“Men become utilitarian out of fear of the alternative—the chaos of tangled or tepid desires, of rootlessness and boredom.”

—  John Carroll

Source: Break-Out from the Crystal Palace (1974), p. 148

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Men become utilitarian out of fear of the alternative—the chaos of tangled or tepid desires, of rootlessness and boredo…" by John Carroll?
John Carroll photo
John Carroll 58
Australian professor and author 1944

Related quotes

Leo Tolstoy photo

“Boredom: the desire for desires.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer
Sherrilyn Kenyon photo

“In a dream I cannot see
tangled abstract phallacy
random turmoil builds in me
i'm a addicted to chaos
-Megadeth, Addicted to Chaos”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Acheron

“For the amoral herd that fears boredom above all else, everything becomes entertainment. Sex and sport, politics and the arts are transformed into entertainment… Nothing is immune from the demand that boredom be relieved.”

Merold Westphal (1940)

but without personal involvement, for mass society is a spectator society

p. 50
Kierkegaard’s Critique of Reason and Society (1992)

Jordan Peterson photo

“Morality, like politics, is the alternative to chaos and war.”

Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology

Other

Alberto Moravia photo

“In the beginning was boredom, commonly called chaos. God, bored with boredom, created the earth, the sky, the waters, the animals, the plants, Adam and Eve; and the latter, bored in their turn in paradise, ate the forbidden fruit. God became bored with them and drove them out of Eden.”

Alberto Moravia book L'Ennui

In principio, dunque, era la noia, volgarmente chiamata caos. Iddio, annoiandosi della noia, creò la terra, il cielo, l'acqua, gli animali, le piante, Adamo ed Èva; i quali ultimi, annoiandosi a loro volta in paradiso, mangiarono il frutto proibito. Iddio si annoiò di loro e li cacciò dall'Eden.
La noia (Milano: Bompiani, 1960) pp. 10-11; Angus Davidson (trans.) Boredom (New York: New York Review of Books, 1999) p. 8.

John Stuart Mill photo

“The utilitarian doctrine is, that happiness is desirable, and the only thing desirable, as an end; all other things being only desirable as means to that end.”

John Stuart Mill book Utilitarianism

Source: Utilitarianism (1861), Ch. 4

Herta Müller photo

“Boredom is fear's patience. Fear doesn't want to exaggerate.”

Herta Müller book The Hunger Angel

Source: The Hunger Angel (2012), p. 198

Rumi photo

“Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence.”

Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet

"A Community of the Spirit" in Ch. 1 : The Tavern, p. 2
The Essential Rumi (1995)
Context: Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence. Flow down and down in always
widening rings of being.

“For the amoral herd that fears boredom above all else, everything becomes entertainment. Sex and sport, politics and the arts are transformed into entertainment. … Nothing is immune from the demand that boredom be relieved (but without personal involvement, for mass society is a spectator society).”

Merold Westphal (1940)

Source: Kierkegaard’s Critique of Reason and Society (1992), p. 50

“There comes a time when a men desires to rise above fear.”

Edmund Cooper (1926–1982) British writer

The cloud walker (1973)

Related topics