“I have often said that the sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.” – Pascal
“The present state of the world and the whole of life is diseased. If I were a doctor and were asked for my advice, I should reply, ‘Create silence’.” – Kierkegaard
Many of my Intro to Philosophy students will be undertaking an exercise in creating silence over the next two weeks. The exercise begins tomorrow at the end of class and runs until April 4 at the end of class. Students are agreeing to:
- not watch any television, movies, or other video
- not listen to an iPod or other portable music device
- not play any video games on any sort of device
- not check facebook, twitter, or any other social networking site
- not get on the internet (exceptions only for legitimate school work)
- check email for only 15 minutes a day
- treat their cell phone like a land line (plug it into the wall and leave it there)
- not text message, video message, or use any other messaging/texting on a phone, computer or any other electronic device
Feel free to join us in our little experiment of cutting ourselves off from the cacophony of the modern world for a while. When the exercise is finished, I intend to post selections from short reflections on the experience that students will write.
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@Kleiner
If you can provide me with a source for the Kierkegaard quote, you’ll be a greater (as opposed to kleiner) man than me!