Slow movement
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.
Geir Berthelsen and his creation of The World Institute of Slowness presented a vision in 1999 for an entire "slow planet" and a need to teach the world the way of slowness. The motto of the Slow philosophy is - 'The fastest way to a good life is to slow down'.
According to...
“…perhaps, the most powerful reason — why we find it hard to slow down is the cultural taboo that we’ve erected against slowing down. ‘Slow’ is a dirty word in our culture. It’s a byword for ‘lazy,’ ‘slacker,’ for being somebody who gives up. You know, ‘he’s a bit slow.’ It’s actually synonymous with being stupid.”
– C. Honore
“Is it possible in today’s superfast world to live slow? Would I be able to keep my job? Provide a good living for my family? Does being ‘slow’ mean low efficiency, low effectiveness?”
– G. Berthelsen
Slow Movement is concerned with how the industrial revolution changed the relationship between the individual human and the macroeconomic system.
What is culture of speed ?
This disapproval doesn’t always amount to a direct rejection of the value of speed. If Aesop’s tortoise enjoys moral approval it is, ultimately, because he won the race: it is the hare’s overconfidence and subsequent indolence, rather than its innate dynamism that is disapproved of. ‘More haste less speed’, in a similar way, warns against a certain type of ill-considered and counterproductive disposal of energy and effort rather than attacking the goal of speed itself.
Indeed, on the other hand, there is a wealth of positive associations which reach back to the archaic meaning of speed as success or prosperity – as in ‘God send you good speed’ – and of ‘quick’ as meaning ‘alive’ – as in ‘the quick and the dead’. This association with vitality and life energy is the one that has survived most into contemporary language.To be quick – quick witted, quick on the uptake – is to be lively, alert, intelligent. Such a person is liable to succeed in life – to have their career ‘fast-tracked’ and, perhaps, to end up living life in the fast lane. If we aspire to this sort of career success and prosperity we need to get up to speed with the latest developments in our field. Clearly the underlying cultural metaphor here is of life as a competition, as a race to achievement.We may, of course, disapprove of this sort of attitude to life, regarding it as part of the insidious ideology of western capitalist-consumerism, or more simply as a rather unreflective ‘heads down’ conformity to the modern rat-race. And, indeed, if this were all that was implied, a life lived at speed could scarcely be deemed a particularly rich or virtuous one. However, this would be to neglect the deeper existential associations – though frequently cashed, it has to be said, in the vulgar currency of material accumulation – of speed.
Paul Virilio - Dromology
The word Dromology is derived from Greek noun 'Dromos' which is used for race or racetrack. With this meaning in his mind he coined the term Dromology which means "Science of Speed" According to Virilio Speed became the soul agent of progress. He further said that…..
With the help of technology and computers we can communicate with people from any corner within no time. But Virilio is Critical of thought and said that technologies distorting 'Real' reality by replacing real time and space with "Virtual Realities."
A German sociologist, Ulrich Beck propounded the term Technoulture in his book Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. He further explains how risk theory works in various cultural artefacts like, in cyber world we find computer anti-virus software are sold on the grounds of risk and threats of bug attacks. Things which are governed by risk becomes the risk society. Beck explains that risk are not real but they are about becoming real. When a certain risk is predicted, it is just an assumption of future incident. But when risk becomes real it becomes a disaster or catastrophe.
It can be said that today's society is risk society. People are constantly acknowledged with several risks through various mediums. These risks are majorly health related. Several examples of risk society can be taken such as the industry of edible oil. The manufacturer of sunflower oil might highlight the hazards and risks of heart attack by consuming other edible oils such as groundnut oil, til oil etc. The television watchers will accept the theory of risk explained by the company and purchase sunflower oil. Costumer will also do mouth publicity for that oil company, by emphasizing on the risk of heart attack, and will also say the benefits of using sunflower oil.
