Editing Slacker

{{short description|Person who habitually avoids work or lacks work ethic}}
{{about|people who lack work ethic}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2017}}
{{Lead too short|date=January 2025}}
A '''slacker''' is someone who habitually [[work aversion|avoids work]] or lacks [[work ethic]].

==Origin==
According to different sources, the term "slacker" dates back to about 1790 or 1898.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=slacker&searchmode=none |title=Online Etymology Dictionary, slack (adj.) |publisher=Douglas Harper}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dictionary.com/browse/slacker |title= Dictionary.com slacker (noun) |publisher=Editors of dictionary.com}}</ref> "Slacker" gained some recognition during the [[UK|British]] [[Gezira Scheme]] in the early to mid-20th century, when [[Sudan]]ese labourers protested their relative powerlessness by working lethargically, a form of protest known as "slacking".<ref>V. Bernal, "Colonial Moral Economy and the Discipline of Development: The Gezira Scheme and 'Modern' Sudan", ''Cultural Anthropology'', Vol. 12, 1997, 447–79</ref><ref>Robert Sydney Smith, ''Warfare & Diplomacy in Pre-Colonial West Africa'' ([[University of Wisconsin Press]] 1989), 54-62</ref>

==World Wars==
[[File:In the Service They're Deserters. Don't Be a Production Slacker - NARA - 534393.jpg|thumb|upright|A 1942 US [[War Production Board]] propaganda poster equates slacking in the workplace to desertion.]]

In the United States during [[World War I]], the word "slacker" was commonly used to describe someone who was not participating in the war effort, specifically someone who avoided military service, equivalent to the later term "[[draft dodger]]". Attempts to track down such evaders were called "slacker raids".<ref>New York Times: [https://www.nytimes.com/1918/09/10/archives/take-slackers-into-army-many-at-camp-dix-welcome-induction-into.html "Take Slackers into Army", September 10, 1918], accessed 21 April 2010</ref>

During World War I, U.S. Senator [[Miles Poindexter]] discussed whether inquiries "to separate the cowards and the slackers from those who had not violated the draft" had been managed properly. A ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'' headline on 7 September 1918, read, "Slacker Is Doused in Barrel of Paint".<ref>Christopher Cappozolla, ''Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen'' (NY: [[Oxford University Press]], 2008), 43-53, quotes 50, 229n</ref><ref>For one of many uses of the word during the trial of [[Sacco and Vanzetti]], see G. Louis Joughin and Edmund M. Morgan, ''[[The Legacy of Sacco and Vanzetti]]'' (NY: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1948), 119</ref>

The term was also used during the [[World War II]] period in the United States. In 1940, ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' quoted the [[U.S. Army]] on managing [[conscription in the United States|the military draft]] efficiently: "War is not going to wait while every slacker resorts to endless appeals."<ref>''TIME'': [https://web.archive.org/web/20121107040911/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,801969-3,00.html "The Draft: How it Works", September 23, 1940], accessed 13 April 2011. See also: ''New York Times'': [https://www.nytimes.com/1943/09/29/archives/wheeler-assails-bureau-slackers-demands-they-and-dodgers-in.html "Wheeler Assails Bureau 'Slackers'", September 29, 1943], accessed 21 April 2010; ''New York Times'': [https://www.nytimes.com/1943/08/14/archives/nazis-round-up-slackers-facing-british-8th-army.html "Nazis Round Up Slackers Facing British 8th Army", August 14, 1943], accessed 21 April 2010</ref>

==Evolution==
The shift in the use of "slacker" from its draft-related meaning to a more general sense of the avoidance of work is unclear. In April 1948, ''[[The New Republic]]'' referred to "resentment against taxes levied to aid slackers".<ref>Michael Straight, ''Trial by Television and Other Encounters'' (NY: Devon Press, 1979), 76</ref> An article tracking the evolution of the meaning of the term "Slacker" in defamation lawsuits between World War I and 2010, entitled ''When Slacker Was a Dirty Word: Defamation and Draft Dodging During World War I,'' was written by Attorney David Kluft for the Trademark and Copyright Law Blog.<ref>{{cite news|last=Kluft |first=David |url=http://www.trademarkandcopyrightlawblog.com/2014/06/when-slacker-was-a-dirty-word-defamation-and-draft-dodging-during-world-war-i/ |title=When "Slacker" Was A Dirty Word: Defamation And Draft Dodging During World War I |newspaper=Trademark and Copyright Law |date=30 June 2014 |access-date=7 August 2017}}</ref>

==Late 20th century and onward==
The term achieved renewed popularity following its use in the 1985 film ''[[Back to the Future]]'' in which [[James Tolkan]]'s character Mr. Strickland chronically refers to [[Marty McFly]], his father George McFly, [[Biff Tannen]], and a group of [[Juvenile delinquency|teenaged delinquents]] as "slackers".<ref>Internet Movie Database: [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088763/quotes "Memorable quotes for ''Back to the Future'' (1985)"], accessed 6 August 2010</ref> It gained subsequent exposure from the [[Superchunk]] single "[[Slack Motherfucker]]" and the film ''[[Slacker (film)|Slacker]]'', both released in 1990.<ref name=dictionarycom /> The television series ''[[Rox (American TV series)|Rox]]'' has been noted for its "depiction of the slacker lifestyle ... of the early '90s".<ref name="lux">{{cite news|title=Unstructured (Life) Style Draws Cult Following|last=Kheiry|first=Jamal|date=8 April 1994|newspaper=LUX (IDS Entertainment Guide)}}</ref><ref name="uncensored">{{Cite news|title=In the realm of the uncensored|last=Hall|first=Steve|date=20 May 1995|newspaper=The Indianapolis Star}}</ref><ref name="nuvo">{{cite news|title=J&B: Life on the ROX|last1=Hammer|first1=Steve|last2=Poyser|first2=Jim|date=18 January 1995|newspaper=NUVO Newsweekly}}</ref>

"Slacker" became widely used in the 1990s to refer to a type of [[apathetic]] youth who were [[cynical]] and uninterested in political or social causes. This type became a stereotype for members of [[Generation X]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=ScrIibner|first1=Sara|title=Generation X gets really old: How do slackers have a midlife crisis?|url=http://www.salon.com/2013/08/11/generation_x_gets_really_old_how_do_slackers_have_a_midlife_crisis/|access-date=19 June 2016|work=Salon|date=11 August 2013}}</ref> [[Richard Linklater]], director of the aforementioned 1990 film, commented on the term's meaning in a 1995 interview, stating that "I think the cheapest definition [of a slacker] would be someone who's just lazy, hangin' out, doing nothing. I'd like to change that to somebody who's not doing what's expected of them. Somebody who's trying to live an interesting life, doing what they want to do, and if that takes time to find, so be it."<ref>{{Cite news|title=Withdrawing in Disgust Is Not the Same as Apathy: Cutting Some Slack with Richard Linklater|last1=Petrek|first1=Melissa|work=[[Mondo 2000]]|last2=Hines|first2=Alan|year=1993|issue=9|page=81}}</ref>

The term has connotations of "apathy and aimlessness".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/slacker?view=get |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120718025531/http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/slacker?view=get |url-status=dead |archive-date=18 July 2012 |title=slacker |author=Compact Oxford English Dictionary}}</ref> It is also used to refer to an educated person who avoids work, possibly as an anti[[economic materialism|materialist]] stance, who may be viewed as an [[underachiever]].<ref name="dictionarycom">{{cite web |url=http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/slacker |title=slacker |publisher=Random House, Inc. |year=2006}}</ref>

"Slackers" have been the subject of many films and television shows, particularly comedies. Notable examples include the films ''[[Slacker (film)|Slacker]]'', ''[[Slackers (film)|Slackers]]'', ''[[Clerks (film)|Clerks]]'',<ref>''New York Times'': [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/04/books/chapters/0604-1st-lutz.html?pagewanted=3& Tom Lutz, "''Doing Nothing''", June 4, 2006] accessed August 6, 2010, and excerpt Tom Lutz, ''Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America'' (NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006)</ref> ''[[Hot Tub Time Machine]]'', ''[[Bio-Dome]]'', ''[[You, Me and Dupree]]'', ''[[Bachelor Party (1984 film)|Bachelor Party]]'', ''[[Stripes (film)|Stripes]]'', ''[[Withnail and I]]'', ''[[The Big Lebowski]]'', ''[[Old School (2003 film)|Old School]]'', ''[[Ferris Bueller's Day Off]]'', ''[[Trainspotting (film)|Trainspotting]],'' ''[[Animal House]]'', and [[Bill & Ted|''Bill and Ted'']], as well as the television shows ''[[Freaks and Geeks]]'', ''[[Spaced]]'', and ''[[The Royle Family]]''.

''[[The Idler (1993)|The Idler]]'', a British magazine founded in 1993, represents an alternative to contemporary society's [[work ethic]] and aims "to return dignity to the art of loafing".<ref>''The Idler'': [http://idler.co.uk/shop/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=3 "About The Idler"], accessed 6 August 2010</ref>

==See also==
{{wikiquote}}
*[[Acedia]], a state of listlessness
*[[Buddha-like mindset]], Chinese term for people who reject the rat race
*[[Contrarian]]
*[[Goldbricking]], cyberslacking
*[[Goofing off]], engaging in idle pastime while obligations are neglected
*[[Hikikomori]], Japanese term for withdrawal from social life
*[[NEET]], "Not in Employment, Education or Training"
*[[Procrastination]], putting off impending tasks to a later time
*[[Slacktivism]]
*[[Sloth (deadly sin)]]
*[[Tang ping]] ("lying flat")

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:1790s neologisms]]
[[Category:Conscription in the United States]]
[[Category:Counterculture of the 1990s]]
[[Category:Demographics]]
[[Category:Stereotypes]]
[[Category:Pejorative terms for people]]
[[Category:Refusal of work]]