 This is a study guide for chapter 2 of Sociology for Optimists by Mary Holmes published in 2015. The chapter is called Enjoyment. Please note that these study guides are meant to point out some important concepts of interest to introductory students. These are not designed to be thorough or provide an in-depth discussion. Material will be skipped or barely discussed, while other concepts will be given more emphasis than the chapter may have given them. Also note that the purpose of this book is to look at ways in which sociology can provide a basis for optimism, so discussions of pessimism and optimism will be central to this guide. A number of sociologists and social theorists have regarded enjoyment with skepticism. One of the major threads of criticism is based upon how unsustainable enjoyment can be in modern industrialized societies. Weber argued that the world had become disenchanted through rationality. Playing off this idea, the Frankfurt School referred to feelings of pleasure offered as escapism or good times as an, quote, unsatisfactory illusion, close quote. Pleasure becomes a pacifier, offering, quote, candy floss entertainment, close quote, which is not authentic, but rather blinding people from the reality of their circumstances. Holmes doesn't mention this, but think about the criticism of watching long hours of television dulling your senses. That is candy floss entertainment. As such, the Frankfurt School is arguing that the only authentic pleasure is lasting and that, for the most part, within a capitalist authoritarian society, impossible. Pleasure becomes a tool of power and enjoyment offers a false sense of security. Also connected to the critique of enjoyment is the idea that leisure time is enjoyable, but employment will never be enjoyable because under capitalism the worker is alienated from production. In this scenario, leisure becomes an escape from the rationalized world. Leisure serves capitalism because workers are refreshed by leisure and thus become more productive at work. Marx argued that work under capitalism is drudgery, disconnected from satisfaction because the surplus of one's labor is rewarded to the owner of the means of production, not to the worker who produces. Spatialization and efficient systems of production, like assembly lines, also add to this drudgery because the worker becomes a part of a greater whole without experiencing the completion of that whole. In this view of work, however, is contested. Many people in their everyday lives, even in production jobs, find pleasure in their work. The concept of a vocation, a career calling, undermines this idea of drudgery. People who see their jobs as something they were meant to do often feel pleasure from work, suggesting that Marx's view of work doesn't fit fully in everyday life. Enjoyment, however, can be seen as subverting rationality and refusing to fully succumb to the disenchantment. Enjoyment can be found in the optimistic view that the world can be better. Hope is a form of optimism that many feel as enjoyment. Enjoyment, rather than mere escapism, can be subversive because it is a survival skill. Taking time off from the drudgery may make one a better worker, but it can also put work in perspective and give people something to look forward to besides more of the same. Enjoyment can be a sign that an activity is fulfilling, that is, provides an individual with a sense of accomplishment and meaning. Often people who have drudgery jobs spend their off-the-clock time doing things that give them pleasure, seeing this as their calling, their application, rather than a job. Employment can also be seen as subversive because transgressing the expectations of society can be pleasurable. Breaking the rules, especially in nonviolent and undamaging ways, can produce enjoyment and also subvert dominant rules, demonstrating their weaknesses. Many changes made in the world, in the social world, began with someone willing to be deviant. In a world where pleasure is sold, returning to traditional cultural activities for pleasure can be subversive. Often one of the ways subordinate groups assert their identities is insisting on finding pleasure in their own culture rather than the dominant commercialized products meant for pleasure. Interpersonal relationships, including sexual ones, not only provide opportunities for enjoyment, but can be subversive as social roles and expectations, especially when pursuing norms breaching activities in the name of intimacy. This is an important example of how optimistic views of enjoyment can better describe everyday life than merely concentrating on functionality or class struggles. So where is the optimism? False consciousness, while Marxist and Neo-Marxist may argue that escapism of entertainment encourages a false consciousness among the working class, enjoyment may also be a way for those with an understanding of their status to cope with the conditions they face. Rather than a false sense of security, those working class persons pursuing pleasure may be doing so to spite their masters rather than escape them. Commodification, enjoyment is sold as forms of entertainment, but sociologists who allow for optimism may be able to identify the myriad of ways people move beyond the commodity and into genuine and authentic pleasure. Vocation, not all work is drudgery. Many are finding and have found that the work they do is fulfilling and purposeful. Many find enjoyment in that fulfillment and purpose. For sociologists to ignore this is to miscapturing the social world in its entirety.