14. Work
"Whether work should be placed among the causes of happiness or the causes
of unhappiness may perhaps be regarded as a doubtful question." [page 162]
Russell places it among the causes of happiness for a number of reasons:
1. It passes time. "To be able to fill leisure intelligently
is the last product of civilization, and at present very few people have
reached this level. ... Except to people with unusual initiative, it is
positively agreeable to be told what to do at each hour of the day, provided
the orders are not too unpleasant." [pages 162-163]
2. It provides an opportunity for success.
3. The work itself may be interesting. "Two chief
elements make work interesting: first, the exercise of skill, and second,
construction. ... All skilled work can be pleasurable, provided the skill
required is either variable or capable of indefinite improvement. ... In
some work, though by no means in most, something is built up which remains
as a monument when the work is completed." [pages 164-165]
"Where it is possible to do work that is satisfactory to a man's constructive
impulses without entirely starving, he will be well advised from the point
of view of his own happiness if he chooses it in preference to work much
more highly paid but not seeming to him worth doing on its own account.
Without self respect genuine happiness is scarcely possible. And the man
who is ashamed of his work can hardly achieve self respect." [pages 168-169]