Lileks Posts a Masterful Fisking

James Lileks' "The Bleat" is one stop on my daily blog patrol. He has a couple of other blogs as well, including one called "Screedblog." He just posted a fantastic screed in which he fisks an article, written by one of those lovely puritanical scolds we all love so much, telling us how simpy awful consumerism and well, just about everything about modern life is. He begins thusly:

"This was sent to me by Amitai Etzioni, for reasons I cannot imagine. A big broadcast of a paradigm-altering manifesto, perhaps. For some reason the opening line caught my eye:

President Obama has a unique talent: He is able to inspire people all over the world to deliberate and dialogue about burning issues.

As well as consider the impact on the environment caused by reckless issue-burning, as well as the clear-cutting of old growth issue-thickets. But is it true? As far as I can tell we’re not having a debate at all. He won; spending is good; Debt will save us from the terrible secret of space, which is Debt. We have concluded our debate about Federal funding of stem-cell research, and now the magic Government dollars, imbued with a power no private sector dollars contain, will help us cure all those diseases that are very important despite the lack of support from prominent actors.

At the top of the agenda for such a global give and take is what makes for a good life.

The moment the “good life” is put in global terms, I know I’m going to have to give up something. It’s just a question of what, to whom, and in which quantities. "

Read it all. You'll love it.