social psychology of the p-list

[Paul Mackin]

do we want to live in happyville or pain city?

in our everyday lives, we will 99 times out of 100 choose happyville.

but in our literature-appreciation lives the only place to be is pain  
city

we are friends here, we (mostly) like each other, we teach each  
other, learn from each  other

nevertheless, the p-list is pain-list

it is not so unlike that condition famously described as the anxiety  
of influence

we learn from each other, then we kill each other

there's no changing it

and nobody ever dies

(unlike in Beirut}