Fascinoma

I was off to Kitschtopia over the weekend and distracted by art, food and company from the grievous state of the world. It was very nice.

Now I am back at work, but was amused this morning by Matt Taibi's slagging of David "Banality of Evil" Brooks, whom he catches reflecting upon how the rich now work harder than the poor. Oh really.

Work, real work, in the Shaker – work is prayer – sense consists of doing something valuable (beneficial, pleasurable) for somebody else. Getting your ass kissed and your ego stroked for going through some executive motions, no matter how remunerative it is for you, is not really work. It’s a position, a sinecure, a title – in the feudal sense. Working backwards from Freud’s brilliant insight that “sanity is the ability to love and work,” it is no wonder then that so many of the rich and of our pampered elites, are morally or even generally deranged. They are denied the corrective benefits of visceral contact with humankind’s shared realities, and also the moral refreshment of sacrifice. It’s quite simply “Spoiled Brat Syndrome” and the great myth is that it is only acquired in childhood. It can manifest at any age, given a prolonged period where the insufferable “sufferer” is subjected to rewards vastly disproportionate to risks and/or contributions. George Bush is the quintessential example of this of course, as I have often written. The most telling thing ever about him was his answer to ‘What sacrifices will you ask of Americans in this war?’ W quite literally didn’t understand the concept “sacrifice” as naturally, one who has never worked might not.