The Doldrums: The Absurd Arena – Useful Idiots Discussion Board
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The Doldrums: The Absurd Arena – Useful Idiots Discussion Board
Live chat at 12pm EST with Katie and Wilson in the Substack app chat!
Click here to join the live discussion board with Katie and Wilson in the Substack app chat.
Hey Useful Idiots,
We’re playing everyone’s favorite game: Innate or Invented! Today’s topic: Boredom! And now, here’s your host: someone who’s been pretty bored lately!
Here’s where the argument started. Take someone entrenched in today’s world of smartphones, flashing ads, social media, and increasingly-short-form entertainment, all designed to shorten their attention span. What would happen if they dropped everything and moved to a remote village with no phones or computers? Would they be bored to death, or is there a way to become free of boredom?
When I compare myself to someone who lived 1000 years ago, I assume they didn’t also struggle to sit in silence for 20 minutes without looking at their phone. Did people without instant and constant access to games and videos and Twitter get bored? And if I moved to a tiny island Banshees of Inisherin style, would I, after a period of withdrawal, learn to not be bored again?
You reading this may be that person who lives off-the-grid, spending hours each day watching the wind blow the grass to and fro. You may also be a short-attention-span-constant-scrolling-phone-addict. I’d like to hear all your theories. Is boredom a human trait, or have we been trained to need distraction? Can I hope to one day live free of my phone and computer, or am I trapped?
Join Katie and me at 12pm est on the Substack app to share your theories. Here’s the prompt:
Is boredom innate or invented? Would we still get bored if we weren’t trained with constant access to distraction? Is there a way to re-learn and reset?
The Doldrums: The Absurd Arena – Useful Idiots Discussion Board
Go to the beach and use your cell phone to dig for clams. Follow all harvesting rules and regulations. Report back on progress and/or obstacles. A crack team of stochastic postmetaphysical scatologists will verify the emergence of punctuated , dynamic equilibrium.
Matt: Please pass on to Aaron something from his comment on Monday Mourning. I don't remember the exact clip Aaron was referring to, but it was about East Palestine. Aaron thought the comment by the necon about "leaving a trick on the table" meant the neocon was equating doing something good for the community was a "political trick."
I'm the last guy to defend a neocon, but I believe the neocon was making a card playing refernce. In Bridge, or Hearts or Spades, the round of 4 cards played is a "trick." The high/best card wins the trick. I believe the necon meant it would have been very easy for Biden to go to East Palestine and win the "trick" as president Biden is a "higher card" than Donald Trump. "Leaving a trick on the table" would mean purposefully NOT playing your best card to win the trick when there is no advantage for you to do so.