In this excellent article by Matt Crutchmer on desiringgod.org we are reminded of how our culture and sin lead us into malaise and boredom.
Joy Against Boredom: How Christians Resist a Culture of Death by Matt Crutchmer
"Which of these two people is bored? One man has to sit through an entire three-hour baseball game, yawning, uninterested in the action and the rules, yearning to be anywhere else. The other man spent three anxious hours rattling through two-thirds of his to-do list, purchasing two new household items from Amazon, deciding which workout to do next (per the report of his fitness app), yearning to achieve all the goals he’s set.
Yes, it’s a trick question: they are both bored. A 2004 essay from philosopher Michael Hanby, “The Culture of Death, the Ontology of Boredom, and the Resistance of Joy,” can help us understand how the second man, seemingly so active and normal, is actually suffering under the malaise of modern industrial life and unable to rest. As a result, Hanby’s article can provide us with a set of diagnostic tools so we can take stock of our own hearts and actions, and, along the way, find something of a way out.
Culture of Death
Hanby (along with others) views our modern Western culture as a “culture of death.” He sees the presenting symptoms of our culture’s illness as abortion and euthanasia, of course, but also as terrorist violence, secular materialism, hedonistic reveling in self and entertainment, and a “frenetic orgy of consumption” (184). In a culture of death, nothing can satisfy us. The things of our world have become exclusively means — means of our self-directed projects of building and securing worth, goodness, and meaning — and thus are no longer meaningful, good, worthy ends in themselves.
Acres of land are “vacant” until they are purchased, cleared, and built on. Trees are merely raw materials for human use in that construction enterprise, or else perhaps “valued” by some, but only as symbols. A human life is “worth” something only if he or she can perform a set of functions. The world must be made controllable — or at least entertaining..." from the article: Joy Against Boredom: How Christians Resist a Culture of Death by Matt Crutchmer
Matt Crutchmer serves as assistant professor of theology at Bethlehem College and Seminary.
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