The Myth of Laziness in Modern Society

Devon Price, Ph.D., Laziness Does Not Exist

Dr. Devon Price believes we’ve all willingly swallowed “The Laziness Lie,” a narrative that ties human worth to productivity, self-sacrifice, and beauty. If we aren’t constantly economically productive, giving of ourselves for others, and pretty, we’re disparaged as lazy. This matters because “laziness” is an entirely personal fault, and if we aren’t following somebody else’s arbitrary yardstick, that exonerates the system and makes us individually bad people.

In brief, the behaviors we disdain as laziness in others, and in ourselves, serve solid purposes. When we’re fatigued, bored, and alienated from the fruits of our labors, we mentally check out from work. When loved ones impinge upon our limited mental energy with their demands, we become resistant and resentful of our relationships. When we’re disabled and literally can’t do any more, despite society’s demands to “push through,” we ultimately collapse.

Price therefore asserts that what we malign as laziness, is often our bodies or brains indicating that we’ve pushed too far. Fatigue or mental resistance are how our physical selves broadcast that they’ve been overextended. But our culture and economic structure demand we ignore our feelings as “irrational” and continue overworking ourselves. Our unelected leaders present fatigue, sleep deprivation, and pain as indicators of great moral virtue.

“Laziness” has a relatively recent origin. The word isn’t even attested in English, Dr. Price writes, until the middle fifteenth century—not coincidentally, about the time Western Europeans began keeping chattel slaves. Though global civilizations have always loathed idleness (in various ways), slave-owning economics necessitated inventing the “work ethic,” a codified way of blaming workers for needing rest, even when somebody else owns the fruits of their labors.

Price traces the development of “laziness,” as a moral pejorative, through industrialization, into modern technological society. Under capitalism, basic human needs like housing, food, and sleep, become rewards we earn by sacrificing ourselves to a forty-hour week. Sickness, weariness, and disability become something weak-minded people must endure stoically, not signs that we need to stop. Vacations and free time are luxuries, not human needs.

Devon Price, Ph.D.

Not surprisingly, Dr. Price dedicates around half his book to workplace ethics and “laziness,” and postulates multiple causes and solutions. What capitalist morality calls laziness, Price demonstrates, is a wholly reasonable response to bad pay and lack of autonomy. The mental barriers that demand we occasionally stop working, are only “bad” because they deprive owners of wealth. And workers can resist this exploitation by presenting a united front.

More surprisingly, Price’s other half goes beyond economics. Our relationships with others are often colored by fears that, if we don’t sacrifice enough of ourselves, we don’t love our friends and family enough. We often feel “lazy” and unworthy if we can’t support enough political causes. Even health and beauty frequently reek of “The Laziness Lie,” as disabled people and anybody who’s endured fat-shaming can tell you.

All these situations share a moral component. Whether it’s work, weight loss, or giving ourselves over to demanding kinfolk, we’re expected to perform with the constant, unrelenting efficiency of industrial machinery. But that’s just it, Price writes: we’re not machines. We’re not built from interchangeable parts. We’re complex, unique individuals with personal needs, and when we, or the people around us, ignore those needs, our bodies break down.

(Besides that, machines break down if they don’t rest occasionally.)

As a research psychologist and Loyola University professor, Price structures his arguments eloquently. He shifts seamlessly from individual experiences and case studies that demonstrate his point, out into themes of statistical analysis showing what these experiences mean to us. This is classic textbook organization: what’s true for the individual, proves portable to the population overall. Only the personal is truly universal.

Admittedly, many of Price’s case studies show evidence of selection bias. Everyone given the opportunity to describe their experience with burnout is college-educated and relatively stable. One person describes homelessness in the past tense; nobody’s pulling doubles at the factory or overnights at McDonald’s to afford childcare and keep a Dodge Challenger with expired tags running. If Price asked me, I’d love more economic diversity in his case studies.

Briefly, Price says, actions have purposes, even if we’re not conscious of them. When people start resisting externally imposed standards of productivity, attacking them (or attacking ourselves) as “lazy” uses moral imperatives to hand-wave the underlying problem. Until we find and address the purpose behind supposedly lazy behavior, nothing will change. When we accept our resistance as a sign of necessary repairs, we’ll finally fix our economy, and ourselves.