Since meeting Edward and Robert Skidelsky in Florence at a conference sponsored by the Witherspoon Institute, I’ve been a fan of their work, particularly their defense of leisure against those who seek to redescribe Adam’s curse, the labor of man, as a blessing. That said, the father-son pair misses the mark in a column in the Guardian on the Greek workweek.
The object of their criticism is a German proposal that would expand the Greek workweek from five to six days as a condition for a new round of bailouts. They rightly point out that increasing per-hour productivity, not time spent at the office, is the way to prosperity. Yet Germany’s proposed regulation is not designed to encourage simple make-work: It increases only the maximum number of days worked, not the minimum. Like my colleague Mark Movsesian, I am broadly supportive of blue laws that restrict commerce one day a week, but to legislate a two-day sabbath is to mandate for man a rest that God denied himself.
December 28th, 2012 | 4:44 pm
. . . particularly their defense of leisure against those who seek to redescribe Adam’s curse, the labor of man, as a blessing.
The Skidelskys have a completely unbiblical view of work. If work is not good then was God “cursed” in working six days and engaging in leisure on one day?
Also, why does it say in Gen. 2:15, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” Since that was before the Fall, it’s obvious God intended work to be good. The “curse” merely mentions toiling for one’s food, not work in general.
Admittedly, I’ve been less than impressed with the anti-free market approach to economics that the Skidelskys favor. I think its destructive and leads to a loss of freedom. But that is nothing compared to their terrible exegesis and assumption that leisure is man’s rightful activity while work is “Adam’s curse.”
December 29th, 2012 | 2:54 pm
The Skidelskys’ notion of lesiure, contasted to that of labor, encompasses rewarding work. They define leisure not as inactivity but rather as “activity without extrinsic end,” a definition in which they mean to include many economic activities:
“The sculptor engrossed in cutting marble, the teacher intent on imparting a difficult idea, the musician struggling with a score, a scientist exploring the mysteries of space and time — such people have no other aim than to do what they are doing well.”
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