It's discomfort I can't buy that I'm scared of

I keep running up against a paradox when thinking about our question of discomfort/comfort, it seems significant that some discomforts are palatable whilst some are not, and vice versa for some comforts. I keep wondering, what are we talking about by discomfort or comfort? The intersection of the concepts seems vital, but how exactly? We are not simply saying one is good and the other is bad. When does comfort or discomfort become 'good', and when is it 'bad'? What is the logic that we are opposing?

Being part of the market is how we play our part in capitalism, by both producing and consuming. Has the logic of the market been internalised to the point that going against it is the definition of uncomfortable? 

For instance, I'm sitting in a cafe right now. I can’t just sit on a bench or little wall somewhere and have a think. There’s something scary about that - I feel unprotected, confused. What am I doing here? I need to sit in a café and have a coffee and maybe a cake. Then I can think safely, within the comfort of the right logic. It’s not just fear that I might get a bit cold out there on a bench or need the loo – although that worry also exists. Am I so fragile? This is part of the push and pull of the logic. The less often I’m cold, the more I’m afraid of cold, the more alien it is when I feel it nipping at me, the more disturbing that feeling is, the pain is real. Quick get into the café, buy fur-lined leather gloves, a hot chocolate, maybe with some brandy, treat yourself. Youreworthit! I propose that it is discomfort I can't buy that I’m scared of. The sensations of discomfort themselves are not the deciding factor of whether I withstand or reject an experience. I can buy a gym membership to sweat uncomfortably, that’s not scary. I can work 45 hours a week in front of a computer screen in an office, that’s extremely uncomfortable physically but it doesn’t feel wrong or scary. It feels quite correct, even if I hate it. It makes perfect sense. 

There’s also something unnatural, strange, about comfort I can’t buy. Lying in bed all day without hyping up (commodifying - normalising) the experience by making it into a capitalist sanctioned event ‘netflix and chill’ (copious snacks also required, wither trash route (supanoodles/mini marsbars etc), hyper komfort route (m + s, waitrose, finest, taste the difference yeah baby this is gonna feel better than sex) or hyper-authenticising (coffee-table cookbook officialised instructions for home-made Lifestyle grade komfort hummus and flatbreads). Just reading and maybe eating a shit left-overs sandwich and calling a friend. Hmm, that doesn’t feel very special. What about YOLO?? Sounds boring, lonely. Sounds like I might encounter the void a bit too much. I might encounter myself a bit too much. Eeek. Choosing to work 4 days a week, have less money, have less stuff, have less swish food, have a less swish home, but more time. Time is money isn’t it?  Choosing money (by money I mean anything that is part of capitalist approved production and consumption) over time feels so much more natural. 

What choices and behaviour seem attractive and natural and what don’t... How often does the obvious choice map onto what capitalism wants? (hint – for me OFTEN).

So I wonder; is it the market which creates this hierarchy of acceptable/non-acceptable comforts and discomforts? Is 'comfortable' actually being defined by capitalism in a tautological sense? I mean, comfortable is that which capitalism finds comfortable, uncomfortable is that which it does not? Like those razors Josh mentioned, they are comfortable because taking care of your style is the right thing to do (because it entails consumption and encourages others in their consumption). 

Have we internalised the market definition of these things - to the detriment of our mental health/real happiness/communities/societies/environments? Is the market at the heart of what we want to resist in the modern definition, and more importantly, experience, of comfort and discomfort? Rosie's thoughts on the power/importance of words, a new one for bad comfort (and maybe one for good discomfort) seems resonant again. 
  
Rejecting produced experience and market logic feels perverse because it goes against what seems rational.. Why would I get rid of googlemaps? How can making life harder for myself make sense? 

On the other hand, how is common sense located? Re. googlemaps: what are we missing when we can't get lost anymore?