Eddie's Secret Thoughts

Comfort: What contributes to the convenience of material life.

Remember — all I am offering is the truth, nothing more.

For as long as I can remember, I have been taught by my forefathers to just bear whatever inconvenience was plaguing my existence, as they have done before me. It would build character, develop this, show that... In the end, being a modicum more comfortable would be frowned upon. I do not think this is a ploy from the older generations to deny us the comfort they would have been able to afford themselves. The older folks in my social circle, particularly those coming from North-America, wear “not being comfortable” as a badge of honour. But I do think there is an element of being brainwashed by the capital owners — who grant themselves every comfort imaginable no matter the cost. Gen X/ boomers at work are the ones telling whoever will listen how good the new generations have it, how rough they had it, how much they had to work, how much their bosses abused them, how little they were paid... That would also explain the anecdotal difference in mindset between my anglo-saxon and french circles. Someone with better historical, geopolitical, theoretical... knowledge of such and such ideologies and North-America would be able to provide better insight and commentary on what was discussed so far. The goal of this text — dare I say essay — is not to explore this, but to incite you to disregard the opinions of old and take the comfort pill. Let's start by considering an example that led me to ponder on this comfort pill.

​ Back home, my parents have this gigantic hifi-system which, with its towering speakers, has been a staple of the décor since before my birth. It remained one of the central pieces of the living room no matter what, even as the location of the living room changed. It was all this equipment, the many black metallic rectangles, connected together — all of this very esoteric to me at the time — and of course, the two giant speakers framing the whole thing, which to this day stand taller than I do. The stylishly rounded edges, powerful metallic knobs, precisely machined buttons and the — I'm sure tasteful at the time — wood veneer strips running vertically along the speakers. Other than for the writing exercise, this long-winded description was given as a testament to the important and valuable nature of that hifi-system. Yet I only have a few recollections of this system filling the room with sound, and even less as the years went on. You see, as an older system, its primary mode of operation is playing CDs. The then epitome of convenience, as compared to my parent's phonograph, is now antiquated when compared to any modern wireless streaming options. The world, and my parents, moved away from physical media and therefore this hifi-system became an inconvenience. To listen to music in the living room, they would first have to own a physical copy of whatever they wanted to listen to (or burn a CD lmao), grab it from wherever it is collecting dust, play it, and be rewarded with an extremely constricting listening experience. Listening to music in the living room became uncomfortable. They did bring comfort back into their lives by buying a tiny bluetooth speaker — however this is not comfort-pilled as I will explain later. This addition had some pitfalls: it constantly needed to be charged, had to be grabbed from wherever it was left out and brought to the coffee table, and its sound was undeniably worse. In comes the comfort pill giver, their son, me. I returned to the homeland, squatting my old bedroom earlier this year and I could not bear to see them live like this. I told them as such, but they categorically refused to improve their situation, preferring to endure their current plight. I nevertheless did what any good son would do and completely ignored them. I studied the system in more detail, figuring out the intricacies of its functioning, and came up with a solution. A pair of RCA cables and a bluetooth receiver for the grand total of 25 euro. This would allow them to use their current hifi-system with any bluetooth compatible device.

This lengthy example does still not make it quite clear what the comfort pill is, so let me lay it out for you: Taking the comfort pill means identifying regular sticking points in your life or routine and doing your best to solve them in the appropriate manner. In the previous example, the sticking point was having to use CDs to play music, due to how their hifi system worked, when my parents had gone on to use their phones. The comfort-pill solution was to modify their hifi system to accept their phones as inputs, i.e. a pair of RCA cables and a bluetooth dongle. Let's take another example: Let's say that every time I come home from work, I have a hard time fitting my bike into my shed. The comfort-pill solution here is to take some time to clear some space in the shed, so that my bike can easily fit in there. Simply put, taking the comfort pill is investing means into your material well-being. Those means can be of a financial, physical, temporal... really of any nature.

​ I can already hear the complaints forming in your throat, and it becomes necessary to explain the concept further, by telling you what the comfort pill is not. It is not lazymaxxing; in our shed example a solution would have just been to leave the bike chained up outside, that way there is no struggle fitting it in the shed. Although this matches our comfort definition in the short term, it will bring more inconveniences down the line. There were also no real means invested in the solution which does not fit our definition of the comfort pill. The comfort pill is meant to have long-term positive effects on comfort; not to push our problems to tomorrow. It is not consumerismmaxxing. Taking our original example with the hifi system, my parents originally took a consumerismmaxxing approach — by buying another speaker — however it did not solve all the issues and there was a more sustainable and financially sound solution available. The comfort-pill solution did involve a bit of consumerism, but in a cleverer way. Tying into the comfort pill's long-term effects, it also needs to be sustainable. This characteristic of the comfort pill might appear arbitrary, but first we have to consider that if something requires long-term positive effects, it must also be sustainable. Secondly, we have to consider that I'm making up the definition, therefore I can require it to be sustainable. Finally, taking the comfort pill does not mean refusing to experience hardships or discomfort. In our shed example, it is easy to see the temporary and short-term discomfort required by our comfort-pill solution. In the hifi system example, the discomfort was to get to know the equipment, and find a compatible dongle. Therefore the comfort pill can bring about some discomfort, when it is to the benefit of its longer-lasting effects.

Now that we have taken a closer look at the comfort pill, I want to study the question of the comfort pill and consumerism a bit further. Some solutions of the comfort pill can require dabbling in a bit of consumeristic behaviour. The most fervent detractors of consumerism, under any form, will therefore completely reject the comfort pill and urge you not to take it when it involves buying stuff to be comfortable. If your reasons for not taking the comfort pill are purely ideological, then more power to you. Nothing if will say will change your mind, nor do I have the will to. Now if the reasons are of another nature I have some things to say to you. Let's say they are of an anti-pollution sentiment. First, you do not have to buy garbage, you can buy something that will last a lifetime. Sure it might be more of an investment, but it will eliminate the need to dispose of it once it breaks and replace it. Remember that the comfort pill is by definition supposed to have long-lasting positive effects and be sustainable. Let's go through some other arguments in the same vein. “If I use the comfort pill, I'll have to buy a lot of otherwise useless stuff that I'll only use once in a while!” By definition, the thing bought through the comfort pill needs to be useful, as they are bought as a way to improve your routine, i.e. you will use them multiple times a day/week. Unless not owning something is the thing preventing you from adding an activity to your routine, the comfort pill does not apply. Therefore, you should not buy things that you only use once in a blue moon. “If I don't buy this [thing] and endure some hardship instead, it won't count towards my carbon footprint.” — Admirable but naive. The carbon footprint is a propaganda tool invented by Big Oil to shift the blame for global warming and pollution away from them and corporations in general (which together are the overwhelming contributors to those issues) and onto the individual. As depressing as it is to say, whatever climate/anti-pollution action you are undertaking over the course of a year, it will be undone tenfold by whatever corporation/consumerismmaxxing billionaire in an hour. To add to that, the product you did not buy will be produced nonetheless and if not bought, will land in a landfill, or sit forgotten in a warehouse before being tossed in a landfill. Your efforts are commendable. However, you should not deprive yourself of comfort trying to make up for the harm caused by soulless corporations and wasteful individuals who do not care about their negative impact whatsoever.

​ Take the comfort pill, do what you need to contribute to the convenience of your material life. Invest the means necessary to improve the comfort of your routine. Remember that whatever you do, it needs to have long-term, long-lasting positive effects and be sustainable — all of those within reason. Reap the rewards of the comfort pill on your material well-being. You might also see improved mental well-being as you eliminate the sticking points plaguing your life. Now is there such a thing as the mental comfort pill? Most likely, and without much thought, I would tell you it must be akin to some form of stoicism. This would require further pondering, and maybe, in a physicist fashion, a grand theory of comfort, unifying the material and mental comfort pill could be found. For now, we will have to satisfy ourselves with just the former.