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“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?
(Score: 2) by pipedwho on Wednesday November 28 2018, @06:33PM (2 children)
I hope that room was the bathroom.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday November 28 2018, @08:14PM (1 child)
It was more like a one room shack, with a bathroom inside. They put his meals through a slot in the door and gave him all the books he asked for.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 29 2018, @12:40AM
Sounds like a Vipasana retreat where people spend 6 days in the 'shack' per session, then come out and help out with the running of things, then back in the shack for the time they're on their retreat - sometimes 6 months to a few years.