Amusing ourselves to death
This is an article I wrote for The Straits Times- wasn't sent to print due to space constraints..
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""The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself,'' wrote 19thcentury novelistMark Twain.
I suspect many of our young … and old … are feeling that way.
Despite the industrial, scientific and technological benefits ofmodernity, we are not necessarily happier.
In fact,we are becoming a lot lonelier without even realising it.
The multi-tasking abilities of today's young are but a projection oftheir fear of being bored … or lonely.
I am not saying that one should shy away from modern life, like thepeople in the movie, The Village. To do so would be unrealistic, but I do hope we will not make the mistake of equatingquantity with quality, form with substance.
For instance, our notions of friendship are often reduced to thenumber of contacts we have on MSN, how often we getinvited to parties and how much time we spend chatting or gaming online …where more means good, and less means bad.
As a result, we fool ourselves into thinking that being in a crowdmeans having company, without realising that thefaces we see may just be a gallery of cold and impersonal pictures.
We immerse ourselves in a ""peek-a-boo'' world of entertainment andmake-believe, not knowing that the louder welaugh, the deeper we dig ourselves into a rabbit-hole of despair.
Rathan than confronting our problems, we choose to hide behind the incessant drone of activity, in the hope that the noise would drown out the deafening silence of our loneliness.
Rather than using our loneliness ""to spur ourselves into findingsomething to live for, great enough to die for'' …as the late UN secretary-general Dag Hammarskjold once said … we are content to run around in circles, in our pursuit ofgolden eggs and red herrings.
And rather than trying to find the meaning of life, we go on amusingourselves … to death.
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""The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself,'' wrote 19thcentury novelistMark Twain.
I suspect many of our young … and old … are feeling that way.
Despite the industrial, scientific and technological benefits ofmodernity, we are not necessarily happier.
In fact,we are becoming a lot lonelier without even realising it.
The multi-tasking abilities of today's young are but a projection oftheir fear of being bored … or lonely.
I am not saying that one should shy away from modern life, like thepeople in the movie, The Village. To do so would be unrealistic, but I do hope we will not make the mistake of equatingquantity with quality, form with substance.
For instance, our notions of friendship are often reduced to thenumber of contacts we have on MSN, how often we getinvited to parties and how much time we spend chatting or gaming online …where more means good, and less means bad.
As a result, we fool ourselves into thinking that being in a crowdmeans having company, without realising that thefaces we see may just be a gallery of cold and impersonal pictures.
We immerse ourselves in a ""peek-a-boo'' world of entertainment andmake-believe, not knowing that the louder welaugh, the deeper we dig ourselves into a rabbit-hole of despair.
Rathan than confronting our problems, we choose to hide behind the incessant drone of activity, in the hope that the noise would drown out the deafening silence of our loneliness.
Rather than using our loneliness ""to spur ourselves into findingsomething to live for, great enough to die for'' …as the late UN secretary-general Dag Hammarskjold once said … we are content to run around in circles, in our pursuit ofgolden eggs and red herrings.
And rather than trying to find the meaning of life, we go on amusingourselves … to death.
posted by Benjamin Ho at
7:35 AM
1 Comments:
What is the meaning of life, I wonder? :)
Neil Postman's AMusing Ourselves to Death is a classic, wish i cud find it in a local bookstore
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