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The term slacker 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 90s 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.

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 antiquity, 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.

In some philosophies laziness is a virtue (especially constructive laziness). 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 their relative apathy precludes their involvement in any movement, as the work involved in being involved in anything at all is against the slacker way of life.

The British equivalent of slackers are "idlers." In fact, it might be said that the British came up with the idea first. Several recent books are compendiums of "Lazy" writing, including "The Idler's Companion (1997)," edited by Tom Hodgkinson and Matthew De Albaituia, and "The Importance of Being Idle (2000)," by Stephen Robins. But their sources are as often American as British. Compare also Dr Johnson.

The term was revived in popular culture in the 1980s hit movie Back to the Future. In the trilogy, the high school principal Mr. Strickland and his ancestors call every youth a "slacker!".

Fictional slackers

Slackers and computers

Main article: Slackware
The term Slacker is also used for a person who uses or advocates use of the Slackware distribution of Linux. 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.

See also

References

A slacker is a person who procrastrinates or is lazy.

Slackers may also mean:
  • Slacker, a 1991 independent movie by Richard Linklater.
  • Slackers, a 2002 movie starring Devon Sawa, Jason Schwartzman, and Jaime King

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Motto
"In God We Trust"   (since 1956)
"E Pluribus Unum"   ("From Many, One"; Latin, traditional)
Anthem
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Clockwise from top: Trenches on the Western Front; a British Mark IV tank crossing a trench; Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking after striking a mine at the Battle of the Dardanelles; a Vickers machine gun crew with gas masks, and German Albatros D.
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Allied powers:
 Soviet Union
 United States
 United Kingdom
 China
 France
...et al. Axis powers:
 Germany
 Japan
 Italy
...et al.
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Centuries: 19th century - 20th century - 21st century

1960s 1970s 1980s - 1990s - 2000s 2010s 2020s
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

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For the band, see .

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Richard Linklater

Linklater at the Austin premiere of Fast Food Nation
Birth name Richard Stuart Linklater
Born July 30 1960 (1960--) (age 47)
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All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile
This article is about the Richard Linklater movie. For other uses, see Slackers (disambiguation).

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Motivation is a reason or set of reasons for engaging in a particular behavior, especially human behavior as studied in psychology and neuropsychology. The reasons may include basic needs (e.g.
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worldwide view.
Unemployment is the state in which a worker wants, but is unable, to work. The unemployment rate is the number of unemployed workers divided by the total civilian labor force.
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Protestantism encompasses the forms of Christian faith and practice that originated with the doctrines of the Reformation. The word Protestant is derived from the Latin protestatio meaning declaration
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Christianity

Foundations
Jesus Christ
Church Theology
New Covenant Supersessionism
Dispensationalism
Apostles Kingdom Gospel
History of Christianity Timeline
Bible
Old Testament New Testament
Books Canon Apocrypha
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Hebrew}}} 
Writing system: Alefbet Ivri abjad 
Official status
Official language of:  Israel
Regulated by: Academy of the Hebrew Language

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Classical antiquity (also the classical era or classical period) is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome.
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Middle Ages form the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three "ages": the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages and Modern Times.
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PLATO was one of the first generalized Computer assisted instruction systems, originally built by the University of Illinois and later taken over by Control Data Corporation (CDC), who provided the machines it ran on.
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Aristotle (Greek: Ἀριστοτέλης Aristotélēs) (384 BC – 322 BC) was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great.
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ART is a three-letter acronym that can mean:

Medicine

  • Antiretroviral therapy. It is used in the treatment of HIV infection.
  • assisted reproductive technology

Other

  • Adaptive resonance theory

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Philosophy is the discipline concerned with questions of how one should live (ethics); what sorts of things exist and what are their essential natures (metaphysics); what counts as genuine knowledge (epistemology); and what are the correct principles of reasoning (logic).
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Politics is the process by which groups of people make decisions. Although the term is generally applied to behavior within civil governments, politics is observed in all human group interactions, including corporate, academic, and religious
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Prudence (lat.:prudentia) is classically considered to be a virtue, and indeed, one of the Cardinal Virtues. The word comes from Old French prudence (13th century), from Latin prudentia "foresight, sagacity," contraction of providentia "foresight".
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Morality (from the Latin moralitas "manner, character, proper behaviour") has three principal meanings. In its first descriptive usage, morality means a code of conduct held to be authoritative in matters of right and wrong,
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Wisdom, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is defined as the "1 a: Accumulated philosophic or scientific learning-knowledge; b: Ability to discern inner qualities and relationships-insight; c: Good sense-judgment d: Generally accepted belief <challenges what has become
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Leisure or free time, is a period of time spent out of work and essential domestic activity. It is also the period of discretionary time before or after compulsory activities such as eating and sleeping, going to work or running a business, attending school and doing
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Laziness is the lack of desire to perform work or expend effort. What behavior is considered laziness varies according to personal and societal standards.

Laziness is considered by some Christians to be one of the seven deadly sins, though it is called sloth on the list.
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Virtue (Latin virtus; Greek ἀρετή) is moral excellence of a person. A virtue is a trait valued as being good. The conceptual opposite of virtue is vice.
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Reinventing the wheel is a phrase that means a generally accepted technique or solution is ignored in favor of a locally invented solution. To "reinvent the wheel" is to duplicate a basic method that has long since been accepted and even taken for granted.
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Computer programming (often shortened to programming or coding) is the process of writing, testing, and maintaining the source code of computer programs. The source code is written in a programming language.
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Procrastination is a type of avoidance behaviour which is characterised by deferment of actions or tasks to a later time. It is often cited by psychologists as a mechanism for coping with the anxiety associated with starting or completing any task or decision.
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A word is a term of derision, or a phrase is pejorative, if it implies contempt or disapproval. The adjective pejorative is synonymous with derogatory, derisive, and dyslogistic.
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Hacker has several common meanings, the unifying characteristic of which is only that it refers to a person who is an avid computer enthusiast. It is most commonly used as a pejorative by the mass media to refer to a person who engages in illegal computer cracking, which is its
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