Complaining about the pace of life is one of those things that is more or less traditional: if you’re human, now and then you’ll have a whinge, and the topics being whinged about may include the weather, other generations, change, and the pace of life.
But the pace of life has been picking up.
I well remember reading Alvin Toffler’s “Future Shock” back in the 70s, and being concerned. In the 80s, I heard of engineers who quit because the introduction of the fax led to too much time pressure (and heard also of allegations the same had happened with the introduction of telephones: that may be so, but I’ll put that in the “possible urban myth” basket for the time being).
Since then:
- technology has brought us to the 24 hour news cycle;
- the five second sound bite has become the basis of a lot of reporting;
- neoliberals have taken almost all work back to mediaeval level pressures, with wholesale desecration of work-life barriers; and
- expertise, experience and thinking are under attack - due in good measure to the neoliberals.
Reflection is vital to being a proper human; rest and recuperation are important to our health; and having outlets other than the drudgery of a high-pressure insanely-paced job is essential to our wellbeing; barriers between paid work and life can be crucial to our relationships, which is what give most people meaning in their lives.
Management of projects that lacks knowledge of the industry, putting time pressure on specialists to cover the fact that managers haven’t allowed time for planning and preparation - let alone delivery, thinking fast tracking and big ambitious goals are good (there were suicides in the US space programme because of the pressures) are all signs of defects in key decision makers.
And we’ve allowed them to have power.
If a child is being pushy, aggressive or an “alpha” personality, tech them decency; if a wannabe manager shows signs of psychopathy or inability to understand humans, don’t give them the position - and tell them why; and if politicians bleat about doing things faster, cheaper, or bigger, think about the human toll that they’re not admitting to.
A lot of the technological changes over the last few centuries have had considerable benefit; many could be harmful or beneficial, depending on how they're used; and a few have been downright inherently harmful. One of the problems associated with some of those is ramming them through without enough time for reflection.
A lot of social change has had the same range of categories - and things like giving women the vote, bans on racism, and other attempts at inclusiveness and equality should have happened sooner: if we'd had time to reflect regularly (and better survivability of lifestyles - and I'm thinking particularly of what workers have been put through by and since the Industrial Revolution), I consider that may well have happened.
Slow down; relax, think - and reflect.
