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Celebrating the Scamp

Lin Yutang wrote: "We all have obligations and duties toward our fellow men. But it does seem curious enough that in modern neurotic society, men's energies are consumed in making a living and rarely in living itself. It takes a lot of courage for a man to declare, with clarity and simplicity, that the purpose of life is to enjoy it."

His ideal in his book "The importance of living" is the scamp. A scamp for him is a kind of lazy carefree person who wanders through life, learning, loving, living. He said: "My faith in human dignity consists in the belief that man is the greatest scamp on earth. Human dignity must be associated with the idea of a scamp and not with that of an obedient, disciplined and regimented soldier."

While maybe the obedient soldier has gone a little bit out of fashion (even though some in the European Union surely would like to revive this ideal) the always tirelessly working person now clearly is the ideal of banks and big corporations (and the so called elite). We should work all day and then maybe have a little free leisure time to buy their offered entertainment. Lin Yutang's scamp in contrast is very far from this ideal that we are constantly fed by the media, school, our society.

I agree with Lin Yutang. I also celebrate his scamp. Sure, a lot of our life-style luxuries and inventions rest upon people working and thus producing our stuff. I admit that I am a material girl who enjoys the material wealth that we still enjoy in the west. But I am so fed up with the idea of having to be a useful member of society. I am also fed up with the idea of the parasitic nature of all those useless eaters. I am even more fed up with having to endlessly listen to the so called expert talk.

I think our only defense to this dangerous mindset is to champion the scamp!

However there is of course more to this. Why do we always need to be reminded that society expects us to work as much as we can? If working hard is giving us enough pleasureable results then enough people would do it voluntarily. So why these constant reminders? Could it be that there are certain groups behind the curtain that profit the most from us while they themselves not only do not contribute anything good to society but are in fact harming us?!

During the last years there is more and more talk about useless eaters once again. Old retired people use too much of the medicine resources that we have. If education is not streamlined young people start working later and don't contribute enough. Productivity is everything! From time to time these and other similar headlines pop up. Humans are only measured by their utility to generate money. It's humans as machines, exchangeable, forgettable. It's humans as economic units, measured, used, discarded.

We know that most journalists don't have any morals and so write whatever they are paid to write. It is dehumanizing and only serves the global psychopaths that already have way too much power.

Why are we constanly reminded to listen to the experts? If their knowledge would be superb wouldn't humans naturally follow as it would be in everyone's own best interest? Why are they so afraid of the science being questioned? Why are they so afraid of independant thinkers? Again it has nothing to do with what is best for us, for the individual but what is best for those who profit from us following the often wrong and dangerous advice of the so called experts.

We already had such a mindset some time before. It lead to euthanizing people against their will. Now in some countries like Canada we already have assisted suicide laws that could be misused if we are not vigilant. (One could say they are already misused!)

Therefore again in my view the only way to stand against this is to champion the scamp.

I am celebrating a person who knows how to live and to enjoy life. Savoir vivre as the French are saying. A person that lives life to the fullest. A person that learns and loves and simply lives. A person guided by his/her own personal interests instead of the will of an anonymous society that cares nothing for the individual. A person that is independent, that thinks for her/himself and is truly free.

Long live the scamp!

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Here are some quotes from Lin Yutang; (taken from https://www.azquotes.com/

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The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.

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The three great American vices seem to be efficiency, punctuality, and the desire for achievement and success. They are the things that make the Americans so unhappy and so nervous.

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On the whole, the enjoyment of leisure is something which decidedly costs less than the enjoyment of luxury. All it requires is an artistic temperament which is bent on seeking a perfectly useless afternoon spent in a perfectly useless manner.

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The most bewildering thing about man is his idea of work and the amount of work he imposes upon himself, or civilization has imposed upon him. All nature loafs, while man alone works for a living.

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It is that unoccupied space which makes a room habitable, as it is our leisure hours which make life endurable.

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