Essays From West of 98: The Peril of Ignoble Ease
Contrary to societal belief, work is good and valuable
📷: more scenes from the Strenuous Life Retreat, August 2023
What does it mean to live a strenuous life, anyway? Many of you (especially if you have followed me for any length of time) already know that “The Strenuous Life” is a phrase that comes from a speech of the same name by Theodore Roosevelt. One of TR’s most famous speeches, it opens with this renowned statement:
“I wish to preach, not the doctrine of ignoble ease, but the doctrine of the strenuous life, the life of toil and effort, of labor and strife; to preach that highest form of success which comes, not to the man who desires mere easy peace, but to the man who does not shrink from danger, from hardship, or from bitter toil, and who out of these wins the splendid ultimate triumph.”
It is a powerful and bold line in a speech full of bold statements about life and public policy. For 4,500 words (which shakes out to about 30 minutes of oratory), Roosevelt sets forth his vision of America in the 20th century. He gave this speech on April 10, 1899 in Chicago, which was a significant setting. 19th century America was dominated by the Eastern cities. Chicago did not even exist at the dawn of the 19th century but held over 1.5 million people in 1899. Roosevelt saw that the coming century would bring new challenges and opportunities and believed that the hardy, energetic leaders of Chicago epitomized the American spirit for the new century.
I am an unabashed TR fanboy, but his legacy is complicated. TR’s presidency was that of an action hero and his example spawned an inglorious line of politicians with similar heroic aspirations. Some of his views were ahead of his time, while others are decidedly retrograde. TR’s transformation from a sickly child into a model of physical and intellectual fitness is the stuff of legend and an inspiration to many, myself included. This “tough guy” edge also helped fuel his inclination toward warmongering and jingoism in the Spanish-American War and World War I, the latter of which factored into his son Quentin’s death in aerial combat over France in 1918.
If you read this speech (which I have many times), you can see TR’s flaws on display. You can also see some of his finest qualities. Roosevelt delves into the idea of a person and a people making the most of life and doing things of value. This does not mean “value” in the mere sense of some contribution to the national GDP; rather, it is a value of a truly satisfactory life which leaves the world better as a result of that life’s contribution.
At the close of the Gilded Age, when the ultra-rich possessed an outsized portion of the national wealth, TR applied this doctrine to all segments of society. Strenuous living was not to be adopted by the working classes alone. TR drew a hard line: if you are rich and are worth your salt, you will teach your sons that though they may have leisure, it is not to be spent in idleness.” He called for the wealthy to pursue improvement of the world through science, letters, art, exploration, and historical research. Roosevelt was born into wealth and privilege himself, but never shirked his own duties to the world, so in many ways, he became his own case study on this point.
On Labor Day 1903, Roosevelt gave another memorable speech in which he said “far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing…”
For decades, we have devalued the virtue of work. We have resisted the notion that working hard at work worth doing is a good thing. It is! Work has been portrayed as drudgery. Minimize it, avoid it, or pawn it off on someone else, preferably someone below your station in life.
By devaluing the goodness and value of work, we devalue the goodness and value of humanity itself. When Theodore Roosevelt warned against the doctrine of ignoble ease, he warned of something deeply harmful to the human spirit. Ignoble ease rots a society from the inside out.
Work is good. It should be honored and valued. By doing so, we honor and value the goodness of each of us as human beings.
James Decker is the Mayor of Stamford, Texas and the creator of the West of 98 website and the Rural Church and State and West of 98 podcasts. Contact James and subscribe to these essays at westof98.substack.com and subscribe to him wherever podcasts are found.