Stop Spinning the Hamster Wheel — the Idle Get the Last Laugh

What if self-improvement means doing less?

“World changers need not be joyless and ascetic.” — Harvey Cox, The Feast of Fools

I’m fascinated by the deeper meanings behind characters, the worlds they inhabit, and the stories of their creation.

So, I thought it would be fun to see what the video game characters Rabbids think about life. As I looked into Rabbids, I realized their way of life is similar to the idle lifestyle praised by Nobel Prize willing philosopher Bertrand Russell.

I’d never advocate using Rabbids as a model for major decisions. But there’s a lot to learn by seeing the world through the eyes of a Rabbid. When we encounter the world in a new way, we return to our own lives with a fresh perspective.

Who are the Rabbids?

What makes Rabbids so lovable? Their enduring popularity as video game characters is undisputed. They have featured in over 20 video games since they first showed up 14 years ago, and are title characters in all these games.

While they were originally the enemies of the video game legend Rayman, they quickly became stars in their own right. Most Rabbid games now feature the Rabbids as the title characters. What’s more, they have become the “anti-mascots” of Ubisoft, the video games company that created them and publishes their games.

“They represent something missing in our own lives.”

On the face of it, Rabbids are incredibly stupid. Wherever they go, they leave chaos behind them. They love to have fun, they love to do nothing much, they love to be idle.

While the Rabbids are the enemy creatures in a number of video games, they’re much-maligned and misunderstood. Rabbids are, at heart, peace-loving. They’re known for being kind to one another. When they’ve got free time (and they have a lot of free time) they love to dance and sing. A Rabbid’s favorite past-time is cosplay. When a Rabbid puts on a costume, they take their new role very seriously.

Alongside that, they love pulling pranks and being silly — which can be annoying to other creatures. That’s why they get into trouble and end up in fights.

Perhaps they’re so loved because they fill a gap in our own culture. They represent something that’s missing in our own lives. With their fun-loving frolics, their preference for idleness, and their total disregard for authority, the Rabbids live in an opposite direction to Western culture with our values of responsibility, hard work, duty, and more hard work.

What if self-improvement means getting dumber?

We humans pride ourselves on getting smarter, we look for self-improvement hacks, ways to save time and get more done. We even have books with that title “getting things done.” We want to get ahead.

Rabbids, on the other hand, used to be smart, once upon a time. They keep getting dumber — perhaps that’s why they’re so relaxed about not doing much. And maybe there’s wisdom in their approach. Bertrand Russell would have thought so — were he alive today.

In Praise of Idleness

In the 1930’s the philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote an essay for Harper’s Magazine titled ‘In Praise of Idleness’.

Russell’s view was that in the 1930s, nearly a century ago, modern technology meant that people didn’t need to work nearly as much. He argued that during the First World War, wage earners had “a general level of physical well-being” that was higher than before or after the war effort. This was despite millions of men and women being engaged in the war effort, whether on the front lines or in munitions factories. The quality of life rose despite these people not being economically productive.

Russell states:

The War showed conclusively that by the scientific organization of production it is possible to keep modern populations in fair comfort on a small part of the working capacity of the modern world.

Some argued that this was only possible due to government borrowing. Russell counters this by pointing out: you can’t magic a loaf of bread from the future to the present. It either exists and is available to it, or it doesn’t.

In other words, we live in a world where we’re all sharing a common delusion. We pretend we need to work 40, 50, or 60 hours a week. And we’ve set up our economies — which are human constructs — to make this seem like the only viable option.

The 4-hour working day

Russell’s view was that the economy could run just as well with everyone working a 4-hour day rather than an eight or ten-hour day. That would mean reducing the working week to just 20 hours.

If technology in the 1930’s made that possible, how much more true is this today?

Why do we work so much when we don’t need to work? Who said 40, 50, 60 hours a week at work is ideal? Isn’t it better to work fewer hours, and have more time for the things we enjoy, the things that matter?

It’s not even that the economy benefits from us working all these extra hours. As the researchers at Our World in Data point out:

Workers in the US… work many more hours than their counterparts in countries with similar productivity.

How to live move like a Rabbid

So what can you do if you want to be more like a Rabbid, and incorporate more idleness into your life? Allow yourself the time and space to dream. Both Russell says this is the great advantage of idleness — it fosters creativity.

“In a world where no one is compelled to work more than four hours a day every person possessed of scientific curiosity will be able to indulge it, and every painter will be able to paint without starving, however excellent his pictures may be.” — Bertrand Russell

This isn’t the ultimate answer, as it creates a Catch-22 situation. We’ll only find alternatives to our 40-hour workweek when we have the time to dream. And we’ll only have the time to dream when we stop working 40 hours a week.

In any case, the next time you feel tempted to overwork, why not pick up a video game instead? You’ll get to encounter a different way of life, and getting that perspective is only a good thing.