Laziness, the Ultimate in Unmanly Traits

Whether you're in a parking lot at a grocery store and find a cart 7 feet outside the cart corral or walking into someone else's home to find dishes piled to the ceiling, laziness is never an attractive trait. It is amazing how incredibly lazy we've become as a society. Think about how many "lazy man's" adaptations you've seen in the past few years. While I would never argue that progress and new inventions are not necessary, at a certain point, "modern conveniences" are just an excuse to not put for any effort.

Back in high school, I travelled with the resident Spanish Club to Costa Rica. Obviously, this little excursion required taking 35 people in a group through a post 9/11 airport, so it proved to be quite an ordeal. I was dumbfounded to find every individual, myself excluded, taking the escalator instead of the stairs. While this may not seem to be a huge deal, note that every member of the group was able-bodied, and we were staring down the prospect of sitting in airplane seats for the next 6 hours. Would it have killed anyone to put forth that extra effort to (literally) carry their own wait? I proved every time we had to climb that even when walking at my normal pace, it was faster to take the stairs. Despite the repeated showing of the stairs superior quickness, no one followed my lead.

All great men have been hard workers. Name any great leader, the archetype for the purposes of this site being Teddy Roosevelt. You will note that whatever person you mentioned undoubtedly had numerous hobbies and spent countless hours cultivating their skills. Greatness is indeed habit, not an act.

If you, like me, are driven up the wall by the laziness of other people, there is, unfortunately, only one thing you can do about it. Don't become lazy yourself.

Remember the old proverb, "The only thing less manly than a lazy male is a stuff purple bunny with pink streamers flowing out its ears riding a rainbow colored unicycle." You don't want to be a stuffed purple bunny do you?

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Comment by Evan R on January 7, 2012 at 1:02am

You're right, laziness is definitely not manly. Up there with that one though, are fear and disrespect. Fear would be the ultimate unmanly trait.

Comment by John on March 23, 2010 at 6:44pm
It annoys me even on the ones that are insanely long with landings. Would it kill anyone to walk a few steps? It shouldn't kill anyone who is able bodied to climb a few hundred stairs once in a while.
Comment by Native Son on March 23, 2010 at 5:26pm
A further note. Perhaps the fault lies more in the design of our working and commuting environment than in ourselves. After all, there's a reason cattle, hogs and poultry are "finished" in relatively confined spaces...the less you move, the less you are inclined to move (and unfortunately, the more you will eat, out of boredom, if nothing else). That's great for adding weight to food animals, but not so great for under-exercised humans, like myself.
Comment by Native Son on March 23, 2010 at 5:22pm
A late thought on your blog's escalator comment. Were the stairs a single flight, or were they broken up by landings? I've noticed that if the ascent is more than two flights worth of stairs, without any landing(s), the escalator will be crammed, and the stairs nearly empty...every time.
Comment by John on February 11, 2010 at 1:46pm
I think being "sheep who follow the masses" is being lazy. If you allow others to make your decisions life becomes easier though greatly less enjoyable.
Comment by Josh on February 10, 2010 at 9:00am
I agree that laziness is an undesirable trait. However, in public places I'm not sure if it's always laziness, but just people following the pack, or following the person in front of them. If the first two people in line take the escalator, the rest of the group seems to follow. Maybe then we need to make sure that men are "paving their own way" instead of being sheep who follow the masses.
Comment by Dylan on January 29, 2010 at 7:09pm
Ha! Wheelie bags on a tile floor are the bane of mankind! Great post!
Comment by John on January 26, 2010 at 11:48am
Segways aren't the worst of it in my mind. Have you ever seen those kids who have the electric scooters? Riding a bike is faster, but people ride those stupid stand on electric scooters so they don't have to put forth any effort.
Comment by Sir Lancelot on January 26, 2010 at 7:45am
A society where that Segway abomination succeeds is a sick society.
Comment by Neil Desai on January 25, 2010 at 8:16am
I completely agree. I'm a college student and it burns me how lazy my generation has become. I've learned to value a hard worker in a friend more than most other qualities.

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