How corrupting boredom
is, everyone recognizes also with regard to children. As long as children are
having a good time, they are always good. This can be said in the strictest sense,
for if they at times become unmanageable even while playing, it is really
because they are beginning to be bored; boredom is already coming on, but in a
different way. Therefore, when selecting a nursemaid, one always considers
essentially not only that she is sober, trustworthy, and good-natured but also
takes into esthetic consideration whether she knows how to entertain children.
Even if she had all other excellent virtues, one would not hesitate to give her
the sack if she lacked this qualification. Here, indeed, the principle is
clearly acknowledged, but things go on so curiously in the world, habit and
boredom have gained the upper hand to such a degree, that justice is done to esthetics
only in the conduct of the nursemaid. It would be quite impossible to prevail
if one wanted to demand a divorce because one’s wife is boring, or demand that
a king be dethroned because he is boring to behold, or that a clergyman be
exiled because he is boring to listen to, or that a cabinet minister be
dismissed or a journalist be executed because he is frightfully boring. Since boredom advances
and boredom is the root of all evil, no wonder, then, that the world goes
backwards, that evil spreads. This can be traced back to the very beginning of the
world. The gods were bored; therefore they created human beings. Adam was bored
because he was alone; therefore Eve was created. Since that moment, boredom
entered the world and grew in quantity in exact proportion to the growth of
population. Adam was bored alone; then Adam and Eve were bored en famille.
After that, the population of the world increased and the nations were bored en
masse. To amuse themselves, they hit upon the notion of building a tower so
high that it would reach the sky. This notion is just as boring as the tower
was high and is a terrible demonstration of how boredom had gained the upper
hand. Then they were dispersed around the world, just as people now travel
abroad, but they continued to be bored. And what consequences this boredom had:
humankind stood tall and fell far, first through Eve, then from the Babylonian
tower… Now, if boredom, as
discussed above, is the root of all evil, what then is more natural than to
seek to conquer it? But here, as everywhere, it is primarily a matter of calm deliberation,
lest, demonically possessed by boredom in an attempt to escape it, one works
one’s way into it. All who are bored cry out for change. In this, I totally
agree with them, except that it is a question of acting according to principle. My deviation from
popular opinion is adequately expressed by the phrase “rotation of crops.”
There might seem to be an ambiguity in this phrase, and if I were to find room
in this phrase for a designation of the ordinary method I would have to say
that rotation of crops consists in continually changing the soil. But the
farmer does not use the expression in this way. For the moment, however, I will
use it in this way to discuss the rotation of crops that depends upon the
boundless infinity of change, its extensive dimension. This rotation of crops
is the vulgar, inartistic rotation and is based on an illusion. One is weary of
living in the country and moves to the city; one is weary of one’s native land and
goes abroad; one is weary of Europe and goes to America etc.; one indulges in
the fanatical hope of an endless journey from star to star. Or there is another
direction, but still extensive. One is weary of eating on porcelain and eats on
silver; wearying of that, one eats on gold; one burns down half of Rome in
order to visualize the Trojan conflagration. This method cancels itself and is
the spurious infinity. What, after all, did Nero achieve? No, then the emperor
Antoninus was wiser; he says: “You can begin a new life. Only see things afresh
as you used to see them. In this consists the new life” The method I propose does not consist in changing the soil but, like proper crop rotation, consists in changing the method of cultivation and the kinds of crops. Here at once is the principle of limitation, the sole saving principle in the world. The more a person limits himself, the more resourceful he becomes. A solitary prisoner for life is extremely resourceful; to him a spider can be a source of great amusement. Think of our school days; we were at an age when there was no esthetic consideration in the choosing of our teachers, and therefore they were often very boring--how resourceful we were then! What fun we had catching a fly, keeping it prisoner under a nutshell, and watching it run around with it! What delight in cutting a hole in the desk, confining a fly in it, and peeking at it through a piece of paper! How entertaining it can be to listen to the monotonous dripping from the roof! What a meticulous observer one becomes, detecting every little sound or movement. Here is the extreme boundary of that principle that seeks relief not through extensity but through intensity. |
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