Shocking!

Last week I read a report of some research done in the USA by psychologists at the Universities of Harvard and Virginia. Briefly, the research indicated that people find it very difficult to do nothing, that people seem consistently to hate being left alone with their thoughts - and this, it seems, is regardless of their age, education, income or the amount they used smartphones or social media. The researcher who led the work, said the findings were not necessarily a reflection of the pace of modern life or the spread of mobile devices and social media but might be based upon our constant urge to do something rather than nothing.

The first run of experiments began with students being put – alone, without phones, books or anything to write with – into an empty room and told to think. The only rules were they had to stay seated and not fall asleep. They were informed – specifically – that they would have six to fifteen minutes alone. The students were questioned when the time was up. On average, they did not enjoy the experience. They struggled to concentrate. Their minds wandered even with nothing to distract them. Even giving them time to think about what to think about did not help. And, in case the unfamiliar setting hampered the ability to think, the researchers then ran the experiment again with people at home. The results were the same except that people now found the experience even more miserable, and cheated by getting up from their chair or checking their phones! To see if the effect was found only in students, the scientists recruited hundreds of other people, aged 18-77. They, too, disliked being left to their thoughts.

But the most telling result was that to check whether people might actually prefer something bad to nothing at all, the students were given the option of administering a mild electric shock. They had been asked earlier to rate how unpleasant the shocks were, alongside other options, such as looking at pictures of cockroaches or hearing the sound of a knife rubbing against a bottle. All the students picked for the test said they would pay to avoid mild electric shocks after receiving a demonstration. But to the researchers' surprise, 12 of 18 men gave themselves up to four electric shocks, as did six of 24 women – each later confessed that they administered the shocks to ease the “boredom” or unpleasantness of being left completely to their own devices. "What is striking” confirmed the lead researcher, “is that simply being alone with their thoughts was apparently so aversive and unpleasant to people that it drove many participants to self harm and administer an electric shock which they had earlier said they would pay to avoid."

It is not unusual when I read reports such as this, of pieces of academic research being undertaken (usually at huge expense) for me to ruefully comment “Well, I could have told them that” but on this occasion, it really did not surprise me. I have long noted the reluctance (I think that this is an increasing phenomena) of people to be happy with their own company and thoughts. Almost five hundred years ago the French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal commented upon the same human characteristic when he famously said: “All mankind’s miseries derive from him being able to sit in a quiet room alone and with only his thoughts”. He followed this up with other similar observations such as “So wretched is man that he would weary even without any cause for weariness... and so frivolous is he that, though full of a thousand reasons for weariness, the least thing, such as playing billiards or hitting a ball, is sufficient enough to amuse him”. In other words, man needs constant distractions or amusement and is unhappy with his own company and thoughts.

Blaise Pascal

I do not think that anyone could deny that Pascal’s words across the centuries or that the findings of the two US universities do not contain some elements of truth. Our inability to simply be content with our own thoughts and company manifests itself in a myriad of ways – both personal and in globally. In the modern world, people cannot simply walk down the street without constantly referring to their mobile phones – not always to make a call. So limited is their ability to be at ease with themselves and so limited their concentration span when alone that, I might argue, that viewing a social media site, the playing a game or the sending of a text for them breaks the boredom of a simple, silent walk. Joining a gym, going for a walk watching TV, writing a blog, going to the pub, reading a book and a million other things are other ways we “manage” our respective inability to be at ease with ourselves and our condition - so we need to “pass the time”. Many of these “pastimes” may be perfectly laudable and indeed ways of “self improvement” but I wonder how many are simply distractions from ourselves and our thoughts. Indeed, one of the commentators on the article made a point, that had, I believe, some merit: “I think this proves something we all greatly fear; when left alone we fall into a tumbling darkness. We are, in the majority, a desperately unhappy, Godless race. Not that I believe in God. Countless hours of our days are spent projecting an appearance, a persona, to the extent that we no longer have a central sense of self. Our Id is lost. Thus, when left with no one to project to, the realisation of the death of self is to some, unfathomable, unbearable even.”

The above observation can be seen often even with young children. Watch a young child in a room with a peer who is occupied with some activity or other and it often will not be long before he/she will “interfere” with what the other is involved in – not because he/she wants to play but simply to be involved, active – unable just to sit back, watch others and be themselves in silence. As the commentator above suggests the child is “projecting an appearance, a persona” and when we are left completely alone and with no one or nothing to project to it becomes quite “unfathomable” and “unbearable” for us. And, even at a national level, countries cannot bear to confront their own “self” – every vacuum has to be filled with action. Things must be done – we must keep busy, we must do something! Watch great nations (the UK and the USA?) – and see how they cannot bear the thought of non-interference in the affairs of others – Iraq, Afghanistan and the rest. The national persona has to be projected. It is not in the human psyche – certainly of the “developed” western world - to simply be content with our lot, to live in our own world. We have to keep “doing”, we have to constantly be “involved” and active. We have to project our persona.

I am reminded of the hymn that we used to sing at school half a life time away – some of the words implored the children to learn:

“.....When to speak and when be silent,

When to do and when forbear....”

Sadly, both individually and as great nations we find it difficult to distinguish between “.....When to speak and when be silent, When to do and when forbear....”!

One could, of course, argue that this is one of the essential characteristics that separates us from the animal kingdom – that we “do” and in “doing” improve ourselves to make us something that were not before. Clearly there is some truth in that – animals are not constantly ”doing”, entertaining themselves, keeping fit, communicating with others as we are. When he is hungry the lion may join with others to hunt down a gazelle but when his hunger is sated he will simply “chill out”, lie in the shade until the next hunger pang encourages him to spring into action, to do some “work”. He is not bored with himself or of “nothingness” but content to lie in the shade with his thoughts, whatever they might be.

And it is not just the animal kingdom that has no problem with solitude or lack of constantly doing. Most of the world’s what might term “primitive” societies are similar. They do what they need to do – get food or build a shelter – and with that they are largely content. Having eaten sufficient and ensured some kind of shelter then like the lion they “chill out”. But not so the more “advanced” societies – we continue to beaver away keeping occupied, being entertained, making items of desire rather than items of need. It is only these “developed” societies – often of the northern hemisphere or those adhering to the notion of the Christian work ethic - that see some virtue or need to constantly “do” or be involved or to create. And invariably, what they “do”, or are involved in or create are not life’s essentials – they are not concerned with keeping oneself alive or warm or fed but are rather concerned with making life pleasanter. That may be no bad thing but when one considers that all this hard work and effort is being expended largely to keep us entertained and to ensure that we pass our time on the planet pleasantly it might be questioned. Making a TV set in order that someone can watch that TV set, making a mobile phone to enable us to send messages of a largely inconsequential nature or to pass the time with as we sit in the doctor’s waiting room, growing more and more crops to fill our supermarkets with wider and more exotic choice – then it puts it all into a kind of perspective. It is not unusual, to read of some elderly person who has perhaps passed away and at their funeral or in their obituary they are applauded because they “never missed a day’s work in their life” or perhaps “carried on working right up to their death” when they absolutely no need to do so. All very inspiring and laudable – but is it necessary? Or, is it rather, that they could not face the thought of their own company and thoughts without the distraction of “work”.

In saying this I am reminded of the comment on a different theme in Evelyn Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited.” As Lord Marchmain lay close to death Charles Ryder comments to the doctor that “Lord Marchmain has a wonderful will to live” . In response the doctor dryly observes, “Would you put it like that? I should rather say he has a great fear of death.” Similarly, we keep constantly busy in some way to create things and situations that prevent us being bored and which merely help us to “pass the time” because in reality we are so frightened of our own company. While writing this blog I have just read of a man who each day when he wakes he has, since his school days (he is now well into middle age), followed exactly the same ritual. On waking each morning he picks the first random subject that enters his mind as he opens his eyes. He then lies in silence and thinks about it for fifteen minutes. At the end of that period he then sits on the edge of the bed and talks for seven minutes on the subject – airing his views, clarifying his thoughts, explaining his opinions. And all this to an empty room! One might have mixed views about this and about him – but clearly he is at home with himself and his thoughts – he is a rare human.

For the rest of us, so dissatisfied with our own lives and minds are we that as the research suggested and as Pascal knew we cannot bear the thought of our own existence for as little as fifteen minutes. Instead we need to be distracted from the horror of ourselves, our condition and our thoughts by giving ourselves an electric shock. “Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without a passion, without business, without entertainment, without care” commented Pascal in the seventeenth century. He was right.