This article was originally posted last summer.
By Erik Sass
What do these wits, terrorists, and philosophers all have in common? Well, there’s one thing they didn’t have: a job.
1. Osama bin Laden
Before he started fighting for his own violent version of Islam, terrorist Osama bin Laden led the life of a playboy. Born around 1957 to a wealthy Yemeni father and Syrian mother, bin Laden was heir to part of the massive fortune his billionaire father had accumulated in the Saudi construction business. As such, he squandered his days, acquiring a reputation for drinking too much and womanizing in his teens and early 20s in Beirut, which was then a cosmopolitan tourist hot spot. In fact, he didn’t become a firmly committed, full-time Islamic radical until he went to fight the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. That’s where Osama began his improbable transformation from a rakish ladies’ man to a mass-murdering zealot, never having worked a day before then.
2. Socrates
Aside from a possible brief stint as a sculptor, Socrates seems to have spent most of his hours ambling around the agora—the gymnasia where Athenians exercised, which was also Athens’s central public meeting place and marketplace. When he wasn’t milling about the town, the old philosopher could be spotted going to parties and loitering in taverns where citizens and foreign guests gathered. All this isn’t to say the poor guy enjoyed the lush life. Socrates lived and dressed simply, wore neither shoes nor shirt, and owned only one coat. He also ate poorly, lived hand to mouth, relied heavily on the charity of his friends, and refused gifts when they were offered. Like, for instance, the time his friend Charmides offered to give him slaves who could have made money to support him. He also refused to accept presents from powerful leaders of Greek cities, not wanting to ever compromise his integrity. When the great philosopher was put on trial for allegedly teaching sacrilege, Socrates tweaked the Athenian assembly by suggesting that far from being a criminal, he deserved free room and board at their expense. Unamused, they condemned him to death.
3. Oscar Wilde
“Cultivated leisure is the aim of man,” Oscar Wilde once famously said, and he certainly lived his life by that dictum. Wilde was brilliant, winning a gold medal in Classics at Trinity College in Dublin in 1874 before earning a scholarship to Oxford. When his father died, however, Wilde left the family’s finances to his older brother Henry, and worked only once in his life, a brief two-year stint as the editor of a women’s magazine called The Woman’s World, from 1887 to 1889. Wilde spent the rest of his time writing, giving lectures on aesthetics, coining pithy epigrams, and generally being a wit. Sadly, Wilde was forced to do hard labor near the end of his life after he was found guilty of immoral conduct for homosexual activities. A broken man, he died shortly thereafter, in 1900.
4. Buddha
Buddha, like Socrates, was a full-time thinker whose schedule of meditation, contemplation, and conversation didn’t leave any time for work. Born around 563 BC, Siddhartha, as he was called when young, was the son of a king who ruled a small kingdom in the northern floodplains of the Ganges River in India. The young prince led a life of leisure in his early years before growing disgusted with the materialism of the royal palace. Instead of sticking around, Siddhartha wandered off into nature at the age of 28, and after seven years of travel, meditation, and conversation with Hindu mystics, he attained enlightenment under a Bodhi tree. Receiving visitors and teaching students from under the tree, he spread the message of moderation and separation from material want that became Buddhism—and never did get a job.
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Just goes to show how the daily grind just holds you back from real achievement.
Well, maybe not so much with #1.
posted by Celeste M. on 7-25-2008 at 4:18 am
^Not really. These are the exceptions, not the rule.
For some of us, the “grind” is no grind at all because we like our careers.
And the “achievement” of all four of these is merely convincing folks to buy into their words. Hard to do, for sure, but that doesn’t really achieve anything until the folks who bought into it did something with it (or in Wilde’s case, didn’t do anything with it beyond entertainment purposes only). The achievement then rests with those who bought into it. The man who was bought into did nothing except keep the rhetoric comin’.
posted by Food on 7-25-2008 at 10:06 am
there is irony i suppose with Bin Laden. he was once just like the very people he is so desperately trying to destroy. (after all he accuses America and the rest of the western world of partaking in the vices of drink and sexual immorality.) i wonder what his followers would say to that?
posted by Claire on 7-25-2008 at 2:35 pm
Paris Hilton?
posted by Katie on 7-28-2008 at 10:14 am
I thought Socrates fought in the navy and I believe it was even talked about during the trial of Socrates. Though it has been a while since I last read the trial of Socrates.
posted by Dru on 7-30-2009 at 1:04 pm
I believe that Karl Marx also fits within this category. Of course he was a bit of a hot-head.
posted by harold on 7-30-2009 at 1:11 pm
Wait a minute! These guys all worked hard, at least as hard as writing a blog! You think that thinking clearly , writing, meditating and running from people who want to kill you (while living in a cave) is not hard work? You try it.
posted by Tom on 7-30-2009 at 2:09 pm
Hate to rain on anyone’s parade but Osama isn’t “fighting for his own violent version of Islam”. He is fighting for a well established and historical version. One that has the respect of many Islamic scholars over the centuries and with many in this day and age.
To poo-poo it as “Osama’s own” only serves to ignore the reasons why he does what he does and how it can be stopped. You can’t fight what you refuse to understand.
posted by Hurricane on 7-30-2009 at 2:10 pm
Socrates had two years militia service as required of all citizens of Athens. When war broke out between Athens and Sparta in 432, Socrates was sent to Potidea to put down a revolt. He served as a hoplite (foot soldier) for the next 11 years, until the Peace of Nicias was declared in 421. I think that most soldiers active during a time of war would consider that a REAL job. This infomation is available in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy at
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/socrates/.
posted by lalewis on 7-30-2009 at 3:07 pm
“He is fighting for a well established and historical version. One that has the respect of many Islamic scholars over the centuries and with many in this day and age.”
Sorry, but a radicalized version of Islam that marginalizes women and treats others with impunity doesn’t earn my respect.
posted by Steve from San Diego on 7-30-2009 at 4:02 pm
\…Sorry, but a radicalized version of Islam that marginalizes women and treats others with impunity doesn’t earn my respect…\
In the same way as you are not respected by them. Or in the same way as I don’t respect christianity (or my neighbour and his dog). Most of us do not respect something and mostly no one is right or innocent, I guess.
Other cultures, religions, their lifestyles, novels, sports – a lot that seems weird or disgusting. But take a closer look and a lot of that will look or understandable.
posted by krustabas on 7-31-2009 at 8:10 am
Actually, I don’t think that it is Bin Laden’s role of women in society and treating others with disrespect that is why he is so reviled. I think it is because he believes the best way to fight for his ideals is to kill innocent men and women. When you think the only way for you to get your point across is to kill everyone who doesn’t agree with you, you are wrong, whether islamic fundamentalist or christian evangelical or whatever your religious or political affliation. I do agree with krustabas that we should take a closer look at another culture before judging it. There is more in common with each other than there is differences. People are people.
posted by Eric P on 7-31-2009 at 10:14 am
ahem, on the islam topic: read the qur’an. bin laden is NOT following the historical version. he is following portions taken out of context. muhammed had respect for women (they supported him). by the book, the infidels are the pagans, not jews or christians (who are in an outer circle, but are still children of abraham and therefore related). the book does NOT allow for the killing of innocents, does NOT allow for the taking or harming of hostages, says suicides that take other lives are going to hell, etc.
bin laden is not alone; many of the imams in radical sects do the same. but even some salafi and wahabbi (very fundamental traditional sects) acknowledge that the radicals are wrong, that they are violating islam.
these radicals are NOT islam, so there is no culture-judging involved. i have been surrounded by these people. i have worked with the good ones and worked to find the bad ones. appreciating others works two ways. most muslims understand that. bin laden is not one of those.
posted by Id on 7-31-2009 at 1:55 pm
Certainly not famous, but my lazy ass brother who is going on 55 has never drawn a W-2 in his life. It’s always some get rich scheme that he thinks about 1/2 way through.
posted by MeNotYou on 7-31-2009 at 3:32 pm
Don’t forget Obama. Community organize and politician – neither are real jobs.
posted by Bob on 10-7-2009 at 6:18 pm
How is writing not working?
posted by Serena on 10-31-2009 at 12:52 pm