Mart-deBlog

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The gods were bored so they created man. Adam was bored because he was alone, so Eve was created. From that time boredom entered the world and grew in exact proportion to the growth of the population.
(Kierkegaard, 'Crop Rotation')


The Danish philosopher Kierkegaard expresses a view that has been with me since I could think. People are boring. Some are amusing but they bore themselves (think of all those depressed comedians) and people who bore others don't even know about their boredom. We do not want to be boring, it is the most repulsive - yes even evil - state to be in. A child rightfully does everything to avoid boredom, but when we mature boredom sadly becomes stronger and is at times even defended. Depression is it's called, when boredom wins over you. Our society is depressed. Imagine that you deeply desire to divorce simply because you are bored, society would scorn you; yet isn't this the most valid reason to break sacred marriage? What about stealing out of amusement or hurting your friends out of arbitrariness...

In the Divina Comedia Dante pictures Satan amidst a plane of ice, covered in frost and with his wings freezing the sinners around it. In my view, boredom is the frost of Satan. It brings static and makes lethargic, one who is bored does not move. This is maybe the most important task in life: to fight habits and predictability. It is a fight against our biology itself, our body works by forming habits and fixing us into patterns. And either we resist or there is no point to living.

One of the most painful experiences is discovering the boring in someone. At some point, everyone dissapoints the interest: the joker makes the same jokes, the drama-queen magnifies the same events, the philosopher applies the same idea in different guises, the intellectuals copy each other just like the masses, even the madman is arbitrary with its single disease. And you can only take distance. It is just too evil.

One can only change. And Kierkegaard explains us here: one can change the soil or one can change the method of cultivation. The one is hard and the other almost impossible. Changing the soil stands for those extensive changes, when changing environment, going on a trip or starting a new job. We are driven by our boredom like slaves, like a puppet on strings. Changing the method of cultivation stands for differing the experience of the world, to remember things without pain and forget in the equality of memories. Do not marry and do not make friends and do not identify yourself with a job. Then we're driven by our boredom into indifference and arbitrariness. We would become fear-struck rabbits if you ask me.

Kierkegaard makes sense but is too symmetric. I say (and be ready for my boring preachings), embody your boredom. Get to know the boring ways and then play with it. Just laugh about your own boredom. Be boring in unpredictable ways. Bore others and do it on purpose. If you are bored by someone do not waste energy on resurrecting them but bore back and enjoy it (thus being amused by someone's boredom). Indeed you have to change yourself constantly. But you do not change your interests, rather move your boredom. Amuse yourself by being boring and bore yourself with amusement. And, especially, get stuck in things willingly, push it forward until you exhaust the boredom of it and then move somewhere else. The thing will be left purified and insatiably interesting.

If your resist boredom, only then you get caught in it and it will eat you empty. People just do not go far enough. Only when I dive into it does it feel that I overcome boredom. It is about striving for the impossible: to embody opposites and be mad and sane, joker and gothic, boring and interesting. Only by embracing boredom can you become truly interesting.

The devil lurks everywhere and its ways are devious. So keep an eye on it at all times and it cannot surprise you. Live with the devil. It is the only way.

If only I could truly live my thoughts...

Sincerely boring,

Martin