ARE PEOPLE HYPOCRITES IN THEIR PLEASURES?

ARE PEOPLE HYPOCRITES IN THEIR PLEASURES? Mary Jane is fond of quoting Samuel Johnson’s statement that: “No man is a hypocrite in his pleasures.” (The full passage from Boswell is here: “Sir Joshua [Reynolds] having also observed that the real character of a man was found out by his amusements, –Johnson added, ‘Yes, Sir, no man is a hypocrite in his pleasures.'”) The concepts of “kitsch” and “middlebrow” are a challenge to Johnson’s view of human nature. Louis Menand points out that people still use words like “middlebrow” and “kitsch” unfavorably and that: “This is because aesthetic preferences are always tied up with anxieties about social status….I can’t help judging you by the novel you’re reading on the plane….” I have always agreed with Johnson without thinking about it, but Menand is right that there are a lot of people who choose their pleasures to gain status.