The Society for the Deceleration of Time - Slow Activism - Brief Article

New Internationalist, March, 2002

AN ECLECTIC GROUP of some 700 members drawn from the German-speaking world and headquartered in Austria. 'The Society does quality research on the phenomena of time, organizes symposia, publishes regularly. Occasionally we go activist ourselves in the hope of drawing attention to unnecessary hustle and bustle that shapes so much of our lives.' The society encourages members to prolong the time taken whenever it makes sense to do so, regardless of the kind of activity they engage in. They should stand for the right to pause for reflection in situations where mindless activism and vested interests produce solutions that are expedient rather than genuine.

Excerpts from the reasons for establishing the Society:

'Despite shorter working hours, more and more people have less and less time for the things they really want to do... The wheel of history is turning at ever-greater speed, and it is more and more difficult to take a contemplative view... Speed is the yardstick through which we measure the value of our activities. "A time for everything and everything in its own time" and "all in good time" are sayings that seem to have died out. For a pig to be "profitable" it has to be ripe for the slaughterhouse at age six months. Agricultural engineering does its bit to subject nature and living creatures to timetables and schedules. Natural products have to obey the iron law of the economic clock... In our democratic lives politicians rush from place to place, frankly admitting that they have no time to read or think. Who is going to do their thinking for them?... Celerity is all. If we say someone is "slow", it is tantamount to saying that he or she is handicapped in some way. Having to wait for someone or something is felt to be a personal insult.' Verein zur Verzogerung der Zeit, Interdisziplinares Institut fur Forschung und Forthildung der Universitat Klagenfurt, SterneckstraBe 15 A-9020 Klagenfurt e-mail: zeitverein@uni-klu.ac.at http://zeitverein.uni-klu.ac.at http://www.members.eunet.at/ro.neunteufel/time.htm

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