The New Criterion

Stefan Beck asks and answers with a page from Waugh today at NRO.

Of course, nothing that leads to perdition can be all that dull, especially not in Waugh’s hands. Sloth, he says, is not mere laziness � "lying too long in the bath or postponing our letters of congratulation or condolence" � but rather "sadness in the face of spiritual good." It is knowing what will lead one to success, joy, or salvation, but remaining inert because "the whole apparatus of salvation fills [one] with tedium and disgust."

If this is the true face of Sloth � and Waugh argues deftly that it is � the Devil must be delighted by much of the political discourse he’s hearing these days. As Iraq moves closer to the elections that will cement its new democracy, the Left continues to slink from action into Sloth’s shadow, despair.

UPDATE: What would St. Thomas Aquinas do? Otto Clemson Hiss has the answer.

UPDATE II: What would the Three-toed Sloth do? Stephen Baldwin has the answer.