The-Conquest-of-Happiness-by-Bertrand-Russell

The kind of fatigue that is most serious in the
present day in advanced communities is nervous
fatigue. This kind, oddly enough, is most
pronounced among the well-to-do, and tends to be
much less among wage-earners than it is among
business men and brain-workers.
To escape from nervous fatigue in modern life is a
very difficult thing. In the first place, all through
working hours, and still more in the time spent
between work and home, the urban worker is
exposed to noise, most of which, it is true, he
learns not to hear consciously, but which none the
less wears him out, all the more owing to the
subconscious effort involved in not hearing it.
Another thing which causes fatigue without our
being aware of it is the constant presence of
strangers. The natural instinct of man, as of other
animals, is to investigate every stranger of his
species, with a view to deciding whether to
behave to him in a friendly or hostile manner. This
instinct has to be inhibited by those who travel in
the underground in the rush-hour, and the result of