Boredom, nearly unknown 

I am rarely unoccupied, boredom is for me a rare state of mind. I am aware of bores, and have learnt how to avoid them, and keep my thoughts shut to them, whoever they are. Nonetheless I am aware of what inept bores look like, particularly in the media and the so-called chattering class: a plague. Since my youth I have acquired techniques to neutralise bores, when they cannot be altogether ignored. One of the techniques is to follow a sort of script, like story writing. 

Bores come in several types, the most annoying being the type that cannot shut up. TV shows are full of that sort: easy to avoid, just turn off the box! Other types are more pernicious, presenting themselves as specialists of one discipline or another, often without the credentials to support their claim: pseudo analysts, false scientists, fake philosophers. Recognising them early is recommended, since otherwise their nefarious actions may have consequences, for our sanity, our ability to discern fakes from reality. Propaganda of course is one of the most manifest, and boring, form of deliberate falsehood. 

Most families have at least one bore among their tree, but generally of the inoffensive variety, well meaning individuals with one fixed idea, unable to speak about anything else. But this leads to another question: how not to be, or become a bore?

Boredom as self-reflection

We all have our weaknesses, mental, emotional, perhaps psycho-somatic (how boring!). Not to let those become obsessive and, to others, deeply boring, becomes harder with age. We love to speak about what once upset us, or made us very happy, the things we miss, from the good old time, the things we claim to have experienced, even when the strict reality is somewhat different. Exercising self-criticism is not easy, and the more boring we get the more elusive it becomes.

One remedy is to trust someone, partner, sister, brother, a friend, to remind us to keep away from repeating ourselves, and to save us from becoming total bores. Each public person, be it in science, politics, arts or sports, should have one such assistant, to say when needed: “Stop being a bore! Just think how boring you now are!”

One can be a bore in writing too! For a blogger it is anathema, but sometime hard to avoid. For a writer it is just short of criminal, although we all have different thresholds of boredom. I read historical or financial texts, that may be tiresome boredom for other readers. Is it a matter of content, of style, of how some readers may be delighted to get straight into the subject, while others prefer a slower introduction? Setting aside the case of useless, pretentious idiocy, what makes a potential useful subject boring? Is it only a matter of personal affinity, of prejudices (“Ha, I can’t bear hearing about this!”) Or just taste?

The anti-boredom

 I usually read more than one book at a time, in different subjects, novel, history, technology… but also try to vary how I make use of available time, outside basic duties, family visits, interaction with friends. Exercising is the enemy of boredom, in whatever form, gym, running, walking, boxing… By luck or design, I have managed to eliminate the real bores in my surroundings, which takes a determined approach, and no sentiment!

For being excessively sentimental is an invitation to a boredom invasion, one of the emotional weaknesses I mentioned. We have to learn to become, in that direction, ruthless,  lest our life sinks into a marmalade of cheap boring “narratives”. Before learning English, I was given a book entitled “How to be an alien”, well, perhaps I should write “How (not) to become a bore”.

Picture: Bored Bear