The Right to Beautiful Things

A Vindication of The Lazy Life

"I want freedom, the right to self-expression, everybody’s right to beautiful, radiant things." Emma Goldman's famous declaration captures her vision of anarchism not just as a political movement but as a philosophy of life—one that embraces beauty, pleasure, and enjoyment as essential to human existence.

Inspired by Goldman, Lafargue, and Hannah Arendt’s critique of reducing politics to mere economics, Juan Evaristo Valls’ essay emerges as a fresh and compelling voice, proposing a new way of inhabiting the world—one that values life for its beauty rather than its utility. With luminous and combative prose, he defends fundamental "lazy rights"—the right to laziness, to strike, to retirement, to literature, and to disconnection— not as privileges granted by the system, but as radical acts of resistance against capitalist alienation and expressions of true autonomy. These are the “beautiful things”: those that serve no purpose yet sustain us.

Both thought-provoking and accessible, this book requires no prior philosophical knowledge yet offers a wealth of references for more specialized readers. Blending literary prose with sharp essayistic insight, it stands as a singular contribution to contemporary critiques of work and capitalism—aligning with thinkers like Jenny Odell while forging a uniquely modern and
provocative perspective.

A philosophical manifesto that challenges the tyranny of productivity
and reclaims the intrinsic value of life in its rest and uselessness.