For the last thirty years, the easiest shortcut has been convenience.
If a marketer or a politician or an institution wants to gain acceptance, make it convenient. Tim Wu has pointed out that we’ll trade almost anything to save a few moments of hassle or thought.
But that doesn’t mean we’ve been spending our time and money on comfort.
They’re not the same.
Convenience in the short run often comes at the expense of comfort. The comfort of resilience, of kindness, of long-term satisfaction. The comfort of offering someone dignity, a hand up or knowing that we put our effort into something useful.
Perhaps the next cycle of our cultural development will be to find the courage to walk away from convenience and find comfort instead.