 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
Wars, pogroms, and persecutions have all been part of the flight from boredom; even quarrels with neighbours have been found better than nothing. Boredom is therefore a vital problem for the moralist, since at least half the sins of mankind are caused by the fear of it.
Source: Bertrand Russell: The Conquest of Happiness, 1930, chap. 4: boredom and excitement.
More info.: https://russell-j.com/beginner/HA14-030.HTM
* a brief comment (Translated with DeepL.com)
"I don't think that 'half of the people who commit crimes do so out of boredom.' Therefore, Russell must not be saying such a thing. He is not talking about criminals, but rather about the general public who dislike boredom and expect something surprising to happen, which in turn becomes one of the factors causing crimes.
So, I discussed this with ChatGPT, and ChatGPT agreed with the following opinion:
'As you mentioned, what Russell means is that people's dislike of boredom leads to immoral actions in a broader sense. He points out that boredom drives people to engage in stimulating activities, which in turn becomes a factor in immoral behaviors such as wars and persecutions.'"