Functional socialism

LUXURY 107

instruction. All the more reason, therefore, for a clear perspective as we move towards economic emancipation. There is a current phrase, “The best ts good enough for us.” Is the best vulgarity good enough for us?

Without labouring the subject further, we may draw some general conclusions. There are luxuries that create or minister to the baser appetites. They leave a long train of self-indulgences, vicious habits and moral degradation. The sanctuary of life is defiled; nothing remains but to flee from the wrath to come. But there are other luxuries that mark the advance of civilization. The fine arts, for example. In this sense, the connotation of the word changes. A luxury is frequently defined as indulgence in what is unnecessary; but a luxury may be, and frequently is, a beautiful thing whose cost defies our purse. If, with added means, we acquire it, we are richer, and not poorer; we are morally the gainers; our social value is enhanced. And there are luxuries that can only be secured by the community and communally enjoyed. Under our second definition, there are thousands of commodities, the work of artists and craftsmen, which in the new order of society should easily be within the reach of all of us. To-day we regard them as luxuries; to-morrow they are necessities. They may be anything from a picture, a piece of furniture, a book, to a motor-car or a journey round the world. The final test of a luxury is its physical or cultural effect.

We may now inquire what are the probable