Thursday, June 3, 2010

What oft was thought, part 2

From pop philosopher Alain de Botton:

The past decade has seen an unparalleled assault on our capacity to fix our minds steadily on anything. To sit still and think, without succumbing to an anxious reach for a machine, has become almost impossible.

The need to diet, which we know so well in relation to food, and which runs so contrary to our natural impulses, should be brought to bear on what we now have to relearn in relation to knowledge, people, and ideas. Our minds, no less than our bodies, require periods of fasting.
So why am I doing this? Just a glutton, I guess.

1 comment:

David Chute said...

Has that train left the station? I fear so.

At this point the distractions are aggressive and carnivorous. They come after us in the form of TV monitors over urinals, stupid loud neighbors with stupid loud musical taste, and etc. We can't chose not to be distracted, but perhaps we can chose our own distractions.