[lbo-talk] cushy life

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>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

The choice that confronts many is not between security, comfort, and 
pleasure on one hand and insecurity, discomfort, and pain on the 
other hand, however.  The choice for many is between more security, 
more comfort, and more pleasure for themselves and their families in 
the present and more security, more comfort, and more pleasure for 
all in the future, under the conditions where choosing the latter 
leads to less security, less comfort, and less pleasure for 
themselves and their families at least for a short term (maybe 
indefinitely), on top of the fact that choosing the latter may not 
actually help to bring about them at all.  Nevertheless, choosing the 
former doesn't ensure their permanence and may in fact lead to a 
worse future than choosing the latter.
-- 
Yoshie

* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/>
* "Proud of Britain": <http://www.proudofbritain.net/ > and 
<http://www.proud-of-britain.org.uk/>