It used to be about avoiding physical labor. The lazy person could nap or have a cup of tea while others got hot and sweaty and exhausted. Part of the reason society frowns on the lazy is that this behavior means more work for the rest of us.
When it came time to carry the canoe over the portage, I was always hard to find. The effort and the pain gave me two good reasons to be lazy.
But the new laziness has nothing to do with physical labor and everything to do with fear. If you're not going to make those sales calls or invent that innovation or push that insight, you're not avoiding it because you need physical rest. You're hiding out because you're afraid of expending emotional labor.
This is great news, because it's much easier to become brave about extending yourself than it is to become strong enough to haul an eighty pound canoe.
Phi Beta Iota: This point of view from Seth Godin appears to us to have special applicability to all those who receive a government salary and choose not to vote or agitate for reform. It's easy to “go along” with trying to do the wrong thing, just more of it. It is much, much harder and more painful to persist at suggesting that we do the right thing instead. If you cannot bring yourself to agitate for reform Of, By, and For We the People, at least be tolerant of those who do….they're the good guys, whether you want to admit it or not.
