Recently I came across an invite to a conference on the need for speed in the corporate world. And we all know how important the “need for speed” is- we have even named a video game after it.
Aldous Huxley, the noted English writer said -Speed provides the one genuinely modern pleasure. He noted that speed was the only experience unique to the 20th century. Contracting time with the help of sophisticated technology is immensely important to modern mankind. And this need for speed has spilled over to the 21st Century with all of us obsessed with and addicted to speed. The character Mickey Goldmill from Rocky had said, “You got to get speed, demon speed. Speed’s what we need; we need greasy, fast speed.”
We have the supersonic Concorde. We have chosen the half hour flight over the half day train journey. We have hastened our entertainment- We have shrunk cricket test matches to T20. Research says that if it takes more than three seconds for a page to load, just over half of visitors will leave it. Fast food seems to be the only food we know. And coupled with fast food is fast delivery- 30 minutes or free! We have no time for courtship. Speed dating is the in thing- speed orgasm might soon be in too. Ours is a world of perpetual stimulation and instant gratification. Ours is a world of scarce understanding and abundant information. Ours is a world of continuous busy-ness and continual distraction!
In this VUCA world, being simply fast is not enough, one needs to be faster than everyone else. We whizz through the day, ticking away items from our checklist, counting the seconds, cursing anything or anyone that dares slow us down- whether it’s an accident on the road or a sick child. We pack more and more into every second – running on that treadmill, fast and faster just to keep from falling off. As they say- Bees have to move very fast to stay still. We and everything around us is moving at a dizzying speed that some of us just might want to cry out loud-
Stop the world I want to get off!
This manic speed has brought with it a list of issues- we are experiencing high levels of stress, anxiety, depression and obesity. Per Mental Health Foundation’s 2018 study, in the past year, 74% of people have felt so stressed they have been overwhelmed or unable to cope. 6% had self-harmed and 32% said they had had suicidal thoughts and feelings.
Why and when did we get caught in this crazy pursuit of speed? For generations, we have been taught that patience is a virtue. We have been brought up on quotes like: Good things take time, or The Devil rushes, but God moves slowly. Has technological progress stripped us of these learnings and led us to idolize speed over quality, speed over happiness, speed over beauty, speed over life.
Is there anyone in the world who thought that Speed is an over rated thing of our generation? I reached out to Google and lo behold I came across the Slow Movement. I saw this movement is “Speedily” gaining momentum. Slow does not mean doing things sluggardly. Slow means doing everything at its right pace.
According to Wikipedia, the Slow movement advocates a cultural shift toward slowing down life’s pace. There seems to be a worldwide consensus that this movement started in 1986 when Carlo Petrini, an Italian journalist, protested against the opening of a McDonald’s outlet in Rome. A few years later, the international slow food movement was officially founded. In 1999, Geir Berthelsen created a “think tank” called The World Institute of Slowness. He believes “the best thinking often comes from a walk in the slow lane.” The phrase “slow movement”, however, was coined by Carl Honoré in his 2004 book, In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed.
In Carl Honore’s words- It is a cultural revolution against the notion that faster is always better. The Slow philosophy is not about doing everything at a snail’s pace. It’s about seeking to do everything at the right speed. Savoring the hours and minutes rather than just counting them. Doing everything as well as possible, instead of as fast as possible. It’s about quality over quantity in everything from work to food to parenting.
Being slow is about connecting- with ourselves, with those around us, with the world. Being slow is about care and contemplation in making a choice or a decision. Being slow is about smelling the roses, about taking the time to stand and stare. Being slow is about really living our lives.
A few lines by a Christian evangelist come to mind:
God takes his time, He is never rushed
From coal to diamond, from baby to man
He slowly fulfills his wonderful plan
Thus day after day and year after year
He works in our lives, if we hear
But we must slow down and be very still
In this way alone can we know God’s will…………………….
Bashari Chakraborti's Blog 
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