Well, as I was saying, the world is eaten up by boredom. To perceive this needs a little preliminary thought: you can't see it all at once. It is like dust. You go about and never notice, you breathe it in, you eat and drink it. It is sifted so fine, it doesn't even grit on your teeth. But stand still for an instant and there it is, coating your face and hands. To shake off this drizzle of ashes you must be forever on the go. And so people are always 'on the go.' Perhaps the answer would be that the world has long been familiar with boredom, that…
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André on Boredom
"Okay. Yes. We're bored. We're all bored now. But has it ever occurred to you, Wally, that the process which creates this boredom that we see in the world now may very well be a self-perpetuating unconscious form of brainwashing created by a world totalitarian government based on money? And that all of this is much more dangerous than one thinks? And that it’s not just a question of individual survival, Wally, but that somebody who’s bored is asleep? And somebody who's asleep will not say no?"
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Kevin H. Gary on Boredom
Resignation to boredom, or knee-jerk attempts to escape it, are similar in that both responses resist reflection on this problem. In a capitalist society, producers often want people to dread boredom and be unreflective about it, so consumption becomes simply a knee-jerk antidote to it. Given the pervasiveness of boredom, the multitude of negative behaviors that are causally linked to it, and the economic system that benefits from it, the problem of boredom merits careful attention, especially in education. When schools graduate students who are unable to endure boredom, and who cannot discern when to accept boredom or when and how to challenge it, then schools have failed to equip…