Friedrich Nietzsche said of socialism that it was the demand for the comfort of the greatest number of people possible. Many will no doubt say “that’s exactly why we like socialism”.
Nietzsche argued that small or weak people wanted only one thing – that no one hurt them – and therefore that only the weak considered comfort a virtue. Psycho-analyst Karl Jung considered this value an infantile state, where people desire a return to the comfort and dependency of parental care.
Recently we have taken things to the extreme of obsessing over hurt feelings and calling cowardice a virtue. It is now a heresy to ask whether it is good for the masses to live in comfort.
For example, obesity was once something we tried to shame, and sloth one of the seven deadly sins. Now the expectation is that we regard obesity as something above normality, as literally beautiful and healthy. The popularity of GLP1 drugs among those calling for body positivity underlines the disingenuousness of it all.
One may object that we should value obesity because it is a sign of having escaped famine or malnutrition (which is good), but not starving does not make morbid obesity a good thing. We know full well that solutions often create new problems, such as, for example, coal energy creating pollution.
Positive psychology argues that pleasure and happiness are byproducts of meaningful goals and not goals themselves. The transition of comfort from a byproduct of virtue to virtue itself is proof of our spiritual atrophy.
The lack of friction in life has consequences.
Our bodies have no mechanism to maintain themselves, no impetus to prepare or build, in the absence of any challenge to their integrity. Without regular loading – in bedrest or zero gravity – bones and muscle have no reason to accumulate or even maintain strength, and every reason to donate calcium or amino acids to other physical needs.
Some degree of discomfort
Keeping and growing bone and muscle requires subjecting them to some degree of discomfort. Life itself, but also its vitality, is an attempt to swim against the relentless tide of disorder. The process requires a net input of energy. In other words, it is work.
Life and vitality are adaptions to the challenges of the world. The health and vitality of the intellect and spirit are no exceptions. They too require continual challenge.
A safe and abundant society does not arise by itself, as if by magic. It comes about as a result of organisation, risk, sacrifice, effort, struggle, strength, passion, wisdom and genius.
However, once we attain a certain level of comfort and safety, it destroy the conditions in which these traits and virtues grow. As Nietzsche put it, “the warmest and sympathetic hearts aim to alleviate hardship and suffering but fail to realise it wills the destruction of its own foundation” because “comfort breeds mediocrity which is then called good”.
It’s useful to ask why. According to Aristotle, pleasure and comfort distort perception and proper judgement of what is worth pursuing and therefore of what to do. The elimination of all struggles leaves a man so emptied of purpose he ends up having neither self-contempt nor any higher aspiration.
We kind of know this. At least we can see it in others, and really no one admires it when they see it.
However, when in that situation ourselves we lack all will to resist, even though we know the healthy and ultimately beneficial choices. Yet modern society tells us this is the good life. It asks us to protect it in others and aspire to it ourselves. Socialists and the woke are certainly at the forefront of this trend.
Unfortunately, the same applies to advocates for free markets, unhealthy food, gambling or 24-hour entertainment, who say, “comfort at any cost is our rightful choice”. Both sides resist any suggestion that there is a dark side to comfort.
I admit it is hard to fight this. Instead of taking up exercise and actually gaining the capacity to run, people are always looking for a pill (something like a GLP1) that will give them the same benefits of exercise.
Life-changing
On the other hand, some will see coverage of the Comrades marathon and end up completing it a year later. I can tell you that when you start out being barely able to run 2-3km, finishing the Comrades is life-changing. You start to realise that amazing things that seem incomprehensible right now are within your reach.
Others may try and fail to do a tough Sudoku but find that with a little practice and a couple of different strategies they eventually crack it. Now they have just learned that they can think hard things through. It is amazing what simply putting yourself out there, and trying, will get you.
A few spiritually uplifting experiences at the end of some discomfort could well persuade you that comfort is not all that appealing. You will discover that happiness is not achieved directly. It is the side effect of a meaningful and therefore uncomfortable endeavour.
Jordan Peterson, a fan of Nietzsche and Jung, would say “Don’t be a weak person whose only ambition is to avoid hurt. Try to acquire the capacities to render that threat moot.”
At the societal level we need to cherish dreams and ambition. We need to preach unequal heights rather that equally comfortable lows.
Get people to think about what they would like to see happen (or perhaps ask a few others) and then think about what they personally could do to start a process toward that. That could be as simple as finding out what you need to learn. We need to encourage entrepreneurship and adventure. As with preparing to run the Comrades, small successes in making new things happen are encouraging and enlightening.
Who knows, we may create a few more Chris Barnards, Elon Musks or people who can turn the Karoo green.
Above all, we need to call socialism on its BS. It destroys everything that allows human beings to be special, to create and improve, and puts in its place everything that makes them pitiful and dependent. I would say it sucks the very humanity out of them.
[Image: by avanti_photo]
The views of the writer are not necessarily the views of the Daily Friend or the IRR.
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