Do you think laziness actually exists?

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DevilKisses
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21 Feb 2014, 5:56 pm

Or do you think "laziness" is just executive dysfunction or fatigue?


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League_Girl
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21 Feb 2014, 6:10 pm

I have wondered if lazy does really exist because every time someone is lazy, they always have a reason for it like "I want to relax" "I don't want to do it" "I don't need to do it now and will do it in my own schedule" "I will do it when I feel like it" "I don't like doing it." People will say these things when they deny they are lazy and they say tons of other things too. When I was a kid, it never bothered me to be called lazy. It just meant not doing things I am supposed to do. My mom would say things like "Go get it yourself, I am not your slave. You don't need to be lazy." So I learned when you ask someone to do something for you, you're lazy so I will ask my son to hand me the TV remote because I don't want to get off my butt to do it. Yes I do call myself lazy for this. I will also say I am too lazy to get up to eat or too lazy to get up to turn channels. Maybe lazy does exist.

My sister in law doesn't like to clean so her reason for her being lazy to not clean may be, "I don't like doing it so I don't do it." Am I one of the few people who will call themselves lazy? There seems to be stigma to that word and people seem to take offense because they will avoid using that word on themselves and find reasons for their laziness for why they're not being lazy. My mom and I talked about this once and she agreed people will find reasons for their laziness and not admit it to themselves.


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ouroborosUK
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21 Feb 2014, 6:11 pm

Some people find ways to exploit other people to do "work" (in a very broad meaning) for them and not do anything by themselves. That exists for sure. It can take many forms, from the "friend" who will always demand a bit more help/attention/... than you are willing to give (and than they are willing to give you), to public assistance fraud and the like. I think you could call that "laziness" since it is a strategy to make as little effort as possible that is bad and unethical to other people (according to my values anyway).

But that is about all I can see. Executive dysfunction, fatigue, depression, disability (physical of cognitive), poverty and social issues clearly have nothing to do with "laziness".


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cavernio
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21 Feb 2014, 6:20 pm

I pretty much disagree with ourosboros completely :-p

I think laziness, without the negative connotation attached to it, is what anyone is who does not do a lot when there's no blatant physical or logistical impairment.

People who abuse the system or family simply because they can aren't being lazy so much as being very self-serving...selfish, decadent people have too much motivation to be lazy. It just doesn't fit with my definition of laziness.

Lazy, with the negative connotation and stigma, in the sense I think the OP means, I don't think does really exist. However, for many people who don't do things for reasons such as fatigue, executive dysfunction etc., the power of being stigmatized as lazy can potentially push the person to do things they would otherwise not do. It can also backfire though, making the person depressed and cause them to lose self-worth.

The word 'lazy' has its use, negative as it is.


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ouroborosUK
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21 Feb 2014, 6:22 pm

League_Girl wrote:
There seems to be stigma to that word and people seem to take offense because they will avoid using that word on themselves and find reasons for their laziness for why they're not being lazy


In my opinion, a possible explanation for that is that in Christian religion (which shaped our culture and therefore the semantics of our vocabulary whether we like it or not) laziness is a sin (under the name of "sloth"). As a result, working hard is "good" and not working hard is "bad".

That is why I associate laziness with something bad and unethical. Not that I am a Christian (I am not interested in organized religion apart as a topic for study) but I implicitly acknowledge that meaning. Therefore, the example I gave is just the only thing I could find (in my personal ethics) that combine "not working" and "being bad".

If you don't put any negative connotation on laziness, then your definition differs from mine and yes, with regard to that definition laziness exists, it just mean not working hard, and I have nothing against it. Plenty of people work hard for useless things or pointless reasons and would in my opinion be happier being lazy.


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Sethno
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21 Feb 2014, 6:23 pm

DevilKisses wrote:
Or do you think "laziness" is just executive dysfunction or fatigue?


There are lazy people.

That doesn't mean that you can easily tell the difference, tho.

Innocent people can be wrongly called "lazy".


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ouroborosUK
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21 Feb 2014, 6:26 pm

cavernio wrote:
I pretty much disagree with ourosboros completely :-p

I think laziness, without the negative connotation attached to it, is what anyone is who does not do a lot when there's no blatant physical or logistical impairment.

People who abuse the system or family simply because they can aren't being lazy so much as being very self-serving...selfish, decadent people have too much motivation to be lazy. It just doesn't fit with my definition of laziness.


OK, we clearly have very different definitions of the word, but I think we don't differ so much on the underlying ethics. See my previous answer to League_Girl.

I am sorry if my definition is strange, I am not a native English speaker and it sometimes makes me write or think in ways that are not idiomatic or natural to native English speakers. I really wish I had a better grasp on English etymology.


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cavernio
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21 Feb 2014, 6:28 pm

Very good point to touch on ourosboros.

Christianity and a strong work ethic go hand-in-hand throughout history, or so I've been told. Think Quakers. I've heard Christianity's work-ethic used to explain, in part, even current cultural and social trends like the current boom in China's industry. As Christianity is on the rise there, so is the ethic of hard work and unsurprisingly, also the quantity of goods that it produces.


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cavernio
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21 Feb 2014, 6:30 pm

Sethno wrote:
DevilKisses wrote:
Or do you think "laziness" is just executive dysfunction or fatigue?


There are lazy people.

That doesn't mean that you can easily tell the difference, tho.

Innocent people can be wrongly called "lazy".


So what separates these groups? How could you tell? What's the difference in mentality? That's the meat of the question, that's what I want to know! If there is a difference as you say surely you can at least partially describe it. :-)


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cavernio
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21 Feb 2014, 6:33 pm

ouroborosUK wrote:
cavernio wrote:
I pretty much disagree with ourosboros completely :-p

I think laziness, without the negative connotation attached to it, is what anyone is who does not do a lot when there's no blatant physical or logistical impairment.

People who abuse the system or family simply because they can aren't being lazy so much as being very self-serving...selfish, decadent people have too much motivation to be lazy. It just doesn't fit with my definition of laziness.


OK, we clearly have very different definitions of the word, but I think we don't differ so much on the underlying ethics. See my previous answer to League_Girl.

I am sorry if my definition is strange, I am not a native English speaker and it sometimes makes me write or think in ways that are not idiomatic or natural to native English speakers. I really wish I had a better grasp on English etymology.


No need to apologize whatsoever. I'm not sure that just because you're a non-native speaker that that somehow makes your definition of the word invalid. Perhaps mine is the odd definition of it. Besides which, I think the definition of laziness is a large part of what's being discussed here also, part of the purpose of the question. I like hearing different people's views, I do not mean to make yours the 'wrong' view.


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Sethno
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21 Feb 2014, 6:52 pm

cavernio wrote:
Sethno wrote:
DevilKisses wrote:
Or do you think "laziness" is just executive dysfunction or fatigue?


There are lazy people.

That doesn't mean that you can easily tell the difference, tho.

Innocent people can be wrongly called "lazy".


So what separates these groups? How could you tell? What's the difference in mentality? That's the meat of the question, that's what I want to know! If there is a difference as you say surely you can at least partially describe it. :-)


Someone who could do more but doesn't, a loafer, would be lazy.

One example would be someone who is on welfare, and makes no effort to become self-supporting. This would be compared to someone who struggles over a period of time to work and just doesn't have the mental or physical assets needed to be self supporting. One isn't trying. The other is trying, even if they're failing.


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21 Feb 2014, 6:54 pm

One of my favorite questions!

I looked up definitions of lazy and came up with: "Unwilling to work or use energy when otherwise able to do so."

Based on that definition I would think yeah, there is such a thing as lazy. But before it can be accurately applied the test of "otherwise able to do so" would need to be met.

I think the key operative word in the above definition is "unwilling", which relates to the exercise of human will, or willpower. My limited historical knowledge is that during the Victorian Era much emphasis was placed on willpower. The closest thing I hear today about willpower is when someone is admonished to "man up, suck it up, and just do it".

A quick Amazon search for books on willpower returned over 800 results, so it is being directly addressed in some quarters. So I might think that, absent some inability to work or use energy, the "cure" for laziness might be in some form of willpower assessment and training.



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21 Feb 2014, 7:09 pm

I call myself 'lazy' if I'm not making a reasonable attempt.

Like if I've given into the urge to obsess over my special interest all morning, and now it's afternoon and I still haven't gotten dressed, or accomplished anything else today... Yeah, I could claim 'Executive Dysfunction', but the truth is, I really could have done better, if I'd made more of an effort. So that was just laziness.

But in terms of 'am I lazy for not having a job'... No, because my lifelong pattern is to give everything my absolute best effort, until I utterly collapse from the stress and exhaustion – and it's definitely not because of laziness that I fail.



naturalplastic
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21 Feb 2014, 7:36 pm

Responding to this question is just too much work for me!



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21 Feb 2014, 7:44 pm

Sethno wrote:
cavernio wrote:
Sethno wrote:
DevilKisses wrote:
Or do you think "laziness" is just executive dysfunction or fatigue?


There are lazy people.

That doesn't mean that you can easily tell the difference, tho.

Innocent people can be wrongly called "lazy".


So what separates these groups? How could you tell? What's the difference in mentality? That's the meat of the question, that's what I want to know! If there is a difference as you say surely you can at least partially describe it. :-)


Someone who could do more but doesn't, a loafer, would be lazy.

One example would be someone who is on welfare, and makes no effort to become self-supporting. This would be compared to someone who struggles over a period of time to work and just doesn't have the mental or physical assets needed to be self supporting. One isn't trying. The other is trying, even if they're failing.


But then the problem is who decides if someone is making an effort or not? Also depending on ones reason for being on welfare, being 'self-supporting' might not be a realistic goal so it wouldn't make much sense for them to put effort into that, or some people need to have treatment for their issue before they can start focusing on be coming self supporting. So I guess the point is there could be a reason for them not putting effort into that besides laziness.


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21 Feb 2014, 7:56 pm

Laziness as something you do? Absolutely.

Laziness as something you are? I think anytime this appears to be the case, there's probably something diagnosable going on.