Quotations Weblog

Voltaire was a cool guy, but I think he got it a little wrong on this one. Don’t get me wrong. Work is a great thing. I love work. I do my work because I love it. None of that has anything to do with Voltaire’s quote.

The bone I have to pick with this quotation is the idea that work saves us from boredom, vice and need.

I’ve known many people who held down full time jobs. I worked with them. I partied with them. I commiserated with them. I haven’t found work to be the savior of those who are bored, vicious or needy.

Boredom

Firstly, the “bored at work” people are a highly sought after demographic. There are legions of people who are bored at work. I was bored at work. The Internet was my savior in that case, but when I was working at K-Mart, I was out of luck. Goofing off saved my mind from the numbing boredom that is being a checker at K-Mart. I have never found work to be my savior from boredom.

Vice

Work doesn’t stop people who are tempted by vice. I’ve heard the phrase, “I’ve got to go to work tomorrow, so I shouldn’t [fill in the vice here],” so many times that it was a cliche. When I partied, I knew people who were drunk every night despite their responsibilites at their employment the next morning. I’ve even know those who would commit vice at their place of employment, whether it be sloth, drunkeness, thievery or gluttony. No, work doesn’t save anyone from vice. The vicious keep right on sinning despite proper employment.

Need

“Working Poor” is a phrase that was relatively new to the scene when I was a teenager, but I’ve seen working poor who make more money than you know what to do with. They spend all of it on their expensive homes or cars, but they start out with enough money for me to live two lives with. Some people say that earning more means spending more. I don’t believe that has to be the case, but the act of having a job doesn’t prevent them from being needy.

Somehow, I think Voltaire had an idealized view of work. He surely never worked at K-Mart or as a second secretary at a firm that only needed one. He never met some of the characters that I have in my journies and he must have mastered the art of living within his means so well that he couldn’t conceive of “working poor”.

For whatever the reason, this is one quotation that doesn’t live up to the reputation of the person who spoke it.