Simmel On Acceleration Boredom And Extreme Aesthesia Summary
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Kevin Aho’s article, ‘Simmel on Acceleration, Boredom and Extreme Aesthesia’ discusses the modern manifestation of boredom as a consequence of living in the modern world (Aho, 449). This secular world, according to Max Weber is ‘disenchanted’, void of any meaning beyond the “practical and technical” (Ibid). It is influenced by rational, scientific perspectives and the urbanisation of modern Europe and is critical to modern life because nothing stands out as unique anymore (Ibid, 448).
The money economy is central to modern life and boredom, because passion has been limited to conspicuous consumption, money becomes the only meaning;(Ibid, 447), thus values and emotions are detached from the individual and one becomes bored (Ibid, 450). This lack of emotional connectivity, results in the modern individual becoming indifferent, unable to distinguish between what is actually important because of the busyness of everyday life (448). Busyness and over-stimulation become the everyday norm, and SImmel suggests this leads to a blase attitude.…show more content… Making breakfast in the morning is no longer an event driven by hunger, and organic process, but it rather a rational part of my day; it happens at a particular hour in the morning on weekdays, according to an unchanging, university schedule, and has become mundane. I have developed an indifference to my food, devalued it, thus devaluing the world around me through the boredom because it is caused by the inability to know what matters to us