In Defense of Boredom
Sep. 11th, 2005 01:41 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
forsyth"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock." - Harry Lime
That up above? It's bullshit. Oh, it's factually true, to an extent, but it's bullshit. Yes, turmoil and disaster have helped produce innovations and art, but that doesn't justify them. Nor does it require them. But there's little chance for "heroism" in peace and prosperity. To some people, this is a bad thing. They feel like they should be facing down giant threats, like their forefathers, rather than doing all the little bullshit things that make life better. Nothing's nearly as cool as when the fate of the world's in the balance!
You know what? I'd rather be bored. Romantic visions of glory and heroism are all well and good... in stories. In reality, I'd much rather have "boring" peace and safety and trade, with only "boring" problems like figuring out how to feed everybody on the planet and keep us from turning it into a toxic waste dump. But somehow there's a perception that it's grander to go out and break something, then struggle mightily to fix it, instead of, y'know, not breaking it in the first place.
I call this "Virture through laziness." It's the entire foundation of most computer geekery, where when you make a program right, it saves you much time. In the long run, doing work right the first time gives you more time to be lazy later on.
Yeah, no more deep thoughts at 1:30 am.
That up above? It's bullshit. Oh, it's factually true, to an extent, but it's bullshit. Yes, turmoil and disaster have helped produce innovations and art, but that doesn't justify them. Nor does it require them. But there's little chance for "heroism" in peace and prosperity. To some people, this is a bad thing. They feel like they should be facing down giant threats, like their forefathers, rather than doing all the little bullshit things that make life better. Nothing's nearly as cool as when the fate of the world's in the balance!
You know what? I'd rather be bored. Romantic visions of glory and heroism are all well and good... in stories. In reality, I'd much rather have "boring" peace and safety and trade, with only "boring" problems like figuring out how to feed everybody on the planet and keep us from turning it into a toxic waste dump. But somehow there's a perception that it's grander to go out and break something, then struggle mightily to fix it, instead of, y'know, not breaking it in the first place.
I call this "Virture through laziness." It's the entire foundation of most computer geekery, where when you make a program right, it saves you much time. In the long run, doing work right the first time gives you more time to be lazy later on.
Yeah, no more deep thoughts at 1:30 am.
