>"In order to provide those benefits, any successful movement will need to
>provide its members considerably more pleasure than pain. One of the main
>reasons that the left is so dull is its emphasis on self-sacrifice to the
>exclusion of pleasure, and its use of guilt as a means of manipulation;
>many leftist groups are outright puritanical, and even the most
>enlightened usually treat pleasure as something frivolous, as something
>unworthy of attention. As a result, participation in most political groups
>is about as enjoyable as a visit to the dentist. The results of this are a
>high dropout rate and the continued participation of only the most
>self-sacrificing members - who, of course, feel justfiied in demanding (or
>at least expecting) similar self-sacrifice from everyone else, which
>contributes to the high dropout rate, and so on."
>
>- from A Future Worth Living: Thoughts on Getting There (See Sharp Press,
>Tucson, AZ)
Yup. I don't see how anyone can deny this, unless s/he's one of the extremely self-sacrificing survivors, or under some political inhibition about speaking the truth.
Doug