Every religion, apart from open devil worship, must appeal to a virtue or the pretence of a virtue. But a virtue, generally speaking, does some good to everybody. It is therefore necessary to distinguish among the people it was meant to benefit those whom it does benefit. Modern broad-mindedness benefits the rich; and benefits nobody else. It was meant to benefit the rich; and meant to benefit nobody else. And if you think this unwarranted, I will put before you one plain question. There are some pleasures of the poor that may also mean profits for the rich: there are other pleasures of the poor which cannot mean profits for the rich? Watch this one contrast, and you will watch the whole creation of a careful slavery.
and
A house with a decent fire and a full pantry would be a better house to make a chair or mend a clock in, even from the customer’s point of view, than a hovel with a leaky roof and a cold hearth. But a house with a decent fire and a full pantry would also be a better house in which to refuse to make a chair or mend a clock—a much better house to do nothing in—and doing nothing is sometimes one of the highest of the duties of man.
Even the "free" pleasure of surfing the net demands some money for a machine and a network connection. The free pleasure of singing or whistling to yourself seems to be little-exercised.
Of course "doing nothing," while it may be a high duty, is also a chore magnet.
I have never understood why Satanism gets to be classified as a religion, when it is by construction an anti-religion.
2 comments:
I could tell by feel that it was GKC before I finished the first sentence. I'm not entirely sure how. Some gestalt.
Am I getting too predictable in who I choose to quote?
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