In his 1954 book A Program for Conservatives, American conservative founder Russell Kirk mentions six ways to restore America’s boredom:
- Renewing the power of religious faith, and piety, among the mass of men. Men must always be bored, if they can find nothing better in the universe than their own little mean selves; they suffer the punishment of Narcissus.
- Reviving the concepts of honor and dignity which gave motive to honest desire for emulation-in short, reminding men that there are some persons who are more, and better, than "just ordinary guys," and that mediocrity is not the norm for civilized beings.
- Returning to individuals the responsibilities which bring a decent satisfaction, the duties of self-reliance, and the rights and actuality of private property and inheritance.
- Reaffirming the right of men to what is their own, and to whatever they can make their own without injustice to others-rewarding ability and honesty and diligence with those material satisfactions which most men always must hunger for.
- Reminding modern society of the truth that security, though a good thing, is not a better thing than freedom-and that, indeed, security does not long survive the extinction of prescriptive freedom.
- Reawakening men's minds to the eternal contract of society, which affirms that we do not live simply for ourselves, in the fleeting moment, but instead live to justify the faith and labor of our ancestors, and to transmit life and justice to our posterity.
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