The Penultimate Lecture
Poemata LXII
The Master, with a flurry, entered in With such suddenness he hushed the din Among the many scholars sitting there And with silent fury took his chair. "Students, now:" he said, or bellowed out "I will question you, it is in doubt "That a pleasing answer will arise "Ye now shall stand; and soft! Affix your eyes!" "I riddle this to you so learned here "How can we take man's work that should appear "To make for us ev'ry prosperity "And turn this effort into nullity?" There was a quiet in that hall so bright Which although immense, by diode-light And sun which capered through the window-glass Gave color to the stones beneath that class; A first responder spoke up quite as fast As any teachers-pet future or past: "Perhaps by pricing, then when he compete "A man cannot afford to work to eat?" But when the Master simply sat in thought Another his interpretation sought: "All man's private efforts. them divide "And give to those who do not work, his pride?" So silence reigned for yet a moment more A third at last did make to set the score: "Let mankind only work to buy and sell "But money!" laughed he, thought it well; A fourth however waiting duly spoke: "I think you three must try to tell a joke-- "Make him unproductive? I have seen "Such when all his work is by machine." And with this word the Master clapped his hands And said, "such discourse verily demands "An answer: Nietzsche from you yet but barks "As does Heidegger, and Rand, and Marx!" "The answer will evade those lost in cant "Though could be answered, with a certain slant "But now affirm with all veracity "Yet lies not in the Twentieth Century." Now standing, he flipped the ancient blackboard round And grabbed a chalk that there he quickly found-- And drew four quadrants, with audacity Wrote "Work", and "Leisure"; "Idleness", "Futility". "So with whatever method you propose, "You must by it both of these things transpose. "His work to idleness; and make it be "His leisure useless work: futility."