Table Of ContentWhy It’s OK
to Be a Slacker
“Stop slacking off!”
Your parents may have said this to you when you were deep into
a video-gaming marathon. Or maybe your roommate said it to you
when you were lounging on the couch scrolling through Instagram.
You may have even said it to yourself on days you did nothing. But
what is so bad about slacking? Could it be that there’s nothing bad
about not making yourself useful?
Against our hyper-productivity culture, Alison Suen critically
interrogates our disapproval of slackers—individuals who do the
bare minimum just to get by. She offers a taxonomy of slackers,
analyzes common objections to slacking, and argues that each of
these objections either fails or carries problematic assumptions. But
while this book defends slacking, it does not promote the slacker
lifestyle as the key to something better (such as cultural advancement
and self-actualization), as some pro-leisure scholars have argued. In
fact, Suen argues that slacking is unique precisely because it serves
no noble cause. Slacking is neither a deliberate protest to social ills
nor is it a path to autonomy. Slackers just slack. By examining the
culture of hyper-productivity, Suen argues that it is in fact OK to be
a slacker.
Alison Suen is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Iona College,
New York. She is the author of The Speaking Animal: Ethics, Language and
the Human-Animal Divide (2015) and the volume editor of Response
Ethics (2018).
Why It’s OK: The Ethics and Aesthetics of
How We Live
ABOUT THE SERIES:
Philosophers often build cogent arguments for unpopular positions.
Recent examples include cases against marriage and pregnancy, for
treating animals as our equals, and dismissing some popular art as
aesthetically inferior. What philosophers have done less often is to
offer compelling arguments for widespread and established human
behavior, like getting married, having children, eating animals, and
going to the movies. But if one role for philosophy is to help us
reflect on our lives and build sound justifications for our beliefs and
actions, it seems odd that philosophers would neglect arguments
for the lifestyles most people—including many philosophers—
actually lead. Unfortunately, philosophers’ inattention to normalcy
has meant that the ways of life that define our modern societies
have gone largely without defense, even as whole literatures have
emerged to condemn them.
Why It’s OK: The Ethics and Aesthetics of How We Live seeks to
remedy that. It’s a series of books that provides accessible, sound,
and often new and creative arguments for widespread ethical and
aesthetic values. Made up of short volumes that assume no previous
knowledge of philosophy from the reader, the series recognizes that
philosophy is just as important for understanding what we already
believe as it is for criticizing the status quo. The series isn’t meant to
make us complacent about what we value; rather, it helps and chal-
lenges us to think more deeply about the values that give our daily
lives meaning.
Titles in Series:
Why It’s OK to Want to Be Rich
Jason Brennan
Why It’s OK to Be of Two Minds
Jennifer Church
Why It’s OK to Ignore Politics
Christopher Freiman
Why It’s OK to Make Bad Choices
William Glod
Why It’s OK to Enjoy the Work of Immoral Artists
Mary Beth Willard
Why It’s OK to Speak Your Mind
r
Hrishikesh Joshi e
k
c
a
Why It’s OK to Be a Slacker Sl
a
Alison Suen e
B
o
Selected Forthcoming Titles: K t
O
s
Why It’s OK to Get Married t’
y I
Christie J. Hartley h
W
Why It’s OK to Love Bad Movies
Matthew Strohl
Why It’s OK to Eat Meat
Dan C. Shahar
Why It’s OK to Mind Your Own Business
Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmke
Why It’s OK to Be Fat
Rekha Nath
For further information about this series, please visit: www .r outle dge .
c om /Wh y -Its -OK /b ook -s eries /WIOK
ALISON SUEN
Why It’s OK
to Be a Slacker
First published 2021
by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2021 Taylor & Francis
The right of Alison Suen to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this title has been requested
ISBN: 978-0-367-72365-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-33818-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-16040-3 (ebk)
Typeset in Joanna and Din
by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
To Bob and Joseph—
the two hardest-working people I know
Contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
Why Talk about Slacking? 1 23
What Are the Different Types of Slackers? 2 53
Are Hollywood Slackers Full-Fledged 3 69
Slackers?
How Do You Spot an Academic Slacker? 4 87
s
t
n
Is Slacking Morally Bad? 5 109 e
t
n
o
C
What If Everyone Were a Slacker? 6 127
Do Slackers Have an Identity Crisis? 7 147
The Pandemic Slacker 163
Notes 181
Bibliography 191
List of Films and Film Scripts 199
Index 201
