[lbo-talk] cushy life

[Doug Henwood]

Damn, I want a cushy life, and I'm a socialist because I think 
everyone should have a cushy life! Yeah, I know, the world is 
imperfect, and universal cushiness is therefore elusive, maybe even 
impossible, but what's wrong with security, comfort, and pleasure as 
ultimate political goals. That doesn't mean complacent or stupid; my 
idea of cushiness includes the time and capacity for intellectual and 
aesthetic engagement. But there seems to be a kind of leftist who's 
suspicious of pleasure, who exudes a Calvinist lust for suffering, 
because it's somehow ennobling. (A variant: the belief that poverty 
is ennobling, and wealth is corrupting. Why would anyone be a 
redistributionist if that were true?) The hell with all that, I say.

Doug