People would rather be electrically shocked than left alone with their thoughts
People would rather be electrically shocked than left alone with their thoughts
I believe that.
Personally, I absolutely love thinking about shit and look for opportunities to do it as often as possible. In fact, sometimes I'll go for quiet walks in the woods and just think about things for hours and hours, and have a great time!
And I know I've tried to explain that to people and afterwards they treat me like an actual alien lol
As someone who highly values spending time just thinking, it does take a level of privilege to do so. If your needs aren't met, or your life isn't safe/secure, letting the mind wander is giving it the ability to latch onto these distressing topics and create loops of anxiety and stress.
As much as I value spending my time thinking, I also value ways of shutting my brain off so that I don't have another panic attack about how I can't afford groceries yet or not knowing if my housing situation is secure. I can't feel like my life is collapsing if I distract myself.
And more people than not are struggling to make ends meet, so I imagine more people than not have stresses they need to put out of mind, just to retain their sanity.
And this is why the day-drinking, fake-nail wearing, egoista "Real Housewives of Enid, OK" should hush themselves when considering commentary on poor people with vices.
Sorry Enid, I've never been, I'm sure it's a lovely town.
Oh, I can distract myself by thinking? It's weird, but thinking through distressing horror actually makes it less stressful than avoiding it. "This then this then this then this and then I can get to sleep with a 'full' seven hours tonight!"
You're probably right, though, that most people absolutely don't want to think about The Terror. Oh! Another thing, I work on a production line and I spend basically all day at work thinking about ways to improve my work station or overall productivity/quality - but other people try as hard as they can to not to think about work and to distract themselves with literally anything else. I can't help it!