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posted by martyb on Wednesday November 28 2018, @02:38AM   Printer-friendly
from the tl;dr dept.

Medium:

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” -- Blaise Pascal

According to Pascal, we fear the silence of existence, we dread boredom and instead choose aimless distraction, and we can’t help but run from the problems of our emotions into the false comforts of the mind.

The issue at the root, essentially, is that we never learn the art of solitude.
...
our aversion to solitude is really an aversion to boredom.

At its core, it’s not necessarily that we are addicted to a TV set because there is something uniquely satisfying about it, just like we are not addicted to most stimulants because the benefits outweigh the downsides. Rather, what we are really addicted to is a state of not-being-bored.

Deep thoughts by Blaise Pascal. Was he right? Are we addicted to not-being-bored? Is boredom good for us?


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  • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday November 28 2018, @03:56AM (6 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday November 28 2018, @03:56AM (#767188) Homepage Journal

    Boredom is second only to necessity as a creative force but only in the lengths we'll go to to avoid it. Sitting around just being bored holds no value whatsoever. It is in fact a waste of a perfectly good opportunity to be fishing, napping, or both if you have the forethought to put bells on the ends of your catfish rods.

    --
    My rights don't end where your fear begins.
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  • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday November 28 2018, @04:45AM (5 children)

    by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 28 2018, @04:45AM (#767210) Journal

    Sitting around just being bored holds no value whatsoever

    Just sitting with yourself, however, is as relaxing as sitting in the company of somebody familiar and dear to you - you know, somebody close enough that you can have a silence together (as opposed to a conversation). And yes, it can happen while fishing but is not required.

    The above, if you don't actually hate yourself and all you frantic activity and boredom avoidance is actually a constant running from self.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday November 28 2018, @10:54AM (4 children)

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Wednesday November 28 2018, @10:54AM (#767264) Homepage Journal

      What you say indeed has merit but I feel obliged to point out that not having company and not doing something especially productive are not quite the same as boredom, though they may appear outwardly so. Reading a book, pondering the meaning of life, trying to figure out how to release a million chickens in NYC in one day without going to prison, or engaging in a bit of introspection (not too much though; anyone who's ever dealt with depression knows better than that) are all means of alleviating boredom rather than being boredom.

      --
      My rights don't end where your fear begins.
      • (Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 28 2018, @11:04AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 28 2018, @11:04AM (#767266)

        trying to figure out how to release a million chickens in NYC in one day without going to prison

        ... and then declining the job offer from Google.

      • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday November 28 2018, @01:55PM

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Wednesday November 28 2018, @01:55PM (#767297) Journal

        That sounds cool. Please give us a heads up here on Soylent before you do so I can go watch and take video. That would be absolutely hilarious.

        --
        Washington DC delenda est.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 29 2018, @04:39PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 29 2018, @04:39PM (#767779)

        You could try reading up on old laws that could allow herding chickens in NYC. Also from which height could they be dropped (maybe with a cute parachute)? Good luck.

        • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday November 29 2018, @07:55PM

          by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Thursday November 29 2018, @07:55PM (#767886) Homepage Journal

          The scope is the problem there. A million chickens is a fucking lot of chickens. An eighteen wheeler can't carry more than ten thousand or so if you want them to mostly be alive when you get where you're going. That's a hundred trucks flat full and add ten more to account for the dead ones.

          --
          My rights don't end where your fear begins.