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Rosneathian
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In Praise of Idleness

“I want to say, in all seriousness, that a great deal of harm is being done in the modern world by belief in the virtuousness of work, and that the road to happiness and prosperity lies in an organised diminution of work.” - In Praise of Idleness by Bertrand Russell.

I read this passage and the essay it came from more than 30 years ago. At that time I was looking for philosophical underpinnings for what I considered to be my natural state: laziness.

I’ve always been lazy and I’ve always been withdrawn. Force of necessity obliged me to add layers of persona and competence as a communicator to interact with people and the world at large. I became reasonably good at this, though remained skeptical about the tracks that I left behind me. So I destroyed records of all television, radio and newspaper appearances over the last three decades, and the numerous newspaper articles I’ve written. Some of the stuff may still be out there, but it’ll take some effort to link any of it back to me.

Now it’s time to strip things back further and to their essence.

A few months ago I bought a chalet in the western isles of Scotland (some views from my new environs below). I'll be spending much of the next two months there to bed in.

All things being equal, I intend to make this my new - and possibly final - repose. It’ll just be me, my books, my artwork, my watches, and the wide, wide wildness of Scotland’s Atlantic coast. There, I'll have only one thing on my to-do list: Nothing.