’t do Facebook. Tried and found it too stressful.
It’s all about labeling. The word “lazy” as a less than fond appellation, is part of the culture and is often used frivolously. For example I would, upon occasion, accuse my son of being lazy because he failed to take out the trash. There was no malice, only a “throw-away” expression of a particular behavior or lack of it in this case.
Bloody hell! Brilliant bit of work. Just brilliant. I know exactly what you mean by that. It’s in the colour of the skin sometimes you know. Black man decides to stretch, and he’s lazy. White man stretches and he’s tired. What a world eh?
What an extraordinary picture of Bob C. and Tiny Tim. Where in the world did you find that one? Also, as to FB, I hate the fucking place. Spent a couple of months there right during the whole election and just couldn’t take that fucking silent screaming. WTF? Who has time for that shit? Why wwould anyone want to put up with that? Not me certainly, although I know Mike hangs out there. That surprises me too. Good article Mr Geist.
Thanks, but if you want to talk about lazy, let me introduce my dog Roscoe. Of course he’s no lazier than I would be if I could get away with sleeping 20 hours a day.
But I ask myself who benefits by inducing people to work harder? Perhaps that “work ethic” we hear about is partly an invented virtue that benefits employers and not the workers? Just sayin’
Oh no doubt invented. Yawning can be interpreted as laziness, as can stretching. It’s all nuts ya know! All bloody nuts.
You know Glenn you are absolutely right. Laziness is the “excuse” given for almost every human and even animal failing. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that expression: he/she is just lazy; My dog is just lazy; my lazy cat does nothing; and etc. etc. etc. Odd I never really thought about it until I read this great post.