Saturday, September 16, 2023

Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good (Emergent Strategy Book 1)

The author encourages people (primarily black lesbians) to be activists for hedonistic pleasure. She wants people to consume sex and drugs as they desire. They should be fre to engage in any hedonistic activity they want. They are advocating for their pleasure at the expense of the white, male patriarchy. The book encourages exclusion of various disadvantaged people and encourages everyone to seek their pleasure. However, it also has guidelines for what should be sought. (People shouldn't support many institutions of the hierarchy.) The book was published by an anarchist press in the bay area and it shows. It feels that somebody is looking over the fence and seeing rich people with pleasure and deciding that they deserve it to. Supporting oneself in the seeking of pleasure is not given much thought. Reparations for the war on drugs was mentioned as were a few people that held jobs (mostly related to seeking pleasure.) The author herself has black and white parents and identifies as mixed race. (Why does it seem that most racial advocates must have enough privilege to be able to advocate?)  Underneath the bacchanalian activism, there are some good points. Pleasure needs to be sought in appropriate moderation so as not to destroy one's life. There is a desire that people have for companionship and feeling good. How to find it can be challenging. 

No comments:

Post a Comment