A few days ago, I logged onto MySpace for just a minute and noticed something. My little brother had posted a bulletin about some kind of anti-whaling thing. I didn’t take time to read it. I never do.

He has this whole animal rights activist thing that he’s been clamoring about for the last couple of years. I tell him that he can’t be an activist because that would require that he be active.

See, he is 23. He doesn’t have a job. He isn’t in school, he lives with my parents and he doesn’t drive. These are things I have harassed him about on a continuous basis. He’s not at all a bad guy. I’ve always just thought he was lazy.

But that night as I stared at an anti-whaling bulletin on MySpace, it finally occurred to me. My brother isn’t lazy. He isn’t lazy at all. He’s brilliant.

Think about it. We go to work every day. He stays at home. We labor to pay rent or mortgages or bank notes. He doesn’t drop a dime on the roof over his head.

We shudder when gas prices go up because we know we’re going to have to pay them to get to where we need to go. He doesn’t care because he doesn’t really have anywhere to go.

We voted for or against John McCain based primarily on our opinions and perceptions of his politics. My brother wanted to register to vote for the first time so he could vote against McCain because Sarah Palin is not regarded as a friend to the wildlife community.

Now, we are stressing out about what feels an awful lot like a recession. And my little brother couldn’t care less. It doesn’t affect him. His biggest concern is whaling.

He has no job and no school. That means that he has no boss, no place to be, no reason for an alarm clock, no concern over finding his next meal. He has no income and thus, no income tax.

Call him lazy. Call him unmotivated. Call him unproductive. But it’s all about perspective. And after years of raking him over the coals for not getting in line and doing what everyone says he’s supposed to do at his age, I finally saw my brother for what he is: an absolute genius.

My lazy, uninspired little brother is actually a diabolical mastermind who is lightyears ahead of the rest of us.

He barely registers on society’s radar. He has essentially found a way to go Walden without ever going anywhere.

Granted, I get that Thoreau was getting away from society as a whole. But my kid brother has taken that philosophy to a new level and avoided only the parts of society he doesn’t like.

After all, why throw the baby out with the bath water? And why worry about a struggling economy when you can spend your energies on something much more worthy, like fighting for animal rights through a social networking site?