[lbo-talk] lefties, fulfillment, happiness, cushy

Tom Walker timework at telus.net
Thu Jan 20 09:16:57 PST 2005


Justin wrote:

> This is sanctimonious and insulting. I am glad you

> have such god ideas about how I should live.

The story that Martin posted is an updated verstion of one that Adam Smith told in The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Smith's tale commences describing the "Poor man's son, whom heaven in its anger has visited with ambition." To obtain the wealth and greatness which he imagines will allow hiim to live a live of ease "he submits in the first year, nay in the first month of his application, to more fatigue of body and more uneasiness of mind than he could have suffered through the whole of his life from the want of them... He endeavours next to bring those talents into public view, and with equal assiduity solicits every opportunity of employment. For this purpose he makes his court to all mankind; he serves those whom he hates, and is obsequious to those whom he despises. Through the whole of his life he pursues the idea of a certain artificial and elegant repose which he may never arrive at, for which he sacrifices a real tranquillity that is at all times in his power, and which, if in the extremity of old age he should at last attain to it, he will find to be in no respect preferable to that humble security and contentment which he had abandoned for it."

The twist on this bleak tale is that all is well in the end because the "invisible hand" makes of our poor sucker's sacrifice a boon to all mankind.

The Sandwichman



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