1. This is very much only an issue for the privileged - everyone else is too busy struggling to survive to be worrying about finding meaning.
2. Boredom is a good thing, and I feel what you're talking about here is less about boredom and more about ennui, losing interest, losing hope, and therefore filling our lives with distractions so we don't feel the crushing weight of the nothing we feel vs the doomerism.
Neither of these points disagree with what you're saying, just a way to rephrase that is my interpretation of what you're saying.
To me boredom is just another word for the pessimism and cynicism that is rampant in the global north while our society drains from the global south. What we need is solidarity with global south who are resisting this unequal exchange and learn from them. When faced with this ‘boredom’ I look to them as inspiration.
"Give us a dream, give us a goal."? Honey, no one else will give you any goals, you will need to do that yourself. How about eliminating boredom in the world? At least that's my personal life goal, or at least one way of phrasing it.
Great take and thanks for putting this out there. I always feared he old "if you're bored then your boring" adage but think it's worse than that now. I read a David Foster Wallace piece recently where he called watching tV "staring at furniture" because it ostensibly is what we are doing since it's just a box in our living room. Doing so, we reset our "normal" to think life is as exciting as it's portrayed on tv which makes our boring life staring at furniture seem all the worse. I just put something out talking about how I think social media just made this worse (link if you have any interest: https://open.substack.com/pub/imsureyoureright/p/everyone-is-worse-than-average-what?r=5f69g4&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web) We do seem to be on a death spiral of sorts that drives us toward the thing that drives us away from what we need to scratch the itches of what we want.
Thank you for not making me feel so alone. I felt every word. In the vast sea of madness and AI slop, you're one of the few voices of clarity out there. For the longest time I keep thinking I'm being depressed. I put on a stoic face and tried to climb out of it. I have learned now to embrace it all because it's a reminder my soul is still here and it is the greatest asset to hold onto in the chaos to come.
Thank you for this sobering klaxon, Boredom. Stagnation. Delusion. And Drugs in various forms most non-overt. I am one of those who has drawn on a cave wall but now instead embellish my stories of how I made that one drawing rather than recall the sharing of my soul when I painted, the nakedness before all. Childish wonder. This has awoken something inside me.I hope it does the same for others…
Agree 100% and love this fresh take on it
1. This is very much only an issue for the privileged - everyone else is too busy struggling to survive to be worrying about finding meaning.
2. Boredom is a good thing, and I feel what you're talking about here is less about boredom and more about ennui, losing interest, losing hope, and therefore filling our lives with distractions so we don't feel the crushing weight of the nothing we feel vs the doomerism.
Neither of these points disagree with what you're saying, just a way to rephrase that is my interpretation of what you're saying.
To me boredom is just another word for the pessimism and cynicism that is rampant in the global north while our society drains from the global south. What we need is solidarity with global south who are resisting this unequal exchange and learn from them. When faced with this ‘boredom’ I look to them as inspiration.
"Give us a dream, give us a goal."? Honey, no one else will give you any goals, you will need to do that yourself. How about eliminating boredom in the world? At least that's my personal life goal, or at least one way of phrasing it.
Damn. Just, damn. Ummm. Damn.
Great take and thanks for putting this out there. I always feared he old "if you're bored then your boring" adage but think it's worse than that now. I read a David Foster Wallace piece recently where he called watching tV "staring at furniture" because it ostensibly is what we are doing since it's just a box in our living room. Doing so, we reset our "normal" to think life is as exciting as it's portrayed on tv which makes our boring life staring at furniture seem all the worse. I just put something out talking about how I think social media just made this worse (link if you have any interest: https://open.substack.com/pub/imsureyoureright/p/everyone-is-worse-than-average-what?r=5f69g4&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web) We do seem to be on a death spiral of sorts that drives us toward the thing that drives us away from what we need to scratch the itches of what we want.
Thank you for not making me feel so alone. I felt every word. In the vast sea of madness and AI slop, you're one of the few voices of clarity out there. For the longest time I keep thinking I'm being depressed. I put on a stoic face and tried to climb out of it. I have learned now to embrace it all because it's a reminder my soul is still here and it is the greatest asset to hold onto in the chaos to come.
Brilliant 👌
Isn't the elephant in the room the West's (relative) decline? We no longer have the budget for history-making innovation.
Thank you for this sobering klaxon, Boredom. Stagnation. Delusion. And Drugs in various forms most non-overt. I am one of those who has drawn on a cave wall but now instead embellish my stories of how I made that one drawing rather than recall the sharing of my soul when I painted, the nakedness before all. Childish wonder. This has awoken something inside me.I hope it does the same for others…