Having a hobby probably demands a skewing of priorities that is petit bourgeouis in the sense of being alienated, though maybe it's not how much money you have so much as how much of the money you have you are willing to devote to your hobby that determines how skewed (Bloch's "odd") it is.
But there's no reason not to enjoy the good things in life to the extent you can as long as the enjoyment doesn't blind you to reality---left Puritans who can't enjoy a glass of wine without being guilty that someone else doesn't have it are no better than any other kind of Puritans, including health Puritans. It's the (ideological) acceptance of (alienated) consumption as a source of social meaning---rather than mere pleasure---that's at fault; false consciousness, in other words. Don't you cringe when someone says, "How can I, *as a consumer*, improve the world?"?
P.S. I wish *scuppie* (Socially Conscious + yuppie) had been formed instead from *scruple + yuppie *(*scruppie*?).
On Mon, Dec 9, 2013 at 12:18 PM, Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu> wrote:
> I almost never read stuff on consumers & consumption, so I don't have the
> slightest idea who Malcolm Emerich is or what he stands for.
>
> Carrol
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
> On Behalf Of Andy
> Sent: Monday, December 09, 2013 10:03 AM
> To: lbo
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Bloch quote on FB
>
> On Mon, Dec 9, 2013 at 9:55 AM, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
>
> > A commenter added the source, and some more quote:
> >
> > Akilano Akiwumi-Assani
> >
> > p.467, The Principle of Hope v.II, 'Malthus, birth-rate, nourishment' -
> > and the preceding passage - "All in all, even without grotesque visions,
> > every organic desire for improvement remains up in the air if the social
> > one is not acknowledged and taken into account. Health is a social
> concept,
> > exactly like the organic existence in general of human beings, as human
> > beings. Thus it can only be meaningfully increased at all if the life in
> > which it stands is not itself overcrowded with anxiety, deprivation and
> > death" Bloch wrote the Principle of Hope in Cambridge Mass during the
> Great
> > Depression ('38-'47) , he was blacklisted and his wife, an architect,
> ended
> > up working in kitchens to support them. Scuppie rustica consumer
> > sovereignty movements are nauseating against such a backdrop.
> >
>
> I have no argument with the last bit, at least insofar as those movements
> are supposed to substitute politics. But I think Malcolm Emerich's quip
> about "war on christmas style food posts" captures something. And for the
> record I am not, nor have I ever been, a vegetarian.
>
>
> --
> Andy
> "It's a testament to ketchup that there can be no confusion."
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