Proclaimer Blog
Still bored?
Review of Still Bored in a Culture of Entertainment: Rediscovering passion and wonder, by Richard Winter. Published by IVP US (ISBN 978-0-8308-2308-6). Available from The Book Depository for £8.94.
I recently heard RIchard Winter (Professor of Practical Theology at Covenant Seminary in St Louis) at an Oak Hill teaching day. He is a Brit living abroad – a psychiatrist by training and a relatively prolific author and speaker. This 160 page book is a fairly meaty treatment of the subject of boredom. It's, at times, rather hard going for someone like me who is a simple analytical soul – I'm careful not to say "boring" for reasons that will soon become apparent! It did get me thinking about the whole subject of boredom – from what it means when our daughters echo the common refrain, "Dad, I'm so bored" to what it means pastorally dealing with a bored generation. Lots of helpful stuff – even though you have to wait for the end of the book for it to become a really Christian book.
Perhaps that is because of where Richard is experienced and coming from – and, for sure, a thorough and detailed analysis can be helpful – but I wanted the Christian stuff earlier. Nevertheless, it's not a huge book so you don't have to wade through treacle to get to the treasure.
It also, BTW, has perhaps the best opening line I've come across for some time.
No-one was bored on September 11th 2001.
Winter is convinced that Rowan Williams is right (!). Writing in the Sunday Times in 2001, he said:
We live in a deeply and dangerously bored society.
The first half of the book maps our what boredom is; what causes boredom (understimulation, repetition and disconnection), what the various types of boredom are, and how our modern world has exacerbated the problem. 100 years ago we worked 70 hour weeks and lived to 40. Now we live to 70 and work 40 hours a week – giving us 22 years more of leisure to fill. He describes a family who took part in a reality TV show where they had to live like Frontier families for a period of time.
One family was interviewed after their return from the Montana cabin to their Malibu mansion. One of the children was having a hard time adjusting to a life where basic needs are met so much more easily. She said, "Life in 2001 is boring. Where's the fun in going to the mall every day?" (p33)
Winter then analyses the reason why boredom is an increasing issue:
- retreat from community
- overstimulation which dulls reactions (especially from the entertainment industry)
- advertising
This last point is most interesting. He argues that the volume of advertising and the creation of a sense of coveting which is never fulfilled has contributed significantly to the culture of boredom in which we find ourselves.
Could it be that some have become so chronically disappointed by false promised and unfulfilled wants that they have shut down their deepest longings and desires and become apathetic and bored? The enticements to more exciting things have to get louder to catch our dulled attention…people give up hope and expectation that anything could ever give them deep pleasure." (p48).
It's at this point that I wish Winter had started to introduce more Christian analysis of the situation. He does this briefly, but it's only really at the end of the book that his analysis becomes biblical rather than psychological. He does get there in the end, but the book feels as though it's lacking by not having more in depth Christian comment woven throughout.
The next section of the book deals with the connection between personality and boredom (how different temperaments might be more susceptible to boredom, for example) – and even (p69) a test to take to see how susceptible to boredom one is. He then analyses how people have seen boredom historically and this is where things begin to get really good.
Winter argues that, historically, boredom was seen as a sin (and he differentiates it from depression and grief here). The puritans, he says, understood this and preached this strongly. They saw that boredom was fundamentally an internal problem rather than (as people say today) an external one. Moreover, the reason that boredom is more of an issue today is that the decline of religion has led people away from the view that there is something intrinsically wrong with them. "Boredom is opposite to faith." Therefore,
to avoid boredom we need to have a sense of meaning and purpose in life. (p95)
and
The reality of a personal Being who has created the Universe and us for a purpose imbues meaning to every aspect of our busyness. This Christian perspective on life encourages our deep involvement in relationships and our creativity in developing the resources that God has given us to enjoy. (p99)
Failure to tackle boredom, Winter argues, has led to some of the deep problems we see in society today:
- sexual addiction, especially pornography
- aggression
- risk taking (written before the banking crisis!)
So, how do we counteract boredom? Winter has six suggestions:
- remember the big picture
- delight in the ordinary
- cultivate wonder
- develop a passion
- practise active engagement with the world
- FLOW (read the book to see what this means, I'm not sure I can summarise!)
His last chapter is the most Christian and, as a consequence, the best with helpful instruction for preachers, pastors and parents alike. Calling us to reflect on and to reflect the character of God, he says:
[God] is the one who helps us patiently endure the inevitable moments of frustration and boredom. As we live in a relationship with him and in the light of what he has told us about the world and what we are to desire, our perspective on the often difficult and boring is, day by day, little by little, transformed. As we see things more and more from God's point of view, we find there is rarely time to be bored!" (p142).
Amen!