[lbo-talk] the cushy life

Yoshie Furuhashi furuhashi.1 at osu.edu
Wed Jan 19 12:50:36 PST 2005



>Turbulo at aol.com wrote:
>
>>Doug wrote:
>>
>>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? To hell with all that, I say.
>>
>> ***********
>>
>>There's nothing inherently wrong with comfort or inherently noble
>>about poverty. But under capitalism
>
>Yeah, I know. That's why I prefaced the comment with "I'm a
>socialist." I'm fully aware that what I was evoking is impossible
>under capitalism. Why do leftists love to re-assert the obvious so
>often?
>
>Doug

Because you don't seem to tire of repeating a deadly cliche that leftists take a dim view of pleasure.

Judging by your exchange with Jordan about mortgages, though, you appear to discount pleasure in the present mortgaged to an uncertain future. :->

Why shouldn't people buy houses any way they can and enjoy them now, and if a perfect storm hits, unite as debtors and demand a moratorium on foreclosures of owner-occupied homes? -- Yoshie

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



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