Date of last letter: 23 June 2007

December 5, 2007

Dear Colleague:  

    Most of my colleagues are Liberals. I ask them, "What are your most pleasurable experiences?" And while you are at this game, ask also, "What sorts of pleasure are likely to be favored by those with a proclivity toward (a) Nazism and (b) Conservatism?    

    I surmise that you, as a Liberal, take pleasure planning for the future—your own future, your family's future, your nation's future, and, ultimately, the world's future. This means that you like to think, not abstractly as a mathematician does but for a purpose. You are an optimist in that you think the future can be better, and a pessimist in that you are dissatisfied with the present.    

    As for Nazi pleasures, I came across the following remark that C. S. Lewis made to his brother in a letter. "It frightens me, almost. And so it did the other night, when I heard two undergrads giving a list of pleasures which were (a) Nazi, (b) leading to homosexuality. They were: feeling the wind in your hair, walking with bare feet on the grass, and bathing in the rain. Think it over: it gets worse the longer you look at it."

    (So, dear colleague, I hope you are not one of those who likes the feeling of wind in your hair!)

    As for Conservative pleasures, I cite again Lewis, who, this time, speaks with authority for he is, politically, a Conservative. The essence of Conservatism, says Gertrude Himmelfarb, is enjoyment. And what does Lewis enjoy? Answer: the lazy present. "To lie in bed—to find one's eyes filling with facile tears at the least hint of pathos in one's book—to let the book drop from one's hand as one sinks deeper and deeper into reverie—to forget what you were thinking about a moment ago and not to mind—and then be roused by the unexpected discovery that it is already tea-time—all this I do not find disagreeable."

    I used to be a Liberal and liked nothing better than to improve the world according to my lights. Now, in old age, I am becoming more and more Conservative, and like nothing better than to doze at my desk, let the book drop from my hand, wake up to find—with a smile—that it is time for coffee at Starbucks!

Best wishes,

Yi-Fu