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Tony Sandy

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Time is the only thing we are hurrying

I read an article recently and witnessed an incident which I believe shows the true cause of disaster at the opposite end of negligence - trying to force things to happen / speed up. Aggression is where somebody doesn't let things go at their own pace, by tries to rush them, putting undue pressure upon the participants. Speeding things up simplifies things by ignoring nearly everything but the single objective. The alternative is taking things slowly and discovering all there is to know about a particular situation, so that you can act with knowledge (Doers versus Thinkers, Jocks versus Geeks, Red necks versus Intellectuals, Scientists versus Religious Fundamentalists).

The incidents I refer to are where a care home manager ran a wheelchair into a resident because she wasn't moving fast enough, to get passed her. The second incident concerned a cow in a slaughter house, where a slaughter-man was trying to cut off the legs of the still alive animal and, kicking and cursing it because it was naturally resisting him*. Quality of life or anything else is about taking time, not ignoring it and rushing what you're doing. This degrades us all, with its cheap and plentiful attitude, rather than self-control and taking your time, not somebody else's, in order to cut down costs. All this cutting corners leads us to go round in circles of ignorance. It is panic versus calm and control (patience, tolerance). Anger is believing you have no time to think or room to act and it is this fear driven belief that destroys reality as its opposite creates it through trust and diligence (Being here, rather than running away or denying the existence of something). This is the difference between a person who learns from his mistakes and moves on as opposed to one who never faces the consequences of his actions and has the conscience to stay and put them right.

*We have no Temple Grandin in The UK, battling for animal rights in a practical way in the slaughterhouse.

Topics: animal rights animal welfare ethics philosophy pysychology
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    E G 10+

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    Mar 10 2012: how we feel the time is a psychological problem , the time is the time .

  • Tony Sandy

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    Feb 15 2012: Yes, speed and excitement go together but where is this climax leading us? Like sex it may well be the end of one thing and hopefully the start of something better (A new beginning, like rebirth, perhaps?). What fuels this race to avoid confronting reality? Simply we don't want to face the return to childhood as it is a blow to our pride (humiliating return to being ignorant, rather than the all knowing, all powerful Oz - at the bottom of the pile, rather than King of the Mountain). Panic is the urge to run away because we fail to understand something - again because it humiliates our ego to be in the position of the novice (pupil) rather than the master (teacher). Joy is understanding. It leads to calm and control because we no longer feel the victim (loser) but have regained composure, wanting to stay and face the challenge ahead because we now know we can win and how (learned tactic).

    I believe we all bounce between these two states of depression and elation, which I call the Artist Effect - stepping back to examine and learn, and forward to act (alter). Every attempt to change things is based on theory and that theory is that we know what we're doing as every time we step back, it is in the belief that we don't what to do or how to handle a situation. Life isn't 'either/ or' (sides) but 'both /and' (We take things apart to understand them but put them back together, to make them work).
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    Ehis Odijie 10+

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    Feb 14 2012: WOW, Tony, that was a nice read. I see your observation in my daily life. I recently made commitment to a daily sleep of eight hours, i am glade to say i get things done better, and even faster, than when i had less sleep.
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    Dan Weaver

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    Feb 14 2012: Yes, Tony, I think much of what you say is very true and the examples you give good- and horrific in the case of the cow.
    We REALLY need to slow down and make better decisions instead of more and faster.
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