The importance of a certain slowness

The end of each year is such a frenetic rush of unrelenting activity that most of us would be very receptive to any person who suggests that we really should slow down. So for this month’s Insight Story I shall focus on an article “On the importance of a certain slowness” by Stellenbosch University philosopher, Paul Cilliers. He refers to the idea of slowing down which has been put forward recently by a number of scholars and authors in a variety of situations.

There is the “Slow food” movement which started in Italy (of course!) and now has a worldwide following. “Slow foodies” are passionate about wholesome ingredients, cooked properly and enjoyed lovingly and lingeringly with good friends. The slow food movement rejects and resists fast food and junk food. This resistance is based on aesthetic, nutritional, social and ethical grounds.

Then there is a movement promoting “Slow cities”. Also of Italian origin, this movement promotes an understanding of cities that is more humane than our current cauldrons of violence. Walking rather than driving is encouraged. Small shops with local products are fostered rather than the shopping malls so loved by Americans and South Africans. Slow cities provide people with the opportunity to interact rather than live in lonely isolation. Joan and I experienced the joy of a few of these slow cities on a visit to Tuscany last year. They were a celebration of how humans should be living, and our little Greyton shared many of their slow features.

There are also researchers who have examined two other movements which challenge the cult of speed. Slow schooling questions many educational processes in a world that seems drunk with lust for instant knowledge and results rather than an emerging, evolving competence and wisdom. Again, Greyton schools have the potential to offer a deep, slow education alongside the necessary requirement to fit in with the prevailing systems. On a more personal level, “Slow sex” is a movement that seeks to resist the commercialisation of our intimate relationships. It challenges us to recognise that the journey is more important than the destination and that journeys take time. As Cilliers says: “An immediate or perpetual orgasm is really no orgasm at all.”

There are a number of important issues at stake in these social movements. There are underlying principles and insights that make the dialogue on slowness a fundamental one.

First insight: the cult of speed which equates speed with efficiency is a destructive one. A slower approach is essential because it enables us to cope with a complex world much better and ultimately more efficiently. Cilliers is not arguing against appropriate speed. Obviously, “a stew should simmer slowly and a good steak should be grilled intensely but briefly”. His argument is against unreflective speed, against the alignment of speed with notions of efficiency, success, quality and importance. Against speed as a virtue in itself! The prodigious advances in technology have pushed us into what Thomas Eriksen calls “the tyranny of the moment” in which we are forced to live in an eternal present. We are in instantaneous contact with everybody everywhere. Cell phones and emails call for immediate response and tend to cut out the delay that reflection demands. And without reflecting on our past experiences we become knee-jerk reaction puppets, and sadly think that this is being “efficient”.

Second insight: there is a link between a certain slowness and integrity, sticking to one’s principles. Cilliers quotes three novels that explore this link. Sten Nadolny: The Discovery of Slowness is a novel which shows that even in war thorough reflection before action pays dividends. The main character, John Franklin, has the integrity to assimilate, reflect and integrate before he acts. This is sometimes a ponderous process and he pays a price for it. But eventually people turn to him because they trust his wisdom. JM Coetzee’s novel Slow Man also explores the link between integrity and slowness. His character clings to a set of values despite cruel demands that are made on him. However, he is too stubborn and eventually turns out to be too slow and pays dearly for it. In contrast to Coetzee’s darker view, Milan Kundera’s novel Slowness offers a strong, positive understanding of how a certain slowness is a pre-requisite for being fully human. The novel reveals the beauty of a relationship that unfolds over time, the ecstatic nature of a love that evolves slowly through its past history and emerges in rich complexity into a desired future.

Paul Cilliers’ fine article challenges us to resist the cult of speed and ensure that we structure into our lives, our institutions, our town, and our personal patterns sufficient time for reflection before we rush into action. Speed is sometimes required where appropriate. But the journey needs to be enjoyed and not simply endured as we rush to our physical, social, intellectual and personal destinations.