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  3. Ben Was Swell, But He’s Out Old saws are wearing out. Take the case of "The devil finds work for idle hands to do. " As rece

Ben Was Swell, But He’s Out Old saws are wearing out. Take the case of "The devil finds work for idle hands to do. " As rece

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问题                     Ben Was Swell, But He’s Out
    Old saws are wearing out. Take the case of "The devil finds work for idle hands to do. " As recently as fifteen years ago when a mother caught a son loafing around the pornography rack at the corner drugstore, she could take him by the ear and lead him home to wash the windows, with the perfectly satisfactory explanation that "The devil finds work for idle hands to do. "
    Nowadays, the world is different. With the march of automation, idleness is becoming the national occupation and sociologists will speak sternly to mothers who oppose it. Since ever-expanding idleness is the goal of the American economy, it is unpatriotic to mention it in the same breath with Beelzebub.
    The goal now is to rehabilitate idleness, and the first step in every rehabilitation program is a name change. During World War I, when Germany became the power, the Hunnish sauerkraut was restored to respectability by being renamed "liberal cabbage". In the same way, ugly satanic old idleness is now rechristened "leisure".
    Leisure sounds ever so much more decent than idleness. It sounds like something that the uptown set might go in for enthusiastically. Idleness was an evil to be taught by placing such weapons as window-washing rags and lawnmowers in the hands of the indolent young. Leisure is merely another typical American problem to be solved by a nexus of committees, study groups and Congressional investigations.
    Now, if a boy loafs around the pornography, it is merely because he has a "leisure-time problem. " The solution is not to put him to work—the machines have most of the jobs well in hand—but to encourage him to take up the oboe or start a bee colony, In this way, we say, he uses his leisure "creatively".
    The notion of creative leisure is mostly non-sense, of course. The sin that a boy may stumble into by keeping company with oboe players or going to bee-keepers’ conventions is considerable, especially if his interest in oboes or bees is only a substitute for loafing around the drugstore.
    The American economic system must, nevertheless, be justified. And so if a boy follows the oboe path to see his parents are no longer permitted to blame it all on Satan; instead, the parents are indicated for failing to find a creative solution to the leisure-time problem.
    There are many other pieces of ancient wisdom that have turned obsolete under the bizarre of American prosperity, Take "A penny saved is a penny earned. " Sound enough in France, perhaps, but clearly subversive in 1965.
    The first economic duty of every citizen today is to consume. To keep the economy booming we must consume with our cash, consume with our credit cards, consume with our charge accounts and then go to the bank to borrow the means to consume again.
    It is obvious that if people begin acting on the theory that " A penny saved is a penny earned," production would fall, unemployment would rise, salutes would be cut and the country would stagnate. Nowadays, the homily should read, "A penny spent is not good enough. "
    Then there is the collapse of "A stitch in time saves nine. " To maintain even the present unsatisfactory level of employment, it is absolutely imperative that we never settle for the timely one-stitch job when a bit of dallying can make work for nine additional stitchers.
    As we have seen too many industries, the nine stitches thrown out of work either go on relief— which reduces the timely stitches take-home pay—or turn in desperation to braining the smug stitch-in-time takers for their entire pay envelopes. In this type of economy, the canny stitcher takes his stitch too late.
    And, of course, there is old " Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. " Taken literally, this advice would now be disastrous.
    In the first place, rising early would immediately raise the leisure-time problem to unmanageable proportions. The safest of all leisure-time activities is sleep, and the fellow who rolls out at cock’s crow to work on his oboe is going to be thoroughly sated with leisure by breakfast time.
    What’s more, early rising tends to make a man reflect on the absurdity of his life. In this mood, he may very well realize that his way of life is insane and decide to change it by saving a penny, thereby triggering an economic catastrophe.
    Very likely he will go to the office feeling energetic and healthy and, before he can stop himself take a stitch in time, thus causing unemployment raising his taxes and increasing crime. "Early to bed and early to rise" has had its day.
    So, apparently, has Benjamin Franklin.
Do you think "rehabilitate idleness" and "creative leisure" ironic? Why?
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答案I think rehabilitate idleness and creative leisure are ironic. Because in the essay, the author mentions that with the march of automation idleness has been a national occupation, and ever-expanding idleness is the goal of American economy, it is obvious that the author is actually criticizing that American economy is affected by automation and American people are becoming idle, not referring to leisure.
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