It may well be true that man's greatest enemy today is boredom. When reading the papers, watching television or listening to the radio we are confronted with the most absurd manifestations of dullness and apathy. There are people, believe it or not, who spend their time rolling around Europe in a barrel, couples who dance the Charleston for more than 30 hours so as to break a record and others who want to show that they should be mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records because they have developed the stunning art of eating more ice cream than any human since the days of pre-historic man. We, the common people, are obviously deeply impressed and most happy to read that at least some geniuses have reached the ultimate meaning of life. They have accomplished what nobody ever dreamed was humanly possible.
Boredom comes about because, in our modern world, our wishes are too easily and quickly satisfied.
The pressure of fulfilling one's desires falls away, and we immediately look for new pressures, because we cannot live without them. We are like deep-sea fish. We need atmospheric pressure, and without it we are lost. Since western man is easily able to satisfy most of his wishes he starts to look for absurd manifestations to satiate his need for pressure. Remarkable is the fact that in the last fifty years we have turned most beneficial occupations into anti-boredom devices.