Unless you’re into drugs and live on a different planet, you must have realized by now that life on earth can be boring.
With all our 60” plasma tvs, ipods, 5 mp GPRS phones, 5000 TV channels, electronic music, Facebooks and Orkuts, race cars, sports, pot and pills, movies and celebs… life remains boring.
In fact, a lot of these things were created primarily to kill boredom. Television, mobile phones, the Internet, etc., may be the flotsam of scientific progress, but they are popular because humanity needs newer and newer ways of keeping boredom at bay.
The early man was busy hunting all day and spending time with his cave woman partner all night (teaching her the important lessons that you can’t mail order babies and that human propagation involves a lot of team work). He never had the time, or the intelligence, to get bored. With civilization came lots of free time in which man figured out that life is boooring.
So man invented wars, circuses, gladiators, magicians, private zoos, public executions, courtesans and art. Today’s version of which are football, Formula 1, cricket, HBO and gadgets. Plus, of course, sex, drugs and alcohol.
Through the ages man also tried to kill boredom through personal initiative. Some found a passion. Some chased a dream. Some fell in love. Some plunged into religion. And some plotted murders.
But no matter what anyone tried, or tries, boredom remains like the hooded guy with the sickle, sooner or later it gets every one.
The last two truly exciting things that happened on earth were Buddha and Jesus Christ. The next exciting thing will be the coming of aliens. If they visit us. If they exist .
Footnote: Do aliens exist? Nobody knows. But… the universe contains a hundred billion galaxies like our Milky Way, with a hundred billion squared stars (that’s one followed by 22 zeros). About 50% of these stars are supposed to have planets. A scientist friend once told me that even by the most conservative estimates, it’s perfectly logical to assume that many billion planets with intelligent life exist.
Footnote to above footnote: If you hold up a grain of sand, the patch of sky it covers contains 10,000 galaxies.
Now we have blogging. Hope you don't find that boring.
ReplyDeleteI think that sets out to remove boredom becomes boring. Lot of ads fall into that category!!!!
Nice to see how you connect everything back to advertising, Subbu. :) - Joshi
ReplyDeletei totally agree. wasn't it milan kundera who wrote it's man's curse to be bored? look at the happy puppy, it never bores, it's never sad. everyday is the same old cycle and it relishes it.
ReplyDeletei get so so bored though.... *moan*
You're right about puppies and probably the whole animal kingdom for that matter, Clarice. They never get bored. They're a happy, care-free lot. - Joshi
ReplyDeleteI always dream of what life would be like if lived as Homer Simpson? If this were possible might it breed daily contentment?
ReplyDeleteIt may actually help to be simple, maybe this tilt-a-world would not seem so plain.