The Wages of Boredom
Tibor Scitovsky, who studied under Joan Robinson at Cambridge and obtained
a degree from the London School of Economics in 1936, is professor of emeritus
at Stanford University.
Palo Alto - The gratuitous murders our teenage
students commit are blamed on many things but none has yet mentioned boredom
as its likely cause. Yet food, drink, shelter and sex are not the only
ingredients of the good life. Just as essential is some stimulating activity
or activities to provide a feeling of excitement. Just as starvation can
make a person steal if he has no money to buy food, so finding no interesting
activity to stimulating one creates boredom, which often leads to violence
as a source of excitement and outlet for one's energy.
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