Novara Media ACFM Trip 58: Boredom
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Mar 29, 2026 They debate whether boredom is obsolete or a political resource. They explore compulsive scrolling, meditation’s repetitive practices, and punk as a response to ennui. They link tedious work, Fordism and platform capitalism to collective boredom. They consider gendered domestic tedium, migrant ‘stuckness’, and calls for a democratic right to empty time.
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Boredom Appears When Learning Stops
- Boredom often strikes when we stop learning; routine removes novel inputs that sustain attention.
- Jeremy says even subtle changes on a familiar street can be learning moments that prevent boredom if you notice them.
Alienation Turns Life Into Boring Things
- Marxist concepts of alienation and reification explain structural boredom: capitalism flattens relationships into interchangeable commodities.
- Jeremy references Lukács and Debord to show commodification removes affective charge and meaning from objects and work.
Fordism Created Empty Time For Creativity
- Fordist assembly-line boredom freed minds to daydream, whereas contemporary jobs demand continuous cognitive attention.
- Keir explains Taylorism moved knowledge into managers' heads and left workers with routinized bodies and spare mental space.
