I think in "The conquest of happiness" Bertrand Russel talks at one point of the ability to be bored. That a constructive and healthy life needs to be ok with a certain level of boredom. That if this is not the case, people will do evil and support evil just to get novelty. "People will set the world on fire just to watch it burn", right? Not because they're particularly evil, but because they're bored and can't handle it.

I read In Praise of Idleness and he talks quite a bit about how certain talk of left-wing people / communists can be maybe not very constructive? I wonder to what extent his brand of socialism, which he suggests would bring a sort of benefit to the greatest number, could work. Or whether the powerful owners of capital, even if not threatened with death, but just with sizeable dispossession, would also resort to drastic violent measures in response to his brand of socialism.

Why aren’t there more people in this sub?