February 8, 2010
ennui and the internet
Why I am so enslaved to the Internet, I do not know. Nor do I care, in the habitual manner of addicts—at least not until the consequences begin to rear their hydra heads, as they are rather doing right now. My first instinct is to say that it’s because learning stuff provides the communion with other minds that is the best defense against existential loneliness and ennui. The more you learn, the less alone you will feel. And by now the Internet must contain knowledge enough to cure all six or seven billion of us of that loneliness.
hat tip to Autumn who said the piece reminded her of me.
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I am never going to learn enough to not feel alone most of the time.
The more I learn, the more alone I feel.
Pascal: “man cannot be truly happy, only distracted from his current misery.”
Eliot: “distracted from distraction by distraction”
LET’S HAVE A BALL AND A BISCUIT BABY.
Pope: A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.
Again, Eliot: “gently dip, but not too deep”
Dignan: How does an asshole like Bob get such a great kitchen?
McFly: What happens to us in the future? Do we become assholes or something?