Essays in Idleness

“Only the silent hear, and those who do not remain silent do not hear.”

The quotation comes from Josef Pieper, one of the greatest Thomists of the last century; a man whose wisdom and learning deserves to go unchallenged. This perhaps over-obvious and irrefutable remark seems the best way to open a New Year.

Pieper, who is of course now dead (1904–1997), might be considered the living motto of these Idleworks, for his beuk, Leisure the Basis of Culture, fell into my hands very early, and is still falling into them after many decades, together with his many other works, each quite succinct.

Should any young person reading this feel in need of an education, I would think Pieper, the scholarly Frenchman Étienne Gilson (History of Christian Philosophy in the Middle Ages), and Gilbert Keith Chesterton, are the places to start upon a course in philosophy. That all three are Christian and Catholic is no coincidence. These authors will in turn supply you with others to read, at large, but they are the best schoolmasters for immediate purposes. To assign lengthy reading lists right from the start, especially to young people who haven’t learnt to read yet, is too much bother. Moreover, bear in mind that the way the Greats are taught in the universities today, make university truly worth not attending.

One should not be impatient to read a lot of beuks, only intelligent ones, and comprehensible only to a person who is awake. They should be read no faster than you can take them in. On the other hand, you should not waste time by not reading. At the present day, as your German teacher says, “the greatest menace to our capacity for contemplation is the incessant fabrication of tawdry empty stimuli which kill the receptivity of the soul.”

In other words, “Artificial Idiocy,” and the “Wicked Paedia,” should be among the first things to silence, with extreme prejudice as it were. Use your own brain, which needs some exercise. Learn to sit still. Don’t merely shut up: become silent.

For the world, especially in view of the technology that is now unfolding, has been re-designed to make you not only unphilosophical and unleisured, but to an extraordinary degree, stupid and obnoxious. We are easily addicted to things that make distracting and repulsive noises, and are big, red, and shiny. Suddenly it is New Year.

False optimism kills, … having left its garish marks all over its victims.