TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 149, 27 June 1933, Page 6

TRACTS FOR THE TIMES.

HOLIDAYS. (By PRO BONO PUBLICO.) Wliv do people take holidays? The doctors sometimes say that one needs a change of scene or air, or a rest, or something, but that has ne\er seemed a satisfactory explanation to me. A city friend of mine who told me ho was ofT to Australia for a holiday explained that he "wanted to pet away from himself." That wasn't a satisfactory explanation, either, and my own belief is that, having made or saved a few pounds, he wanted to get away to a warmer climate. Xow that is something we can all understand. And I can understand one wanting to get away from too familiar faces. I can understand one wanting to enjoy the luxury of sea travel. But none of these explanations seems quite to be satisfactory. I believe that if you got down to the bedrock you would find that the real holiday incentive in the majority of cases is simply the desire to ioaf. All animals are naturally lazy, and all men are animals, so all men arc naturally lazy; They have to work for a living, or because their wives want motor cars and fur coats, or because their children have to be fed, but no one really wants to work at heart. Consequently the urge to take a holiday is always strong. If you have been educated to believe otherwise you l">d better correct your ideas, otherwise your theories about human action will be very wrouu. If you think about it. virtually nil human actions are on the principle of least effort. You tell mo that people built towns 011 high hills and went to the trouble of toiling up the hills for safety, and self-preservation is the first law of Nature. It may be, and probably is, one law of Nature, but it doesn't explain hill towns. "Men built on the hill because it was easier to defend themselves there. It was laziness that induced men to build towns close to water, to make roads over low passes instead of high hills, and so 011; and you will find that the natural laziness of man explains most things in human geography. What puzzles me is that for centuries man has been trying to convince himself that he isn't really lazy." It would have been far better to ndmit it at once and develop 011 natural lines. People say thev can't understand mass psychology. The truth is that it is easier to go with the crowd than against it, and once a movement starts everyone joins in. except those 011 the outskirts who'can safely drift away and sit down. Ever since I discovered this truth I have had no trouble with men. I let them be lazy at the right time and for a sufficient time. And if you let yourself be lazy occasionally you will not need'holidays, In fact you will lie happier without holidays, which are an interruption of one's routine, and because man is naturally lazy lie is also naturally a creature of habit.