Under the Curse of Boredom

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 962, 3 May 1930, Page 20

Under the Curse of Boredom

Yr -‘Y UCH has been said and ■Yflk. ■ v- .dt l written in praise of “But what about lei-SWr-JorTW,: sure?” Conrad Nagel, /Jifv-’Apopular screen star, seeks to know. "We need to be educated to enjoy ourselves. “The use made of leisure—the kind of thing that amuses a man—is a real test. "One of the great dangers of today is the fact that we are all so easily bored. So was Rome before the fall. So were the French aristocrats before the revolution. “Something must be done to teach us to live so that we get something out of life. “The tendency to boredom has spoiled friendship, made a farce of courtship and hurt marriage. “It has affected the clothes we wear, the places we live in and our manner of entertaining our guests. "We strain our nerves to save two minutes’ time; but what do we do with the time so salvaged?" “In the dawn of the race there were two divisions of life,” he pointed out. “There was work and there was rest. People were so weary when they had finished their labour to obtain food and warmth that all they desired was sleep. Play was unknown. Presently, however, came inventions the most important being the plough. These inventions lightened labour, so that people had an hour or so left over between rest and work, and thus came leisure. With their first leisure, people amused themselves actively. It was some time before it occurred to them that they must be entertained, but at length came the entertainer to while away idle hours. And now we have come to a point where we are not long amused by anything. “We are drifting into the attitude of Rome before its downfdll ‘Come on, more action! More excitement! Let's go somewhere else! This is dull—drive faster—more speed—more noise! Ya-hoo! ’ “People are no longer content to go to a prizefight to see a test of skill, to watch two men striving for physical supremacy. They stand on their

seats and yell: ‘Kill him! Kill him!’ They are not there to see a fight; they want to see blood and look on while some one is being hurt.

“That is the way it was in the Roman arena toward the end. People didn’t go to see two gladiators wrestle; they went to see somebody killed.” “We are in too much of a hurry. We’re so busy doing useless things that we have no time to live. And see what we miss! “There’s friendship. Friendship is the most glorious thing in life, but we have little time for it today. We have no friends; we have acquaintances. “Long talks before the fire or discussions under the trees or as we walk in the hills may be the deepest joy in life. But who ha 3 time for them? “Now, when we invite people to dinner, we worry—-you and I and all of us—before they come about how we shall entertain them. “ ‘Before dinner we’ll let them swim in the pool,’ we plan carefully. ‘lf they don’t swim, perhaps they’ll play tennis or ping-pong. We'll hope so. At dinner we must work out some gags so as to keep the party going. Maybe we’d better invite So-and-So —he’s always amusing. After dinner we must have some bridge tables and poker for those who don’t play bridge. And what shall we do if some one doesn’t play cards? Better get in an entertainer to be safe?’ “We couldn’t possibly have a party where the guests just sat and talked. Nobody knows each other well enough. They wouldn’t knew what to talk about. They can’t exchange ideas. Perhaps they have never stopped hurrying long enough to find out whether or not they possess an idea. “Part of the trouble, at least, with marriage today ig that we haven’t a chance to get acquainted. Boys say they can’t call on a girl today because she always conies downstairs with her hat on. And the girls say they never have company because the boys don’t want to sit around: they expect to go somewhere. Yet all 4hej' seem to do

is to get into a car and drive arriving at a night club to (]«.“ madly, rushing off presently to again, faster than ever, to anott, place to dance the same steps to n! same music. Even the boys and JSI are so easily bored that they C a?. dance in the same club all evening' "Marriage often goes on the because of this boredom. Afiertx! first six months the thrill wears the sex attraction, and what is wJ We become bored with this strsn. fnan or woman who has somehow become related to us. It takes , efTort to keep life running smooth)? when there are two personalities i? close quarters. We don't like to an effort. It bores us. Oh, well, wj quit and maybe we’ll each find son J one else to thrill us again—for a tun.", “We need to know each other. must have time to discover the worth while things about our wives or oZ husbands. We must learn to find yj real joys of family life that sate for bachelor freedom. Bat can’t hope to do It unless we tab time. “The tenseness of modern life u tends to our children. They are rest less, nervous, easily excited. Th«j I can’t do anything for more than j j minute. | “Even our clothes have fallen unde j the spell of haste. A few years ago j j could buy a suit that lasted seasot ; after season, looking well to the lasgasp, I might say. But now clothe* seem to be made for the first loot They won’t stand up under wear, i; I buy one now and it is still posßihij to put It on in six months, I’m lucij "Houses, too, are decorated anj furnished for the moment. Who cook think of living in the average jan style architectural horror for more than a few months? “We are always talking of sarin: time. A man rushes out to board a suburban train. At the last minute he dashes off that train, gets on ss express and spends the next hour cosgratulating himself that In so doinj he has saved three minutes. . . . Fs? what? “We pass cars on the road, not be cause we’re going anywhere in pa-, ticular, but because we are always is a hurry—saving time one place is order to kill it in another. “Perhaps it is a good sign tha; skirts are getting longer and fashion more feminine,” he said, with a smiit "It may mean that we are about i_, halt in our mad rush. It is surely > good sign that plays are getting bet. ter and the stage is turning to cleai, strong drama and away from filth. “I think it would be an excellrat thing if people could be educated a enjoy themselves. We have reached a point where most of us like to h»i» everything done for us. We can’t era: bother to amuse ourselves. We war. to sit down and look on; that is, so long as the entertainer moves swiftly •enough to keep us from being bored "We need more culture. Not in the abused sense of the ‘Kultur’ before the war. but the sort of culture thst brings an appreciation of loveliness. “Writers an«J musicians were hot oured in an earlier day. People wit don’t know the truth think -.hat tha: was because we have no writers or composers comparable with them now But that’s not so. There are hundreds of excellent writers to every one flit: existed yesterday. There i? maml lons music being composed today, to’ The trouble is that people now are ii such a hurry they have no time t read anything but the sports sheer and no time to listen to anything bo; the jazz played at the night clubs.”