A Reflection Based on Speed Trap and Age of Rage - Book Report/Review Example

A Reflection Based on ‘Speed Trap’ and ‘Age of Rage’. Submitted ________________________ Submitted by:________________________ ___________________ Institute:____________________________ Rebecca was a lower middle class woman based in the USA, who wanted to buy an above average life for her family. She couldn’t stand the fact that her children be educated in a substandard school or live in a below average rented house with a low standard of living. So, she took up a job. She had to work really hard in a factory. She started earning a small amount of money to support her family. With time, the small amount seemed very small as compared to the large amount of bills and installments for the house and car, so she kept increasing her hours at work to provide well for her family. This has become common practice in USA. There is such a fast paced economic growth; opportunities come and are taken so quickly that to compete is the only option left. People rarely start work with this in mind, but once started, they keep sinking into the marshes of speed and economy. They keep overworking themselves to win the rat race and become so entangled in this speedy process that they cannot jump back to the slow life style easily even if they choose to do so. When they attain one milestone in economic growth, they discover yet another one to cross. This urge to grow places a lot of pressure on them, which does not allow them time to think what they are missing out in trying to reach a better financial position. Living like a machine closes down human imagination and allows no space to speculate the true purpose of being. Coming back to Rebecca’s case, her life became a roller coaster ride after adding more and more hours to work. With a mad ten to fifteen hours a day work routine, she somehow managed to give time to her children and home also. She did not have time for fiends or social visits. As time passed, her income grew, but she was facing too much work load stress. As Honore (2004) suggests that a life of hurry is a superficial one (p.111). It does not allow time to connect with close ones. Working so many hours a day, she was definitely lacking opportunities of sharing her thoughts, ideas and worries with friends due to lack of time. Rebecca ultimately developed brain cancer. Walljasper (1997, p.95) states in his article: ‘Speed is such an integral part of contemporary society it’s easy to lose sight of just how much power it has over us.’ Somewhat similar phenomenon occurred with Rebecca. In trying to grow financially, she kept up speeding herself up and failed to realize the effects it was having. After almost fourteen years of hard work had elapsed; Rebecca had earned enough to stabilize her family. Now she wanted to enjoy it, share it all with her family and to spend time with her family. But maybe this was not meant to be. She had lost the ‘together-hours’ of the family and she didn’t seem to be able to get the family together to enjoy what she had earned. Finally, her burned out body gave way to cancer before she could truly taste the fruit of all her hard work-This woman was my mother. When I reflect back on her life now, I have mixed feelings. On one hand I feel happy that she did after all achieve what she thought was important during her life but on the other hand I feel sad that she didn’t have anything for herself. In fact her busy routine and work load cost her, her life. She just rushed through her life trying to secure all the living standards for her family. The question is was the effort worth it? Or would it all have ended well if she had simply had more time to spend with her family, or if she had accepted an average life or even a below average one for that matter and had spent more time with her family? These are questions that trigger a lot of thought. This phenomenon is perhaps best reflected in Walljasper’s statement: ‘In a fast –paced world we put more energy into arrivals and departures than the experience itself.’ This death definitely falls, as Honore (p.110, 2004) suggests in his article; in the category of the Japanese word ‘Karoshi’, meaning death due to over work. Honore (p.110, 2004) further points out that stress related problems are becoming more common by the day. There is also a problem with the management strategies we apply to cope with these pace related problems. As Walljasper (pg.96, 1997) has pointed out in his article, ‘Revving up is often heralded as the answer to the problems caused by speed’. We fall for faster internet connections, enhanced writing and typing speed, faster cooking equipments and so on if we are unable to meet the speed set standards of everyday. Even personally, when I feel that I’m falling back in a certain subject of studies, I automatically try to hasten up my learning process instead of slowing down in that particular subject to earn a better understanding. We are trying to solve problems raised by speed with even more speed which will get us nowhere in the end. It has become common practice in USA for individuals to take up more jobs than they can humanely manage. Walljasper (pg.96, 1997) suggests in his article that economic pressure usually forces people to take up more work than what they can actually manage. Today, an average American, irrespective of his or her age group has a frantic lifestyle. Most people nowadays don’t have time to sleep, eat, watch TV, meet friends or be with their families even on weekends. Working hours at many places are more than twelve hours a day. Such life style is causing problems at many levels. These can be categorized as medical, psychological, social, economic and environmental. Less sleep and more fast food due to shortage of time is causing medical problems. According to one survey, cited in Honore (p.110, 2004), one third of Americans and one fifth of the residents of UK are clinically obese and one third of above-thirty Japanese men are also over weight. Honore (p.110, 2004) nicely explains it in a catchy phrase: ‘fastest nations of the world are also often the fattest.’ Another impact this speed has on lives of individuals is that of ruining social and personal bonds. ‘All things that bind us together and make life worth living, community, family, friendship-thrive on one thing we never have enough of: Time.’ (Honore, p.111, 2004). The same author has further elaborated this by bringing our attention to the harm this fast track life is inflicting on children. Consider the example of one minute bedtime story as cited in Honore (p.108, 2004) for example. As far as I remember, in my childhood the bedtime story enjoyed the status of quite a treasured ritual. I, as a child remember waiting all day for bed time to enjoy another fairy tale; and somehow, the longer the story was, the better I slept. This is just one example of what children are being deprived of because their parents have chosen to travel in the fast lane. Coming home from school, today’s child has no blood relative to talk to. He/she is either handed in charge of a tutor or a house keeper. Encounter with either of the parents during the whole day is a rare event and actual interaction with them being a still rarer one. People living in the same house are today forced to communicate with each other via stickers on the refrigerator. I believe that children’s minds are like blank pages, waiting to be written. They learn from their environment. It is a very pressing need of the day to teach children the meaning of true peace in life. They become what their parents are. They imitate their significant others. There is a need to redefine productivity for children today. Productivity is positive; but, they must learn to differentiate between productivity for the sake of commodities of life and productivity for the sake of quenching the thirst of experience that the soul has. Their priorities must be to achieve inner satisfaction rather than worldly comforts. Fast lane life is also against nature. Walljasper (pg.97, 1997) suggests that moving at a fast pace renders us out of the biological rhythms of the planet we live on. It is against nature to tie ourselves in such a tight time schedule that enjoying the slow pace and beauty of nature becomes impossible. Our time rhythms are no longer harmonized with natural time rhythms. As Walljasper reflects in his article; we miss out the simple beauty of any moment due to our hectic routine (Walljasper, 1997, p.97). I have experienced this many times while reading. Whenever I finish a book in hurry, I do not feel the gratification at the end which is usually accompanied with slow book reading. With this speed race of the modern world, the ritual of having proper meals is also being affected. The term fast food itself came into being as a result of this fast life style. After experimenting with my own eating habits, I can say that eating some food in a hurry is no fun as compared to a slow and proper meal. Try eating a burger while walking back from work to home and try eating the same burger properly heated, sitting in your lounge with your family with time to actually taste it or do even better, try eating home cooked food and compare its taste with the burger on the subway while travelling home. Honore (p.112, 2004) points out; restaurant customers nowadays often order a taxi while they are actually eating the last part of their meals. What can a person possibly enjoy or even taste while eating under such circumstances and time pressure? Besides the health problems associated with fast life and fast food, there are other associated threatening conditions also. For instance, drowsiness causes many auto vehicle accidents (p.111, Honore, 2004). The intake of caffeine and other stronger stimulants is increasing by the day in fast moving countries of the world. Honore (p.110, 2004) attributes this health hazard to lack of sleep faced by most people. Despite so many time saving inventions, humans don’t have time. ‘When I was a child, I remember hearing that one of the biggest challenges of the future would be what to do with all our time’ (Walljasper, 1997, p.95). But, what has actually happened is quite on the contrary. This shows that lack of time is not due to lack of technology, but it is actually due to the fact that humans are addicted to the thrill of speed now. They don’t have time because they can’t stand slowness. They want to be on the go all the time; to experience the power that comes with speed. I think all of us have experienced the sheer grandiose joy that speed brings with it. Environmental activist Rifkilin in his book ‘Time Wars’ (as cited in Walljasper, 1997, p.97.) explains this in plain words: ‘We have quickened the pace of life only to become less patient’. Going against nature will lead us nowhere. ‘A society that lives in the fast lane can never be a sustainable society’ (Cited in Walljasper, 1997, p.98). Moving too fast poses environmental and society related issues as well. Everything in the society is happening prematurely due to speed addiction. We are unconsciously trying to speed up the evolutionary process by hastening the biological rhythms (p.115, Honore, 2004). If this continues, the society will definitely move towards anomie and inevitably meet its doom earlier than when it was meant to be. Personally, I agree with Walljasper (1997, p.98) where he presents his argument that slow is beautiful and I am with Honore (p.115, 2004) in the slow movement. The world needs a slow revolution. The hare can’t be transformed into the tortoise in a day; it will be a gradual but 180 degree change. This revolution must begin with the realization of what humans are missing by entering the fast lane and where is it leading to. I conclude this reflection here in agreement with Honore (p.116, 2004), that basically we humans need to learn and achieve a balance between slow and fast. We need to understand and identify how slow is too slow and how fast is too fast. We need to set our own time rhythms to achieve our maximum potential and be ourselves at the same time rather than accelerating our pace in life. In light of above reflections, I can safely conclude the following about Rebecca: She could have had a better chance to a peaceful life had she set a limit of material comfort. There is nothing wrong with seeking success in world; or with trying to raise one’s standard of life. But, it should never be done at one’s own expense. I have decided that I will start slowing myself down by lowering my standard of material contentment gradually and by spending more time in meditating. I will consider this not a downward move on the ladder of success; rather an investment for the future of my own mental balance, for the sake of inner harmony with nature. It is also my belief that balance and moderation don’t have to be learned, these are in our nature. All that we need to do is to slow down and listen to ourselves. If we follow our natural clock instead of becoming a stop watch, we would never lose this built in speed balance, and our lives would never spin out of control. References Read More

When I reflect back on her life now, I have mixed feelings. On one hand I feel happy that she did after all achieve what she thought was important during her life but on the other hand I feel sad that she didn’t have anything for herself. In fact her busy routine and work load cost her, her life. She just rushed through her life trying to secure all the living standards for her family. The question is was the effort worth it? Or would it all have ended well if she had simply had more time to spend with her family, or if she had accepted an average life or even a below average one for that matter and had spent more time with her family?

These are questions that trigger a lot of thought. This phenomenon is perhaps best reflected in Walljasper’s statement: ‘In a fast –paced world we put more energy into arrivals and departures than the experience itself.’ This death definitely falls, as Honore (p.110, 2004) suggests in his article; in the category of the Japanese word ‘Karoshi’, meaning death due to over work. Honore (p.110, 2004) further points out that stress related problems are becoming more common by the day.

There is also a problem with the management strategies we apply to cope with these pace related problems. As Walljasper (pg.96, 1997) has pointed out in his article, ‘Revving up is often heralded as the answer to the problems caused by speed’. We fall for faster internet connections, enhanced writing and typing speed, faster cooking equipments and so on if we are unable to meet the speed set standards of everyday. Even personally, when I feel that I’m falling back in a certain subject of studies, I automatically try to hasten up my learning process instead of slowing down in that particular subject to earn a better understanding.

We are trying to solve problems raised by speed with even more speed which will get us nowhere in the end. It has become common practice in USA for individuals to take up more jobs than they can humanely manage. Walljasper (pg.96, 1997) suggests in his article that economic pressure usually forces people to take up more work than what they can actually manage. Today, an average American, irrespective of his or her age group has a frantic lifestyle. Most people nowadays don’t have time to sleep, eat, watch TV, meet friends or be with their families even on weekends.

Working hours at many places are more than twelve hours a day. Such life style is causing problems at many levels. These can be categorized as medical, psychological, social, economic and environmental. Less sleep and more fast food due to shortage of time is causing medical problems. According to one survey, cited in Honore (p.110, 2004), one third of Americans and one fifth of the residents of UK are clinically obese and one third of above-thirty Japanese men are also over weight. Honore (p.110, 2004) nicely explains it in a catchy phrase: ‘fastest nations of the world are also often the fattest.

’ Another impact this speed has on lives of individuals is that of ruining social and personal bonds. ‘All things that bind us together and make life worth living, community, family, friendship-thrive on one thing we never have enough of: Time.’ (Honore, p.111, 2004). The same author has further elaborated this by bringing our attention to the harm this fast track life is inflicting on children. Consider the example of one minute bedtime story as cited in Honore (p.108, 2004) for example.

As far as I remember, in my childhood the bedtime story enjoyed the status of quite a treasured ritual. I, as a child remember waiting all day for bed time to enjoy another fairy tale; and somehow, the longer the story was, the better I slept. This is just one example of what children are being deprived of because their parents have chosen to travel in the fast lane. Coming home from school, today’s child has no blood relative to talk to. He/she is either handed in charge of a tutor or a house keeper.

Encounter with either of the parents during the whole day is a rare event and actual interaction with them being a still rarer one.

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