The Pleasures Of Creation

June 27, 2019 9:25 AM

“What will happen,” Morris asked, “with all this country beauty?” What an appalling waste, he thought, of land exploited by absentee profiteers “for the sake of villa-dwellers’ purses.” But the greater outrage was the injustice and indignity inflicted on godlike beings.” The Romantic Socialism of William Morris. (Commonweal)
posted by The Whelk (9 comments total)

Very nice. Here is another take on these godlike beings:

The socialists, therefore, must direct all their efforts to help the proletariat to rise ever higher and higher, mentally and morally, so that it may come nearer and ever nearer to the apex of the pyramid of creation, partake ever more of the natura naturans, and make ever more consciously and effectively their own history. "Nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of Heaven." The Son of Man, the proletariat, who, unlike the foxes that have holes and the birds that have nests, has nowhere to lay his head, will, spite of all opposition and difficulty, attain to the right hand of power and will rise to the clouds of heaven and enjoy economic security and supreme happiness.--The Philosophy of Marx / Harry Waton

Economic security is the necessary condition for supreme happiness, but it does not in and of itself constitute that happiness. Happiness derives only from the intellectual and spiritual growth that economic security makes possible.
posted by No Robots at 9:45 AM on June 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

A new book by the author of this piece: The Enchantments of Mammon: How Capitalism Became the Religion of Modernity.
posted by No Robots at 10:25 AM on June 27, 2019

Of course, some of the proletariat will just want to binge NetFlix and drink, and that should be respected, too
posted by GenjiandProust at 11:08 AM on June 27, 2019 [6 favorites]

^Not everyone is ready for Shikibu and notre cher Marcel.
posted by No Robots at 11:16 AM on June 27, 2019 [2 favorites]

Of course, some of the proletariat will just want to binge NetFlix and drink, and that should be respected, too

...and do it in a living room with nice wallpaper, as Morris intended.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:18 AM on June 27, 2019 [1 favorite]

And since economic activity is destroying the planet, they also serve who sit and waste away ...
posted by jamjam at 12:24 PM on June 27, 2019

On a related note: Morris and Devon Great Consols [PDF], an article by Florence S. Boos & Patrick O’Sullivan about the copper and arsenic mine in which the Morris family owned shares.
posted by misteraitch at 1:29 PM on June 27, 2019

Economic security is the necessary condition for supreme happiness, but it does not in and of itself constitute that happiness. Happiness derives only from the intellectual and spiritual growth that economic security makes possible.

Cough
posted by The Whelk at 6:15 AM on June 28, 2019 [1 favorite]

^I like Orwell's meditation on Wilde's socialism:

Wilde's pamphlet and other kindred writings consequently have their value. They may demand the impossible and they may – since a Utopia necessarily reflects the aesthetic ideas of its own period – sometimes seem "dated"and ridiculous, but they do at least look beyond the era of food queues and party squabbles, and remind the Socialist movement of its original, half-forgotten objective of human brotherhood.

Here's another great comment from Orwell on the relationship between socialism and spirituality:

I do not want the belief in life after death to return, and in any case it is not likely to return. What I do point out is that its disappearance has left a big hole, and that we ought to take notice of that fact. Reared for thousands of years on the notion that the individual survives, man has got to make a considerable psychological effort to get used to the notion that the individual perishes. He is not likely to salvage civilization unless he can evolve a system of good and evil which is independent of heaven and hell. Marxism, indeed, does supply this, but it has never really been popularized. Most Socialists are content to point out that once Socialism has been established we shall be happier in a material sense, and to assume that all problems lapse when one’s belly is full. The truth is the opposite: when one’s belly is empty, one’s only problem is an empty belly. It is when we have got away from drudgery and exploitation that we shall really start wondering about man’s destiny and the reason for his existence. One cannot have any worthwhile picture of the future unless one realises how much we have lost by the decay of Christianity.

Orwell knew that socialism needs to keep its ideals alive the face of the exigencies of material existence.
posted by No Robots at 7:55 AM on June 28, 2019 [3 favorites]