Driven to Distraction, Driven to Destruction

In Pensées, Blaise Pascal gives us this timeless insight:

“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.”

We do not like to be alone with our thoughts. We do not like to reflect on the big questions of life. Is it because we are afraid? Is it because the questions and implications overwhelm us?

Whatever the reason, we rush about from one distraction to the next — errands, entertainments, escapes.

Behold the scale of our obsession with distraction:

• The casino gambling market is over $150 billion.* Tack on about $100 billion more for online gambling.
• Entertainment is a $2.5 trillion industry.
• Professional and college sports? The size of the industry is practically incalculable when you consider salaries paid to athletes (professional and now, collegiate), ticket sales, promotion and advertising, media streaming revenue, sports gambling, etc.
• Smart phones: perhaps the biggest distraction of all. Studies vary, but American adults on average spend somewhere between 4 and 8 hours a day staring at their phones. Unfortunately a portion of that time is spent while the user is driving a vehicle. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, distracted driving took over 3,000 lives in 2022.** Distraction is literally killing us.

Distraction is destruction, of the soul as well as the body.

Sunday used to be observed as the Sabbath. Stores were closed. There were no children’s sporting events to rush to. We had the good sense to take one-seventh of our time to reflect and relax.

Perhaps even to pray or sit quietly in our room alone.

Many people equate a busy life with a full life. Pascal might say the opposite, that a contemplative life is a full life. But one can be busy (that is, productive) and spiritually undistracted at the same time. Pascal himself is a great example: inventor, mathematician, theologian, philosopher. Or consider Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, prolific author, spiritual master, and no stranger to humble, hard work and acts of charity.

Is Pascal right, about the need to sit quietly in one’s room? God agrees with him, as revealed by the prophet Isaiah:

But rebellious hearts are like the tempestuous sea that can never find repose; its waters must ever be churning up mire and scum. For the rebellious, the Lord says, there is no peace. (Isaiah 57:20-21)

Peace be with you, brothers and sisters.

Notes
* https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/casino-gambling-market
**https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/distracted-driving