Politics and Hedonism

As an admirer of the 1960s I tend to find it aggravating when conservatives mark that era as ushering in the downfall of American society. "If it feels good, do it" is the mantra they'll accuse liberals of blindly pursuing when it comes to one's personal choices in life and how those choices affect their ideas on social policy. It's a slogan that they'll attach to the sixties as if that were the decade's sole contribution to political thought. But today I heard Michelle Obama say something that made sense to me. She was going on about the politics of the "empathy deficit" that Barack Obama mentions in his speeches. She spoke about how the only Americans who care to, or who are asked to, sacrifice for others right now are the soldiers. Shopping didn't seem like a sufficient act of caring. And then, whether intentionally or not, she spoke about the conservative prescription for pursuing self-interest in a way that made that sound hedonistic. Since it's good for me it will feel good, because then I only have to care about myself - and that feels good to not have to care about the impact of my actions on others. She connected rational self-interest with the same sort of hedonism that conservatives decry - especially social conservatives. And she made the anti-hedonistic sentiments of conservatives sound downright hypocritical.

I wish I had the time to find the transcript from this speech from Friday. I'm watching it on C-SPAN now. I think Michelle Obama really does help Barack's campaign. In reading it, anyone parsing through the phrasing she used would be struck at how effortlessly she turned on its head the coalition of ideas that defines conservatism today.