There seems to be no in between of busy and bored for the modern man. The modern brain is so pumped always from the plentiful nutrients which we can expect to receive and the expectation to perform at 100% whatever task we are doing. Even our methods of relaxation are far more strenuous on the brain than those of our forefathers, the most passive TV watcher is concentrating on one source or stream of information whereas historically people might have just laid down on the ground watching the sky, nothing to occupy their minds but their own thoughts.
I am not a neurologist and not even the leader of the field can know for sure what the state of our brains are compared to someone from 1000 years ago. But it can be fairly safe to say the modern lifestyle is so complicated that our brains are struggling to keep up. Hence one either becomes the overstressed 9 to 5 worker, strifing evermore to be the best they can be in everything and ending up exhausted with years of inbuilt rage and self-pity, or the dropout, content to be sifting through life waiting for moments where they can escape the self and simplify mental processes with whatever may be their drug of choice.
Perhaps mantras telling us we can be whoever we want to be is the cruellest lie ever told to mankind. People should really be satisfied with what they have been given. The intelligent frump should not lavish thousands on transformative surgery, and the brainless beauty queen should not anguish herself and try to have depth.
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