Rizal on Indolence and Colonialism

Rizal actually defended being lazy and it makes total sense. He admitted that Filipinos might

seem indolent, but he argued it is not a character flaw, it is simple biology.

In a tropical climate, violent manual labor is basically a death sentence. He called out the

colonizers who complained about lazy locals while they sat in carriages getting fanned by servants

all day. Rizal’s point was that this lack of energy was not the cause of the country's

problems, but the result of them. When you work hard for a system that

gives you zero hope, doing nothing isn't laziness, it is a reaction to a nightmare.