Slacker

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For the Richard Linklater movie, see Slacker (movie)

"Withdrawal in disgust is not the same as apathy." - Richard Linklater

The term slacker, in contemporary western culture, applies generally to young people who, wary of the materialistic, success-driven values of their society, reject those values by intentionally underachieving at school, work or both. Slacker culture challenges prevalent capitalistic values, specifically the Protestant work ethic. The key fundamentals of the Protestant ethic are diligence, punctuality, deferment of gratification, and primacy of the work domain. Used in a phrase-Robyn Wirkes is a major slacker.

The term was commonly used in the United States in World War I and World War II to describe men who were avoiding the military draft. But in the 90's it specifically referred to a variety of tendencies in the young generation—a use popularized by Richard Linklater's movie Slacker - subsequently spawning the label "slacker generation." A typical slacker is characterized by a static, unenthusiastic air manifesting in an apparent lack of effort. This lack of motivation is usually represented as a status of unemployment or only minor employment in the service industry.

The slacker defense

To other people, it may appear that slackers do not do very much actual work, schoolwork, or much of anything. However, individuals considered to be slackers may in fact be very active, though not always in activities that society deems to be most important (such as writing in Wikipedia instead of getting a "real" job).

Hard work for its own sake is a fairly modern phenomenon, becoming culturally acceptable during the Protestant Reformation. A positive view on work was not a cultural norm for Hebrew, classical, or medieval cultures. Greek society recognized that work was necessary for the satisfaction of material needs, but philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle made it clear that the purpose for which the majority of men labored was "in order that the minority, the élite, might engage in pure exercises of the mind--art, philosophy, and politics". The Greeks believed that a person's prudence, morality, and wisdom was directly proportional to the amount of leisure time that person had.

Contrary to what some may believe, in some philosophies laziness is a virtue (especially constructive laziness). To paraphrase Sun Tzu, "When the superior man refrains from acting, his force is felt for a thousand li." This quote epitomizes the philosophy of the slacker. Another maxim that typifies the slacker is "Do not reinvent the wheel." For example, in computer programming, it often is easier to re-use previously written code than coming up with a new implementation of some algorithm.

Apart from meaning lazy, slacker may also be used to insinuate habitual procrastination and a disorganized, slovenly lifestyle. Proponents of slacker theory assert that managing to survive by doing things at the last possible moment improves intellect as a compensatory way to cope, fashioning a wily yet lazy person. Similarly, a disorganized lifestyle may be superior to an organized one from the pragmatic perspective that a slacker will adapt to disorderliness by improving skills at memorization and at effortlessly rummaging, whereas actively organizing would require serious effort. Hence, the epithet slacker, while often used in the pejorative, is growingly signifying a complimentary, cerebral quality of an unconventional person. For another example of a bimodally pejorative and affectionate term, see hacker. There is also a slight overlap among slacker culture, stoner culture, and hippie culture insofar as they all are implying a disheveled appearance; however, many slackers are straight edge, and their relative apathy precludes their involvement in any hippie movement.

Throughout the 1990s, the slacker culture was embraced. Music groups and artists representing slackers worldwide emerged. Perhaps the best example of this is Beck's 1994 #1 hit "Loser".

Slackers and computers

The term Slacker is also used for a person who uses or advocates use of the Slackware distribution of Linux. Ironically, Slackware is widely considered the most technically oriented and UNIX-like distribution ("Slackware has been traditionally known to be about as user friendly as a coiled rattlesnake" write the owners of VectorLinux), although many also consider it the most stable distribution. This use of "Slack" comes from the Church of the SubGenius. Slackware does fit in with the concept of slacker in that it follows the KISS principle, relying heavily on simple, flexible text scripts rather than fancy yet brittle GUI elements. The Slackware logo is Tux the penguin with a corncob pipe.de:Slacker sv:Slacker