Leigh Meyers wrote:
>
> ( or 'need', another interesting
> word, as 'want' seems to have insinuated itself in it's definition) in any dictionary.
Let's keep our linguistic history accurate. Until recently that was the _main_ meaning of want. To want was to lack. The meaning of desire insinuated itself later. Cf. the opening sentence of Pride & Prejudice.
Need is all to apt to become a Platonic, even a totalitarian concept. You seem to be arrogating to yourself the privilege (power?) to dictate to others what they "really" need, and what is merely fluff. Without prior political struggle "need" and "desire" should be considered synonymous. Some of that political struggle was decided in pre-history -- for example we don't usually recognize the legitimacy of the "need" to kill or rape for the fun of it. But until a political battle is waged over it, taking drives for the fun of it in an SUV is a perfectly legitimate pastime and it is divisive (ultra-left) to whine about those who do it.
Carrol