Boredom – it’s dangerous
You have to be really bored of it all to want to make these two prime minister and deputy prime minister.
This is part of my column in The Malta Independent on Sunday, today.
I may be right off the wall here, but I believe that a major factor in the swing towards Labour is boredom. This is not necessarily boredom with the government, you understand, but boredom in general.
When people have reached that point in tedium and ennui where they will do almost anything to alleviate the (lack of) sensation, bad things happen.
They’re prepared to take almost any risk to set off a spark and create some excitement, the sort that reminds them they are still alive. You see it with life, you see it with work, you see it in marriage, and you see it in decisions taken in the polling-booth.
Sometimes, the thrills sought are so high-risk that they end up in death, destruction or the crashing-down of every last pillar in our lives.
Right now, the air is heavy with boredom. Hear the way people speak:
“I’m sick of this government”; “we need something new”; “this has gone on long enough”; “something has to give”. If you listen carefully, they are not really talking about politics or the way the country is run.
They are not speaking about jobs or employment or education or the economy or whether we are in or out of recession (we’re out).
What they are saying, in effect, is that they are fed-up, bored, sick of it all and need of some excitement. They want to throw a firecracker into the mix, set off a few explosions, make things happen, even if they are bad things or risky things, as long as they are different things.
They’re not going to run out on their spouse or tell the boss where he can shove his job – too drastic – but they might have a fling with Jimmy/Mary in accounts and they might even vote Labour. You see, it makes them feel naughty, even outrageous. And that’s the spark they need right now when they’re so bored that they’re not even shopping anymore.
So we’ve reached that point where people need a thrill, and they are going to do anything to get it, short of wrecking their marriage (though plenty are doing that), turning to drink and drugs (ditto), or driving a fast car at 100mph round a hairpin bend.
The surveys all show that the greatest swing to Labour has taken place among middle-aged people. The usual interpretation is that these are the people who are most under pressure financially, the ones who are feeling the pinch but failing to thank God that they’re not in Spain.
Perhaps so, but it could also be because this is the age-group most afflicted by existential crises and utter boredom, even more than teenagers and for different reasons. They’re not just bored, at that age they’re also panicking because time is running out, indeed, has run out in very many respects.
Voting Labour, for those who have never done so, falls into the midlife-crisis category of excitement-inducing changes like dumping the spouse for a newer model, eat-pray-loving your way through India like a 20-year-old backpacker but with more money, and going to the same nightclubs as your children, but in jeans that are even tighter.
It happens.
We are lucky that the worst we can expect from this sort of Zeitgeist is a change of government. In previous generations and much larger countries, it would have meant drastic measures being taken to give The People that much needed electric charge and sense of purpose, if only to stop them thinking of getting it by railing against their rulers and seeking to have them overthrown.
And so those rulers took them into war instead, or invaded Poland.
Elsewhere right now, there is plenty of excitement. Only yesterday, tens of thousands converged on Madrid to demonstrate against austerity measures – you know, the austerity measures that their government has implemented because Spain is in such a terrible financial mess.
Major roads were blocked, and around half a million demonstrators were expected to have gathered by the time this piece met its deadline. Spain is stuck in a double-dip recession and unemployment is at 25%. Among young people, it is much higher. When you have so much to worry about, boredom is just not an issue.
Lawrence Gonzi’s government has, in a sense, been damaged by its own successes. Because people in general have nothing more serious to worry about – no loss of homes or jobs, no sons and daughters returning home in their 30s because they are out of work and can no longer pay the rent, no homeless-shelters with queues of hundreds outside, waiting for a bowl of soup, no education or healthcare cuts – they are free to fuss and whine about how boring it all is and how sick they are of looking at the same politicians, and how they want some different ones to get excited about.
Human nature is fascinating, but in so many ways, entirely predictable.
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This article, which I read this morning, is brilliant.
I have to admit that if the bored ones get it their way, and we get a Labour government, that boredom is set to evaporate quickly considering that the entertainment will be guaranteed with Labour.
I am sure that on many fronts, the government decisions will be very similar to the CET debacle of 1996-98 – trying to reinvent the wheel.
And since Labour has no plans or policies, decisions will never be taken, or taken wrongly, so they will be contested and changed again and again.
Boredom will change quickly to entertainment and then slowly to desperation.
I think what people my age (40s) hanker for is the sense of unity we had back then.
While the golden years caused our parents anxiety, we teens experienced a defiant joy at the thought of facing (very real) danger every time we attended a mass meeting, or bought an In…Taghna and carried it home unfurled, or said something against Mintoff over the phone (caught a cuff on the side of the head from Mum for that as I recall).
I was helping to treat the tear gas victims returning to Headquarters from Zejtun, and despite the vomiting and red eyes and hacking coughs all around me I remember being filled with an anger so overpowering it was thrilling.
I remember the attack on the university, the running, the frantic screaming, the blood, the crack of bone, the sobbing, the smash of glass and those awful little tattooed men like monkeys in sideburns and string vests swinging pipes and chains and hitting us.
I had to escape through the fields at the back in bare feet (I kicked off my sandals to run faster) but despite the cuts and bruises there was a sort of savage joy in knowing it was us against them, a real enemy and one deserving of our righteous anger.
We didn’t sit around languidly discussing the chances of the next X Factor hopeful.
Daphne is right. We ARE bored because there’s nothing real to capture our interest anymore.
How long are we going to be entertained by the crap on TV, the picnics, the travelling, the days at the beach and the fishing?
Like soldiers who have had enough of life on civvie street, we want the tang of danger back. I confess that the thought of having them back in power only makes me grin and heft my sword.
But here’s the nub: While I wouldn’t mind showing Labour that the fire hasn’t gone out of me, I won’t be voting for them any time soon, because since then my son has come on the scene. Fighting them was exhilarating but I also remember that not all of us made it out alive.
Daphne I just read the article above,I agree with what you wrote, people under this government are spoilt. I’m following France news, the taxes that he is imposing on people are drastic, people there voted for a change and that’s what they are going to have, new taxes and lots of lay outs.
The socialist government are always the same, before the election they promise the world, and after they are in power all they do tax the people heavily.
Keep educating the people maybe finally they realise the this goverment is the good solution for the country no matter how many years he been there. His policy is the one we should trust.
I believe you have hit the mark. But to those bored middle-agers in search of thrills, you can add Generation Y, disillusioned by empty promises of change.
Yes, Baxxter, I agree. However, as a sometimes bored, middle aged (kind of) codger, I am ‘thrilled’ when we meet and am certainly rejuvenated by your enthralling discourse.
We must have you multiply (reproduce) so that many more can enjoy your intellect, and wit.
BTW, hope you are enjoying your new situation. Hang in and see you soon.
I’m not sure I want to pass on my genes. How could I ever justify it to my short-arsed, brown-eyed, big-nosed children? Poor kids.
As you undoubtedly know, the dominant gene, when paired with the regressive gene, always wins out.
Thus, I will find you a small-nosed, blue-eyed, blonde partner whose dominant genes will over-power your regressive genes, and voila, a very intelligent, small-nosed, blue-eyed, blonde offspring.
Go for it. The world needs your progeny.
Baxxter, before you come back on me that genetics dictates that it takes four genes, two from each partner, to determine a feature. I have ‘dumbed down’ my response, as best I can, in order to lessen the confusion of Daphne’s Labouristi readers.
Let’s make some money before we go looking for fecund fillies, Harry. That’s your job as the token Swiss here. M.O.N.E.Y., Harry. I want to live comfortably like Karmenu Vella or John Dalli or even the average government CEO.
Excellent idea, Baxxter, and I totally concur with respect to monies. However, as your token Swiss, and in such a pursuit, I hesitate to allow us to lower ourselves to the level of the aforementioned ‘gentlemen’.
As for fecund fillies, they are abundant and would not distract us from our major goal.
Being in my mid twenties I’d second that, Baxxter.
We’re all the more foolish for expecting change to be brought to us by those above. The next generation of Libyans are certainly going to be grateful to my contemporaries there for not lying around and waiting for it to happen.
I can’t help but envy them in a way because they’ve experienced fighting for something meaningful and defying terrifying odds to free themselves, all while I was (and still am) frittering away my prime in office cubicles and trashy nightclubs later just to distract myself from remembering the profound dissatisfaction, the utter tediousness of it all.
I’m quite glad Daphne has brought this up.
If you’re in your mid-twenties there’s still time to join the army. Do it before it’s too late. I mean it. It’s the only way out of tediousness unless you’re rich enough.
How to banish boredom: buy a mountain bike, take up scuba diving, have a go at go-carting or try skiing. The choice is yours – you can also have a lobotomy to end up with the short term memory of a goldfish and you will live happily ever after in a glass cubicle.
My advice is be a Nemo and go for it, because time waits for nobody.
This is so well written. Please feature this post every week until election day perhaps some people will open their eyes to the reality around us. Prosit
@Jonathan C.
It is well written. But unfortunately, this is Malta. People will only open their eyes when we have lost it all, and then it will be too late.
That’s it. All this talk about “we need a change. Nationalists are corrupt” et al is really bothering me. Big time.
What these same people don’t want to admit is that in the Labour ranks there are tons of Mintoff followers, who were there in the blackest years of this country and are waiting to be elected to be elected to start off where they left. There will still be corruption, favourism, unemployment etc but Labour will take it to another level.
Yesterday, while watching a Youtube clip, I got to know that Alfred Sant ran up debts of approx €1,000,000 PER DAY in the 22 months that Labour were given a chance TO CHANGE in 1996 when the country was moving ahead with reforms, economic growth, infrastructure etc.
You’d think they’d have the decency to try bungie-jumping or parachuting if they’re bored. At least if they splatter it will only be their loss and not ours.
I would advise these bored people to start parachuting and to increase the thrill, they should use only a parachute which opens on impact.
This piece captures the moment perfectly.
It is the success of this administration that has us bored.
But in my case I prefer to be bored rather than excited like I was in 1996-1998.
Your piece is dead on, however I pray that you will be proved wrong.
Daphne, your analytical skills are superb.
I will not say more brecause I fear that your head will explode and Malta will lose you.
God bless you and let us have more of the same.
Those with neurons will get your message.
The rest are irretrievable.
Unfortunately the rest seem to predominate in this poor backward country of ours.
So be it.
Dear Joseph in the photo has exactly the same expression as Anglu in the banner for the “partit bla isem” blog. They look amazingly alike. La domanda sorge spontanea – could they be related?
Great piece! I like this alternative view of the situation… it definitely fits in.
So we’re going to let Labour ravage the country because a bunch of people are going through a mid-life crisis.
Get a grip, people. Go take a diving course or try rock climbing or something, but don’t shatter the peace and security that we have been enjoying.
If you want some different and want to get rid of certain faces just vote in different people who are contesting on the PN ticket.
There are some excellent alternatives with the likes of Simon Busuttil, Therese Commodini Cachia and Albert Fenech.
I think Mark Anthony Sammut is also contesting.
There you go: four new names in under a minute. But if you are so reckless that what you want are the likes of Debono Grech or slippery eels like Karmenu Vella so that life is totally unpredictable then you are beyond redemption.
I have not forgotten the feeling of waking up every morning not sure what was going to happen to disturb our well-being that day. Have you?
Maybe they might be undergoing a midlife crisis. Why don’t they go and throw themselves over dingli cliffs!!!1
[Daphne – What a childish comment this is.]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TwNZ29YTNc
No Comment. Watch from 1.30 to 3.40.
‘Mhux kull pasta tigi ntaxxata bl-istess mod’, hawwadni ha nifhmek.
Illum l-istess ghandna, did-darba jibqghu jghidu li jitkellmu fil-‘mument propizju’. M’hemmx li jasal dan l-imbierek mument forsi nifhmu nitfa’ hsieb.
Diga’ kerha meta’ jkollok professur, nutar u perit jivvintaw l-ekonomija u ma’ tafx lil min tisma’, ahseb u ara meta tghaffigha u trid tara fuq min twahhalha.
Tahwida nobis.
Gawd. Look at the faces on those business persons.
And now they want us to believe that business is ‘safe’ with Labour!
Spot on. Thankfully there is no major crisis, no violence, no big bad news. So people are bored. So they want a change in government.
We have reached a stage when the problem is where and on what people are going to spend their money because nothing seems to satisfy and endure.
People now have more money in their pockets but far less between the ears.
The things we lust after make for boredom: big houses, big cars, and large bank accounts. Add speed in reaching these targets and bingo that’s the recipe for addictions to tranquillizers, alcohol, shopping and sex – and of course, more boredom.
Damn, I thought people went for motorbikes to exorcise their boredom.
JM is Spongebob; il-Guy is Squidward; Gadget is Mr Krabbs; Yana is Patrick.
Easy.
You think far too much of your middle-aged compatriots if you think it’s a first-world sentiment like boredom that’s driving them to the other side.
It’s more likely to be the price of electricity, gas and petrol. You can deprive most Maltese of liberty of speech, education and free market capitalism, but if you touch his wallet or his job you’re finished.
And it’s pointless explaining how the prices of these commodities have gone up in other countries, because the canned response will always be: “Imma dawk ara x’pagi ghandhom”.
On the other hand, I feel that the lack of PN support in my demographic (25-30) is a different story altogether and altogether justified.
Abulafia (the great David Abulafia? We are honoured, Sir) is right on the 25-30 demographic. We put justice, honesty, intelligence and an irreprroachable government far above the price of utilities, and snazzy building projects leave us indifferent. We’d rather have a windfarm than stipends.
PN has let us all down since 2004 by pandering to the lower classes, including its core voters, but including the rock-solid Labour core vote too. Even from a pure political marketing point of view, a gigantic chunk of government expenditure under PN was wasted, because those who benefited most will still vote Labour.
Allow me to join the chorus of my other fellow readers of this blog: spot on. You couldn’t have been more correct and, indeed, spot on.
I read Ms. Margaret Chan’s interview yesterday in The Sunday Times. The world over seems to agree that we’re not doing all that bad, after all, and that whatever we’re doing, we’re doing well. The WHO, no less, is heaping praise in what does not seem to be a too-cautious appraisal of our national health service. Yet, we see the polls and we see that JM is leading. Ms. Chang also referred to the sustainability of the whole system and that we seem to have discovered some sort of magic formula, which is elusive in so many countries, even perceived to be much more industrialised and advanced than ours.
Yet, people still seem to hover towards JM’s non-policy. It is not that they are somehow convinced of him and his non-policies. But rather, they just want to “give it a try”, as though politics were some kind of shampoo, which you can just throw out after a fortnight if it does not improve your hair manageability.
However, this is the level of immaturity with which we are faced day after day. Jobs, people travelling, record figures in tourism, supermarkets jam-packed with people buying huge trolley-loads of stuff (there’s no denying that basic staples would not fill one’s trolley to the brim and more), good clothes and luxury cars (even if bought second-hand) mean nothing. They are taken for granted. Waking up and going to work is taken for granted. People do not seem to understand that our jobs, our homes, indeed, our whole lifestyles are the result of sound financial and economic policies, of good government, of heads that think.
Fact is, we’re having it so good and a content life may lead, eventually, to boredom. You’re so right about this. Which is so tragic, if you think about it. People are ready to throw away their marriages, their jobs and, yes, their countries, just for the sake of an occasional thrill. And voting Labour will surely be, for many, that one occasional thrill. Pity is we’ll have to regret for, at least, five more years (not to mention the tragic consequences thereafter).
As you said in the second part of the column, I hope that Karmenu Vella will be thrilling. After all, that is what the bored brigade will be voting for (not to mention the other dinosaurs of course).
I am turning 40 next week and am not at all bored at living in an EU country with low unemployment and stable democracy.
But I would be very worried if we get a Labour government come next election because my son is still two and needs the best education possible, one policy that Labour had.
I have already suffered bad schooling myself during Mintoff’s years and hope my son won’t get a similar experience. I Hope for the best, but Daphne’s write-up describes the current situation superbly, and I have the feeling that the inevitable will happen.