Yeah, Russell is the quintessential British liberal, hence the disdain for the working class in all his work.
Yes, exactly, his article is steeped in contempt for work.
So much so that he considers writers and artists slackers—that sounds ridiculous to me.
Example: Jules Verne worked very intensively. His workday lasted up to 15 hours. The writer strictly adhered to the following schedule:
Start: early morning, from 4:00 AM to 5:00 AM.
Finish: late evening (around 8:00 PM). Daily output: he wrote 10 to 20 printed pages daily, which allowed him to publish several seminal novels a year.
How can you call this man a slacker, and where would he find the time to work for four hours, only to then... in his "free time" pursue creativity?
And what mark did this man leave on history?
But he does get at the irrationality of capitalism here where the goal is simply to maximize profit with no regard for anything else.
Yes, I liked his logic, at some point I even got carried away reading it.
I also very much agree with your point that overwork turns people into zombies.
I saw this with my own eyes in Moscow. People on the metro are empty-eyed, detached, and always in a hurry. Such are the conditions for survival there.
My view is that required work should be minimized as much as possible, and people should have the ability to choose how they spend their time.
I'm not sure about the 4-hour period. I doubt unemployment in more or less developed countries is 50%... it's probably not even like that in Africa.
But 6-8 hours, depending on the complexity of the job, would be normal.