by Brett Stevens on October 1, 2014

Among the vast tomes of hidden agenda behind this blog lurks a simple commandment: thou shalt spend more time doing nothing.

Much of my conversion to conservatism came through the realization that conservatives eliminate unnecessary labor and activity while liberalism increases it.

People in our society have forgotten the importance of doing nothing. While we often forge our souls through adversity, we also do so in the quiet moments of relaxation or futzing around where we learn to know ourselves and through that, how to value what is important in life.

For many of us, the quiet times spent gardening or fiddling some recalcitrant bit of gear into action represent the greatest realizations we have had about ourselves. Know thyself, know the difference between world and self, and thus escape the prison of self that our solipsistic society and its liberal masters see as ideal.

Conservatism advocates a minimal approach to life. Focus on family, on contributing something productive to society and life, and on self-refinement through quiet moments, whether prayer or fixing a 1950s coffee maker in the garage. Loafing, goofing off, fooling around, dozing, daydreaming, launching ridiculous projects and play represent the best of human experience.

Liberalism on the other hand bases itself on the principle of “robbing Peter to pay Paul” with a justification of need on Paul’s part. It extends this to time as well: we work extra hours to subsidize the welfare, social justice and environmental initiatives that liberalism demands. This doubly makes zero sense when we consider that these “problems” arise mostly through liberal attempts to fix them.

The suicidal West requires a root-level fix. A huge part of this entails giving people more time to know themselves and discover their values. This is done by cutting time at jobs and sending them home to spend more time with their families and friends, but also more time with themselves, even if spent in the basement or lawn area doing nothing in particular.

People are happiest when most of their time is their own. Even if they have no idea of some grand purpose for this time, those quiet moments help them grow within. This growth is not in terms of quantity, but quality. They become clearer about self and reality. As this time has decreased, the West has become a bitter self-hating place, full of suspicion and paranoia.

If we were to drop the exaggerated and unnecessary “purpose” that liberalism imposes, we would return to our primary purpose in life: knowing ourselves through doing not much of anything. When we muck around the house, we become bored with the unnecessary and replace it with the sustaining. We learn who we are. And from that, we learn what to preserve and nurture because it has a connection from our innermost soul to the essence of the cosmos.

Tags: cosmos, existence, time

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