Dialog between Mill and Marx

John S. Mill and Karl Marx exit a sandwich shop. They are standing by respective cars and saying their goodbyes.

Mill : Thanks for getting lunch with me. Same time next week?

Marx : Of course. It’s been fun. Only next time we eat at my house, okay? I can’t believe that all three of the people behind me in line also got the same sandwich.

Mill : Happiness is the most important thing, and not about being individual, per sae. It’s personal. What does it matter what everyone else ordered if it made you happy and made them happy? I can never understand why you always get so worked up about these things.

Marx : It just irritates me, all of this pretending to have choice. Choosing between whole grain and white bread is hardly a real choice, in my book.

Mill : No one forced us to eat there. That was a choice even if you don’t feel like the menu was a sufficient means of making one, and that choice of where to eat was a way of us finding happiness, which is crucial.

Marx : That choice of where to eat was dictated by our understanding of capitalist, consumer-oriented society, and had nothing to do with any private decision. All of this “necessary happiness” through choice wouldn’t even be necessary if society wasn’t what it is. Plus I could barely even hear you, it was so loud in there. How could anyone sit down and fully appreciate another’s ideas, with so much commotion? Half the people in there were on their own, anyway. People pay money, surf the internet, talk on the phone, making sure that we can communicate in the most isolated way possible, all to buy into conformity. That’s the result of consumerism, and it just irritates me, that’s all.

Mill : Well like I said, if it made you happy and it made them happy, it makes so difference who ordered what. And how else are we to find our freedoms than by talking? You can’t begrudge others for talking. Freedoms are found through discussion, and where are we to discuss but with others, surrounded by others?

Marx : They weren’t talking, they were doing business. Thinking of everybody, we need to be able to express ideas, not be silenced by whoever talks the loudest in a sandwich shop without thinking about it…

Mill : And it is society’s responsibility as a whole to make those places conducive to hearing those ideas, agreed. And fine, we can eat at your place next week.