Ecclesiastes 4:1-6

" Again I saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun. And behold, the tears of the oppressed, and they had no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power, and there was no one to comfort them. And I thought the dead who are already dead more fortunate than the living who are still alive. But better than both is he who has not yet been and has not seen the evil deeds that are done under the sun. Then I saw that all toil and all skill in work come from a man’s envy of his neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind. The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh. Better is a handful of quietness than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind." (Ecclesiastes 4:1-6, ESV)

As if the despair of meaninglessness were not enough. The Preacher observes that this life is also racked with pervasive oppression. In his day, as in most of the world today, the majority of people fell into the category of oppressed. It was only the elite and wealthy few who could escape it, and most of them were the oppressors. The average person did not have the opportunity to pine away hours meditating on the vanity of life. They were too exhausted and broken to consider anything but personal and family survival. Pondering the questions of life, for this very reason, tends to be a middle to upper class privilege. If you are reading this and thinking about it, chances are you have escaped much of life’s oppression. A futile life that is an oppressed life. Who has the stomach for that? John Lennon’s “Working Class Hero” is the modern equivalent of Preacher’s observations.

As soon as your born they make you feel small,
By giving you no time instead of it all,
Till the pain is so big you feel nothing at all,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school,
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool,
Till you're so ***** crazy you can't follow their rules,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.

When they've tortured and scared you for twenty odd years,
Then they expect you to pick a career,
When you can't really function you're so full of fear,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV,
And you think you're so clever and classless and free,
But you're still ****** peasents as far as I can see,
A working class hero is something to be,
A working class hero is something to be.

There's room at the top they are telling you still,
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,
If you want to be like the folks on the hill,
A working class hero is something to be.
A working class hero is something to be.

If you want to be a hero well just follow me,
If you want to be a hero well just follow me.

So the Preacher says, it would be better than if you had never been born. In vs. 4-6, I think the Preacher provides an answer for what is driving the oppression. Within the heart of men is a passion to be better than other men. Hard work and long hours are fatally driven by a lust for more. I don’t think its a stretch to connect this “envy” to the oppression of vs. 1-3. As Lennon says, “You must learn how to smile as you kill, If you want to be like the folks on the hill.” Of course, the opposite extreme is just as foolish. The sluggard “eats his own flesh.” That is, his laziness is his worst enemy. So the Preacher advocates a middle of the road approach. Work for what you need and be content with it. To not work is self-destruction. To toil out of greed and dissatisfaction leads to communal destruction. Work for what you need and be satisfied with it.