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Spencer: The Weariness of Freedom and Comfort
“[E]veryone has found how even the best easy chair, at first rejoiced in, becomes after many hours intolerable; and change to a hard seat, previously occupied and rejected, seems for a time to be a great relief. It is the same with incorporated humanity. Having by long struggles emancipated itself from the hard discipline of the ancient régime, and having discovered that the new régime into which it has grown, though relatively easy, is not without stresses and pains, its impatience with these prompts the wish to try another system: which other system is, in principle if not in appearance, the same as that which during past generations was escaped from with much rejoicing.” — Herbert Spencer, “The Man versus the State.” Apple Books.
Spencer was speaking of the desire of the populace which, once capitalism had liberated it for a long period of time from slavery and poverty, found itself longing for slavery. It is what’s happening in US politics today.
Published in General
We shall see. Some people, I think, just say they support socialism because they think it makes them look generous. They are in fact quite competitive and successful themselves and would never be satisfied with handouts. And maybe they just think the system just continues on in much the same way no matter what, so it will all be fine.
Spencer talks about them too, in that book. They aren’t slaves, but vassals.
Interesting. I’ll check it out. I’m still hopeful that Americans wouldn’t elect a President that says (believes?) the kind of things that Bernie, Mayor Pete or Elizabeth Warren say. And Biden – I just don’t know what he’s selling.
That is a wise quote. I think it applies to other areas besides political systems. For example, friends on Facebook sigh after a lifestyle where everyone had to rely on food they themselves grew, raised, harvested, and butchered.
It’s just like a post I just put up. No matter how well-off we are, how blessed we are, there must be something else that is better–or that will rescue us from a life that demands a lot for us to earn success.
The complaint in song form is quite funny.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVe8bPQX4Z0
Yes. No matter how much our lives improve by our replacing the ancient regime–injustice and violence–with our creator’s divine regime of righteousness and peace, we think that reversing the cause will somehow not reverse the effect. We think that the world will somehow obey a new law of creation, one of our own invention. We will create heaven without God.
I dunno, Mark. While I agree with the point, the metaphor falls short. I have never planted my patootie in a wonderful easy chair, and after many hours thought, “Y’know, I really need hickory straight back with no cushions. Hasn’t happened.
Now, maybe I undermine my own point as I type this from the pub table I use as a desk, with it’s hard, no cushion pub chair. The only useful function it has (other than the obvious) is that I can tell I’m losing too much weight when it hurts my butt bones.
Yup. Recreational socialism, here we come!
The grass is always greener on the other side. It’s a tale as old as time.
Well, of course it is, after we’ve trampled down all the grass on our own side that we haven’t covered up with junk. Time to move on to the other side of the fence.
Hahahahaha! I’d like to see them try it for a year, see if they still feel that way. They wouldn’t be posting on facebook during daylight hours, that’s for certain.
Mark,
You’ve picked out something very interesting. As the 19th century comes to a close America and England start to intellectually drift. Marxism and Darwinism have been around for 50 years so that isn’t anything new. What is new is a sophisticated agnostic-nihilism that infects society from the head down. Spenser himself is a contributor to this new trend early on. The problem is that Spenser is too honest to be a good polemicist. As things get more radical Spenser becomes more and more conservative. He wasn’t read much in the early 20th century because of this.
Thanks for the post.
Regards,
Jim
Everybody should try it and learn how hard it is. Well, maybe not everybody, but those of us who are slow learners should try it.
True, we have screwed up our system in many ways. But the particular circumstances really don’t matter in the end. Human nature is never satisfied with poverty, sickness, injustice, and life’s other ailments We endlessly hope for better and believe we can do better.
No matter how good a life people enjoy, many will focus on the failures and be led into fads of destructive revolution.
Also, my Samsung smartphone sucks. It’s slower than it used to be. I want a newer and better one.
Jim,
I’ve not studied him and I’d like to learn more about this agnostic-nihilist side of him. Can you recommend a book or paper from this period?
M.