A leading researcher from the school of experimental social science has controversially revealed that one of the chief causes of law suits is boredom. Professor Ian S. Pistaldatheim very kindly indulged us with a detailed discussion of his research findings - and these shall appear on this website in due course - but insofar as the news team (comprised of 15 PhD students and 10 Professors) encountered some difficulties in deciphering these, we reserve this column to give a flavour of his latest work. The thrust of his findings was that in contemporary times people have far more time on their hands than ever before (more "disposable time": despite contemporary perceptions of our being busier than ever before), and more industrious at filling leisure time with "busy nothingness" - however, central to the study was that filing law suits and sending letters threatening law suits now constitute major leisure activities in Western society. An extract from Professor Pistaldatheim's forthcoming book, Too Bored and Afraid to Yawn? Litigiousness and Boredom, readily reveals his concerns:
"In days of old, members of society used to find numerous reasons to congregate and interact - all of which can be described as basic "humanity-asserting behaviour". Now, whether through fear, and/or an aquired taste for general listlessness or fatigue, one finds oneself generally bored most of the time. One grows to expect it and develop a taste for it - anything more than a sense of marginal boredom and one is in deep danger of feeling "stressed". As a result, the most mundane and trivial of events, such as sitting on a pin, now take on the most astonishing importance in the biography of one's life - extraordinary! It is, however, a boring and safe kind of excitement - a less peakie kind of peak."
Professor Pistadatheim notes that in modern times we have become "merchants of boredom - flatliners" where, "Nothing is truly notable in the ordinary life of a person these days." It is for this reason, he suggests, that tripping upon a slightly exposed paving stone constitutes a major event: "one feels compelled to pursue it, why it happened, and the question of who was responsible for it, with some vigour."
The Professor explains that humans are constantly motivating towards seeking "peak experiences" as humanity-asserting behaviour (the "I live - I am here! Look at me!" humanity affirming claim); however, insofar as those peak experiences would have been acquired frequently through normal social interaction in days of old, the difficulty in modern times is that we have become so paralysed with concern over the remotest sniff of risk, peak experiences are less forthcoming. However, as he claims, we have adapted and evolved to find different, and safer and less exciting forms of peak experiences. As he explains:
"...the sense of existing in the world and being notable for something, is gained through the processes of litigation and/or negotiation of settlement. ...[many now pursue] the safe and clean battle for compensation"
"Now, that desire for one's rather mundane day to day experience being broken, the sense of existing in the world and being notable for something, is gained through the processes of litigation and/or negotiation of settlement. If triumph is sought, if something notable is to be found, something that serves to assert one's difference to a mere ant in the garden, the safe and clean battle for compensation is one obvious possibility - and many, as our team found, pursue it."
"For the man who experiences nothing, the merest of somethings will constitute a great cause of excitement."
As Professor Ian explains, none of this is to suggest that individuals seeking compensation do not suffer an injury of some kind, but that the team's finding was that "in so many of these cases, the injuries sustained are not particularly notable, interesting or significant in effect either - so dull has life become, that the most trivial (and dull) injuries have transformed into injuries of the most extraordinary kind. For the man who experiences nothing, the merest of somethings will constitute a great cause of excitement. Mental paralysis, the significance of insignificance is the modern condition."
Too Bored and Afraid to Yawn? Litigiousness and Boredom is due to be published in January 2009 by Picksasheet Publishing House Ltd, an independent publishing house. Professor Ian S. Pistaldatheim is not currently able to accept or respond to correspondence prior of that date (he is currently on sick leave for suspected mental injury following the receipt of hundreds of angry emails from accident victims).
No comments:
Post a Comment