This is why in relation to modern civilization we should speak not of 'active civilization' but of a restless and neurotic one. As compensation for 'work,' and a reaction against the strain of a life that has been reduced to a vain acting and producing, Classical otium (Idleness) --- contemplation, silence, the state of calm and pause allowing one to return to oneself and find oneself again ---- is foreign to modern man. No: all he knows is 'distraction' (the literal meaning of which is 'dispersion'), he looks for sensations, for new tensions and new stimuli --- almost as psychic narcotics. Anything, as long as he can escape from himself, isolated from the noise of the outside world and his 'neighbor.' Hence the radio, television, cinema, cruises, the frenzy of sports or political rallies in a regime of the masses, the need to hear things, to chase after the latest, or most sensational, news, 'supporters' of all kinds, and so on. Every expedient seems to have been diabolically brought into play in order to destroy any kind of genuine inner life, to prevent any internal defense of one's personality, so that, almost like an artificially galvanized being, the individual will let himself be swept away by the collective current, which -- naturally, according to the famous 'meaning of history' ---moves forward according to an unlimited progress.