Hurry, hurry, hurry

Earlier this year I read an article about how much we hurry our way through life (Bakewell, 2022). I have written on this topic before (here, for example), but this idea of continual busy-ness seems to have become pervasive in our culture. It feels like we do not have worth unless we are stretched to the max, almost dying with stress and over-load. 

How did we get to this strange place? How did our society construct the idea that being overwhelmed was desirable?

On suggestion is that tropes within our culture - such as the John Tenniel illustrations accompanying Lewis Carrol's white rabbit, rushing off down the rabbit hole, eyes glued to his pocket watch, panicking because he is late - have become pervasive, and that from childhood, if we are 'good', we model ourselves after them (Bakewell, 2022). As a society, then we collectively 'drink the Kool-Aid'. 

But what about our very consumerist society? Are we simply rushing and rushing and rushing to accumulate more and more... to what end? Is the desire for more, and our collective rush, what is driving the 'great resignation' (Klotz, 2020, as cited by Kellet, 2022)? Has an overabundance of consumerism created global warming, and now minimalist culture is us attempting a reset? That is what Uggla is suggesting (2019), and I see where that idea is taking us.

As I have got older I have noticed a decrease in desire for the 'new', simply because it is new. There is a growing tendency to only buy when I am forced into it by breakage or lack of serviceability. I try to mend and stay with the status quo, to buy second-hand if I need a replacement. The ideas of minimalism with sustainability are conflating; along with reclaiming time, working less, doing more with less (Uggla, 2019). 

If we think of the consumerist society as being a ship, I wonder if Covid-19 hasn't knocked a hole in our vessel's side, so that the idea of working more, getting more, having more is sinking. We can get off: we can rescue ourselves by wanting less, being happy to have more time, of taking more time to think. In the words of W. H. Davies (Gardiner, 1985, p. 836): 

“What is this life if, full of care, 

We have no time to stand and stare?”

We have the embryonic beginnings of time to stand and stare, and are moving away from "a poor life" (Gardiner, 1985, p. 836). We know we should now watch the white rabbit as he runs by (Carroll, 1865, p. 1), and feel pity. 

How long it will take us to longer want to emulate him is another thing altogether.

Sam

References:

Bakewell, J. (18 July 2022). What happened when I stopped hurrying – and discovered the joy of slowing down?. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/18/stopped-hurrying-slowing-down-rushing

Carroll, L. (1865). Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Macmillan & Co, Ltd.

Gardiner, H. (Ed.). (1985). The New Oxford Book of English Verse. Oxford University Press.

Kellet, A. (11 February 2022). The Texas A&M Professor Who Predicted ‘The Great Resignation’. Texas A&M University. https://today.tamu.edu/2022/02/11/the-texas-am-professor-who-predicted-the-great-resignation/

Uggla, Y. (2019). Taking back control: Minimalism as a reaction to high speed and overload in contemporary society. Sociologisk forskning, 56(3-4), 233-252. https://doi.org/10.37062/sf.56.18811