Homer's birthright

LAZINESS SHOULD NOW BE TREATED as a ‘disease’ according to Dr Richard Weiler and Dr Emmanuel Stamatakis. Because obesity is now seen as a disease, the two doctors believe that laziness should be accorded the same nomenclature. According to an article they wrote in the British Medical Journal: " Given the significant associated mortality and morbidity, we propose that perhaps physical inactivity [laziness]should also be considered for recognition as a disease in its own right."

I cannot help that it is more than just coincidence that the theory has come to light just as David Cameron threatens to launch his assault on the system of Incapacity Benefit, a benefit that is universally recognized as a meal ticket (created by politicians) for the very people the two doctors refer to in their article. This does not mean of course that there are not hundreds and thousands of genuine claimants, many of which will no doubt be trawled up in the net the prime minister proposes to cast without targeting his catch; but even for such people these two doctors’ theory is as laughable as it is repugnant to the hard working people who no doubt pay Dr Weiler’s and Dr Stamatakis’s salary.

It is tough on those hard working taxpayers to see it through the lens of these two doctors; indeed they may, to put it mildly, see them as an easy touch for anyone who cannot get out of bed in the morning.

As for trying to get this vice recognized as an ‘illness’ by international bodies within Europe as well as the United Nations on the same basis that obesity was treated, just beggars belief. These two doctors know about medicine but very little about human nature. If, along with tomes on medicine, they had broadened their literary horizons toward dipping into Dickens for instance, then they would have perhaps had a better insight into human nature than human anatomy; if of course it is their field.

EVEN IF THEIR THEORY proved medically sustainable, no politician (however liberal) would buy into it; it would mean certain defeat at the polls, and on this occasion I would support their cynicism.

Laziness, Idleness, lethargy or slothfulness. These are characteristics that are not to be tolerated in a modern or any other, society. To parade yourself as having such an ‘illness’ and therefore depended upon the resources of the tax payer opens society up to the same disease, resulting in its economic decline.

If laziness is treated as a disease in the same way obesity is treated; then if you think that Incapacity Benefit was abused, you will have seen nothing to compare with what will happen if these two men of medicine manage to succeed in their efforts.

Medics of all kinds are idealists as well as men of science. They believe, no doubt, in mankind’s innate honesty as well as their medical welfare. When it comes to measuring the lazy person’s entitlement to suckling from the public tit, how do the two doctors propose measuring how genuine the truly idle are?

But then, even if they do manage, through part theory and part technology, to separate the wheat from the chaff, society itself will never accept it.

They will not accept it because it is not a virtue to be idle. Not only is it open to widespread abuse, but even the genuine cases should not be supported by what are after all the hard working taxpayer.

I do not care whether these two doctors are right or wrong. But I hope they may prove to be right in order to advance my argument that laziness, medically justified or not, will become a cancer on the our country’s economic development.

I find it incredible that two such obviously intelligent men can pronounce upon what they consider to be a new disease. Society regulates itself according to the free market. It has proved itself more than adequate to the task throughout centuries. It relies upon ambition and energy to function.

What we in the West call the Capitalist system needs ambitious wealth creators to advance our civilization. The whole ethos is built upon business and the wealth generated by their success. These entrepreneurs are the life blood of any economies success; they employ millions of people who pay the taxes for the likes of Dr Richard Weiler and Dr Emmanuel Stamatakis to come up with their theory of disease-laziness.

THESE TWO DOCTORS should and undoubtedly will be ignored. Perhaps they even know this themselves. Perhaps they have managed to see far into the future when they will be absolved from the ridicule they now face. This is the ‘martyr syndrome’ commonly sought after by liberals.

Laziness is just that; the refusal to engage with society through work and production. If laziness is a disease then work should be its cure. Pandering to such indolence by doctors no less, is no help to the individual.