Is boredom inevitable?

Abstract

The article concerns the question whether boredom is inevitable. If, as Nietzsche claims, even the gods are at the mercy of boredom, does this mean, that boredom is something we should get used to? It is suggested, that the inevitability of boredom has several roots: The relation of the modern society to work and leisure, the existential experience of meaninglessness, modern technology and modern subjectivity. Indeed, the semantics of modern subjectivity, as Luhmann says, were born at the very moment when also the semantics of ennui emerged. The article suggests, that the consumer society not least is a reaction to the problem of boredom that stems from modern subjectivity. However, the consumer society is not able to realise the utopian situation of a world without boredom, because it does not only seek to abolish boredom but it also fuels the concept of modern subjectivity. Nevertheless, before the appearance of consumerism there already have been other tactics to cope with boredom, which also, ultimately, failed.