a bum who devotes much of his time reflecting about life and enjoys talking about it, because he derives a certain degree of joy from these activities, could possibly be a philosopher. it is wrong to dismiss bums as people who do not make much sense because they do not work.
a philosopher who is unemployed and chooses to remain so since he hates labor and never really cares much about his future could possibly be a bum.
we have come to a point where we could say that, philosophers could be bums and bums, philosophers.
if we go futher, we will arrive with the concept of a philosopher-bum.
a philosopher-bum is a person who would prefer thinking or reflecting rather than working.
or if they have to work, it should also be a source of 'pleasure'. something very close to what they enjoy doing without exerting strenuous effort, say writing or reading. the main argument is that life does not have to be tiring and that one has the choice to do what he's always wanted to do. or if a certain work is tiring, the person wouldn't think much about that aspect, because that particular work is something he enjoys doing.
at this point, it should be clear that philosopher-bums are thinking bums, they only appear to be doing nothing but what we cannot see is that they make great sense out of life than those who give much focus on work. a philosopher-bum is far from an ordinary bum who would rather vegetate (i.e., eat, sleep, and die.)
man lives to work and works to live, but life isn't all about work. man tends to over-exaggerate things.
i believe in the value of work, how it makes life worth living and how it makes sense. man could only be wrong if he starts treating work as an end. that life is all about work and what he earns from it.
today, everyone is expected to be 'doing' something. for us to use time wisely, we have to 'do' something. doing 'nothing' is a great waste of time. we say, one is maximizing his time when he is capable of accomplishing a lot of things in only a matter of a few hours, when one is spending his time wisely if he is occupied most of his waking hours doing something which could make him earn.
thinking, as it is seen today, is almost as good as doing 'nothing', for with it a person is unable to accomplish something tangible. ideas are only useful when they are actualized. i am not saying that it's good to be a bum, the main point is, there are good lessons in a bum's life which workaholics could get from. we all need to be philosophizing-bums sometimes.
it's when we give time to think about the real purpose of life. where it is now and where it is going to.
