Full size book cover of The Right to Be Lazy: And Other Writings}

The Right to Be Lazy: And Other Writings

Paul Lafargue, Alex Andriesse, Lucy Sante

3.63(5969 readers)
Excerpt from The Right to Be Lazy and Other Studies

M. Thiers, at a private session of the corn nission on primary education of 1849, said: I wish to make the influence of the clergy all powerful because I count upon it to propagate that good philosophy which teaches man that he is here below to suffer, and not that other philos 0phy which on the contrary bids man to enjoy. M. Thiers was stating the ethics of the capital ist class, whose fierce egoism and narrow intel ligence he incarnated.

Publisher

NYRB Classics

Publication Date

11/15/2022

ISBN

9781681376837

Pages

142

Categories

Literature

About the Author

Portrait of author Paul Lafargue
Paul Lafargue
French revolutionary Marxist socialist and Karl Marx's son-in-law.Lafargue was born in Cuba to French and Creole parents. Karl Marx even once reffered to him by the n-word.

Lafargue his main work was called the right to be lazy. In which he calls upon not only the right to work, but also the right to be lazy. At the beginning of that book he claimed that the African slaves lived under better circumstances than the European worker.

At 69 he died together with his wife Laura in a suicide pact.

Questions & Answers

What is the central argument of "The Right to Be Lazy" and how does it challenge traditional capitalist values?

How does Lafargue use satire and humor to critique the bourgeoisie and their values in "The Right to Be Lazy"

What is the significance of Lafargue's comparison between the "Bashkirs" and the "workers" in "The Right to Be Lazy"

How does Lafargue's analysis of the "Religion of Capital" in "The Right to Be Lazy" relate to the broader socialist movement of his time?

What are the implications of Lafargue's advocacy for a "right to be lazy" in the context of modern society and its work ethic?

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