Slow movement: Where does the craving for unhurried life come from
Dmitry Kurkin
Moore's Law, remained fair until the early 2000s, argued that the number of transistors in a silicon chip doubles every two years. It can be said that the anxiety of a modern person, who is trying to keep up with the growing pace of life in the information age, is growing at the same rate. Therefore, it is not surprising that from year to year the slow movement is becoming more and more popular - not so much the “slow movement” as the “movement for leisurely movement”.
Strictly speaking, slow movement is an umbrella term that unites various aspects of life. In the field of food production and consumption (slow food, the symbol of which was the snail), it translates into a rejection of fast food, support for local producers, craft and artisanism. In fashion (slow fashion) - in a boycott of the mass market, support for small copyright brands, DIY tailoring, development of second-hand (here we can also attribute the current course to conscious consumption, adding to the question of environmental friendliness and ethics to slowness). In culture, in the struggle with the “clip” thinking and interest in films (from Bela Tarr to Andrei Tarkovsky) and musical works (an extreme example is John Cage’s play "As Slow as Possible", which began in 2001 2640th) with a slow, "meditative" pace. In tourism (slow travel) - in long journeys, suggesting a deep study of the life and mentality of local people, as opposed to running around the tourist points for quick impressions. Anyway, in any manifestation of the slow movement comes down to a simple setting: to live in the rhythm that is convenient for the person himself.
Honore, juggling quotes from great predecessors and worldly wisdom like "better is less but better," explains that "slow" means not slowness, ludditsky sabotage against the comforts and advantages of speed
The program text of the slow motion movement usually calls the Canadian journalist Carl Honore’s book "In Praise of Slowness", published in 2004 (in the Russian version, which for some reason says hello to Dale Carnegie, "Without fuss: How to stop rushing and start living") . And indeed, the principles of a slow life are chewed up in it as much as possible. Honore, juggling quotes from great predecessors and worldly wisdom like “better is less but better”, explains that “slow” means not slowness, ludditsky sabotage against the comforts and advantages of speed or nostalgia for the lost innocence of the technological age, but only the right to choose convenient for yourself pace and giving up "speed for speed".
"We say" quickness "- we mean constant employment, control, aggression, haste, analytical approach, stress, superiority, impatience, activity, quantity instead of quality. We say" slowness "- we mean the opposite: calm, caring, receptivity, peace, intuition , lack of haste, patience, reflection, quality, not quantity. " Honore clarifies this not too unequivocal opposition, referring to studies by the International Labor Organization: she notes that in European countries, where working weeks are shorter, hourly productivity is higher than in Britain and the USA, where it is customary to work "for slaughter".
Honore's book was sold out for quotations, even if it did not offer anything new and nothing that had not been reflected in the nineties. The emergence of generation X against the backdrop of disappointment in materialism and yuppie culture, in general, was nothing more than a deliberate attempt to slow down. And the novel of the same name by Douglas Copeland, whose heroes lived exactly according to the precepts of "In Praise of Slowness" - only thirteen years before its release - even had the subtitle "Fairy Tales for Accelerated Time". Comprehension of obsession with speed and psychological burning out went on throughout the decade (see, for example, the Radiohead album "OK Computer"). However, in the early 1990s, there was a systemic failure, and the discussion of the prospects for unhurried life was replaced by generational conflict: on one side of the barrier were corporate employees torn by neuroses, on the other, downshifters and unmotivated kidtalts living with their parents after thirty.
This confrontation, in many respects contrived, and predetermined that in the next decade the foundations of slow movement returned under the new sauce and in new formulations. And since the world does not even think about slowing down, and the ideas of a leisurely life do not lose relevance, this allows selling them over and over in a slightly modified wrapper. Although attempts to put them into practice for at least a hundred years.
Answering the question "How fast?" with the words “How is it convenient for you”, the movement does not take into account the fact that a person sometimes doesn’t imagine what kind of pace he needs
One of the oldest - and the most curious - manifestations of the slow movement remain the systems of slow education, first of all the Waldorf schools, which appeared in 1919. The method of teaching, which is based on the principle of "spiritual economy", argues that the child should learn the way he wants, and at the pace that is convenient for him. To this end, it is proposed to abandon both textbooks and the rating system (at least in the lower grades) - that is, to avoid the ever-dividing of the class into excellent students and those lagging behind. Waldorf pedagogy, in its spirit close to home education, detached itself from anthroposophy, the mystical teaching of Rudolf Steiner, and therefore it is usually criticized as sectarian. The fears on this score are probably exaggerated, but it must be said that the Waldorf schools do not try to reinforce the effectiveness of their approach with anything but the conviction that this should be so.
A similar problem with all the slow movement: advocating for slowness, it can do nothing with the extensibility of the concept itself. Answering the question "How fast?" with the words “How is it convenient for you”, it does not take into account the fact that a person sometimes doesn’t imagine what kind of pace he needs. Just like what we call laziness, can hide anything from simple lack of motivation to deep psychological depression, so the craving for slowdown often turns out to be an intuitive red light signaling that we spend ourselves not at all on what we want. in reality. And the ready-made solutions that the slow movement offers do not always help with this, although they may be useful.
Photo: Daria Minaeva - stock.adobe.com, maximleshkovich - stock.adobe.com