Niceness, at least as it is normally conceived, seeks to avoid pain at all costs. It not only avoids pain, but even the hint of discomfort. Niceness is the highest moral expression of bourgeois society, a society that sees comfort and ease as the highest goods. And modern society is bourgeois in the highest degree. It is unguent-soaked, padded, temperature-controlled, luxuriant, tidy, well-groomed; it is mediocre par excellence. It is no surprise, then, that modern society values niceness so highly. To be nice is to be non-judgmental, pliant, stroking, and affirming. It allows for no negativity, for negativity is uncomfortable.
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