Tranquilized With The Trivial

Os Guiness:

One reason people live unexamined lives is because of what Blaise Pascal, a seventeenth-century French scientist called “diversions.” We are reluctant, even afraid, to admit that we all, without exception, will die. We surround ourselves with entertaining distractions so we don’t have to think about death. We tranquilize ourselves with the trivial. Has any generation ever been able to divert itself so happily for so long and with so many fascinating toys as ours? With our BlackBerries, iPhones, iPods, and TiVos, we can lose ourselves in virtual reality and be entertained and distracted forever– “amusing ourselves to death,” as best-selling author Neil Postman puts it.

. . . The Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy told the story of a peasant who worked furiously to acquire more and more land—all for good and worthy reasons—until he finally dropped dead in the process. Tolstoy called the story “How much land does a man need?” and he answered his own question at the end: “Six feet from his head to his heels.”

(HT: Chris Brauns)