On Comfort

The myth of comfort.

Why do I believe that all my activity, personal and professional ultimately is a pursuit of comfort? A comfortable life for me and my family. Why do I believe sincerely along side all thoughts of creating change in the world that comfort still is the ultimate pursuit? Every choice I’ve made as far as I can remember was/continues to be driven by a pursuit of comfort and convenience. For that pursuit I am willing to sacrifice everything else. I’m willing to sacrifice my time and my attention. I’m willing to create a false identity and compartmentalize aspects of my personality. I rely on image creation and calculations. It is what I’m teaching my children as well by behaving that way around them.

Why?

This is hard to admit.

Is comfort truly that important?

When I examine my narrative, it’s more than evident that comfort has really been the pursuit. When I look at my professional career, I’ve spent the last 17 years working with organizations that essentially peddle the idea of comfort en masse under various guises.

Amazon sells the comfort of convenience under the guise of improving lives and “customer obsession” (the right to the comfort of convenience is available to you for an annual fee and we take care of our customers). Walmart promises the comfort of finding everything in one place and in a cost effective manner “Save money. Live better.”

I can get anything shipped to me from anywhere very fast. There is no need to leave my couch to order an object from a far away land; crossing land, air and water through physical activity performed by people i don’t know and machines i don’t understand, to bring me things I don’t need. I place “orders” on my electronic screen of choice with minimal cognitive load. It’s a simplified experience put together by designers who have studied how attention works.

The subtext of comfort is everywhere — in business strategy documents, public policies and in the public discourse of today’s society.

Rich nations wish comfort for poor nations, just like the billionaires and their foundations wish it for the poor. Everyone deserves/has the right to comfort, is the general belief. Some disagree and say that comfort needs to be earned by hard work and activity.

Opportunity to earn comfort is presented through activity.

The systems of modern society are based on the belief that disparity is reduced by creating opportunity. More jobs to fill more orders. Defendants of comfort say that more opportunity (more activity) is the only way to reduce disparity.

This is false.

Disparity is a quality of comfort.

Where there is comfort, there is disparity. Disparity cannot be separated from comfort.

To get a product shipped from a far off location on time for a low cost requires low cost labor to work continuously.

The pursuit of low cost labor has been the center piece of all the worst actions of humanity. It was the main theme of the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism. The model is now more refined and adjusted to the current day context but the fact remains. Amazon has 1.3 million employees globally and a bulk of those employees get paid minimum wage mainly only because there are regulations/laws.

The pursuit of low cost labor feeds technological innovation. This pursuit created the cotton spinning machines in the 18th century, and the same pursuit built super computers, to create artificial intelligence and machine learning and make them available to individuals as digital assistants and smart devices.

It is worth spending time here to deconstruct comfort and the value placed on it, it’s origin, it’s relevance and it’s effects.

At a personal level, the effects of comfort are destructive too. Where there is comfort, there is no curiosity. Where there is comfort, there is no learning. Where there is comfort, there is no self reflection. Where there is comfort, all efforts are largely aimed at retaining or increasing comfort at any cost.

My pursuit of comfort is misguided. My pursuit of comfort causes disparity in the world. My pursuit of comfort is divisive. In teaching my pursuit of comfort to my children, I’m perpetuating the idea further in time.

I am surprised by this realization that —

No one has the right to comfort but everyone has the right to kindness.

Our systems do not account for kindness. Somehow there is no value placed on kindness in our systems. I have never come across the word “kindness” in business strategy documents, 3 year plans or policy documents.

It does not belong there apparently. I have never understood why a basic human quality would be excluded from any system made for humans.

If you replace the idea that everyone has a right to comfort with the fact that everyone has a right to kindness, what do you get?

What is a society in which comfort is not available as a subscription but can only exist at an interpersonal level as kindness. Not manufactured en masse.

Can we imagine that?