Boredom and Wars

     I wrote in a previous essay that fanaticism has been the chief source of wars, riots and other violent disturbances throughout history.  Parenthetically, I said that boredom was probably next in line.  Here's why.
     Shakespeare enthusiasts are familiar with the opening soliloquay in Richard the Third.  The play opens with Richard telling us that he is bored.  There is peace in the land, everyone is enjoying life by pursuing a variety of worthwhile interests like drunken parties and jolly bedroom romps with castle babes --- everyone except Richard.  Richard has nothing to do all day.  He could of course wander the castle grounds observing nature, or he could take up knitting sweaters, but that's not enough.  So he started a civil war.  It didn't turn out well for him, he lost, but at least he wasn't bored any more.
     Think about this.  In Shakespeare's time and throughout the centuries before and thereafter there really wasn't much in the form of canned entertainment for anyone to enjoy.  There was work, of course, but the leisure class had no real work which had to be done in most cases.  There was no radio or TV, no computers, no cell phones or movies.  And you couldn't go to Paris or London if you lived somewhere else, at least at any reasonable speed.  In fact up until the twentieth century there really weren't all that many ways to fill up leisure time.  There were  parties and athletic events, and romantic assignations in the castle, but that wasn't enough for the restless spirit of man.  Anyway, Richard wasn't cool enough to have even that.  He was bored.  What better to do with time on one's hands than start a war?  War can be a real hoot if you win and you don't need to think about losing.
     But we still have wars, oodles of them; two world wars, Korea, Vietnam, the middle east, war here, war there, war everywhere.  Why?  Because there is no end to the human desire for stimulation and excitement.  And a lot of world leaders aren't ready for a rocking chair and a pension. They still need stimulation and excitement and are ready to satisfy the need with their expertise at starting wars. 
     Anyway, our old companion fanaticism is and always will also be around.  This tribe doesn't like that one.  That means that that one is evil.  And of course this religion doesn't like that one; nations, ethnic goupings and races don't like each other.  So you still have plenty of reasons to start wars even with TV and movies to fight your boredom.  To help us resolve any boredom still remaining, and supply plenty of fanaticism, along come charismatic leaders --- Hitler, Tojo, Castro, Mao, Ahmadinijad and Khadaffi (or however they spell their names this week) to start our riots and wars for us.  Bin Laden is gone but there are plenty of other psychos, sociopaths and crackpots to take his place.  Who really needs nutty dictators anyway?  We've got plenty of politicians in both parties to take up any slack.  And it's actually easier to start a war in some ways now, possibly with the hope of winning, than it used to be because if you can buy a few atom bombs from Pakistan, Iran or China, which shouldn't be too hard if you look funny and wear a turbin, you don't have to be a dictator of some important country.  Any old sink hole or banana republic will do and there's only so much TV.  So we can always count on fanaticism and boredom.