I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more/
No, I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more/
Well, I try my best/
To be just like I am/
But everybody wants you/
To be just like them/
They say sing while you slave and I just get bored/
I ain’t gonna work on Maggie’s farm no more
- From the Bob Dylan song "Maggie's Farm" (album "Bringing It All Back Home")
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW4y-9RoMFU
Today I am bored out of my mind.Funnily in me stress that cannot be resolved triggers boredom. Almost as if I have a third option when faced with danger. Fight or Flight or Get Bored!
I have promised myself to put out a blog post today and fighting hard with ennui I have decided to ruminate on the very topic that is preventing me from enjoying the process of writing a post today.
The first meme that comes to me as I meditate on boredom is Bob Dylan singing about how he just got bored on the slave farm! So I decide to begin the post with it.
I dig around a little more in the recesses of my mind and remember reading Bertrand Russel saying that boredom is a serious disease inflicting modern civilization. A google later I come upon the following Russel quote:
Boredom is... a vital problem for the moralist, since half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.
Bertrand Russell
Could Russel have got it somewhat wrong? Boredom on the streets of Harlem or Dharavi or in the penthouses of Beverly and Pali Hill might produce some rather painful results. But could not boredom also be productive? I started testing the hypothesis and lo and behold I hit pay dirt.
Arthur Schopenhauer, the German philosopher well known for his pessimism had an insightful and surprisingly sunny take on boredom.
Boredom is just the reverse side of fascination: both depend on being outside rather than inside a situation, and one leads to the other.
Arthur Schopenhauer
Schopenhauer's view on boredom resonate well with Mark Applebaum's views on the power of boredom. Mark known as the mad scientist of music believes that boredom is the key to creativity. Reproduced below is Mark's recent Ted Talk that walks one through the interaction between boredom and creativity.
Link: http://www.ted.com/talks/mark_applebaum_the_mad_scientist_of_music.html
I believe you will tend to agree with Mark's views if you are creative yourself or have worked extensively with creative people. From my days in advertising I can remember how my creative colleagues would be bored at the drop of a hat. And then they would most often go attack this boredom by behaving strangely or putting out the most outlandish propositions. And of course, once in a while, their attack on boredom would result in truly creative advertising. Would love to hear from my creative readers, who are legion, on their thoughts on this issue.
Being fifty plus has its joys.
I am now beyond feeling old. Like Bob Dylan I can kick back, marvel at my repose and sing.
“Ah I was so much older than, I am younger than that now” (from the song “My Back Pages”)
No change can befuddle me. I have crossed the technology and pace-of-life chasm many times overs and still earn a living telling people how to market to the young. Something about my generation’s rebelliousness in the 60’s and early seventies provided us with a reservoir of saviour faire.
An insouciance that celebrates both youth and wisdom while dismissing both as imposters.
“I grow old . . . I grow old . . .
I shall wear the bottoms of my trousers rolled.
Shall I part my hair behind? Do I dare to eat a peach?
I shall wear white flannel trousers, and walk upon the beach.
I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each.
I do not think they will sing to me.”
- Extract from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by TS Eliot
