Power, Speed and Centralisation
Commonplace Newsletter #117
Speed is modernity and modernity is speed.
Everything’s moving so fast and yet little seems to get better. Everyone’s working so hard- or at least exerting so much energy- but little seems to improve. The hands race around the clock face, the pages fly off the calendar, the speedometer quivers dangerously in the red zone. But to what end? Hearts pound from stress and legal stimulants, horns blare, jaws clench, tired eyes dance from screen to screen, from timeline to timeline, performing endless laps around a circuit of apps with no end in sight and with no closure forthcoming.
Instead of sound and fury signifying nothing we now have jittery movement and thoughtless consumption that signifies very, very little of true worth. Attention spans are fried among the perpetually tired-but-wired and the blur of frenetic activity and ceaseless obligation means that few can see a way out. This is where we are. This is the mess that we find ourselves in. Speed has got a stranglehold on us and we run and run or else feel guilt and shame for not keeping up in this endless race to nowhere. The wheel turns on and our sense of self is gone.
Consumerism has set us free to follow our desires, but who’s desires are we really following? And where? It seems that not only are we encouraged to be enslaved by ‘our’ desires, but that there are a lot of CEOs having a lot of fun at a lot of people’s expense.
So even if we are somehow able to achieve outer silence in this context, it is not the same as true inner silence. The endless onslaught of internalised distractions means that we could be alone and in a quiet place and yet our mind is like rush hour at an inner city road junction, where we are simultaneously overstimulated and yet unaware, just following the lights rather than being properly alert to our surroundings.
Silence is not the same as stillness.
Undoubtedly the speed of modern communications is a blessing for those who live away from friends and family. Yet it also encourages us to interact (often semi anonymously) more and more with people many miles away, rather than engaging with people in our own neighbourhoods. We end up not living where we live. Even those who work from home are mostly working remotely- meaning that they are neither here nor there.
“We declare that the splendour of the world has been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed. A racing automobile with its bonnet adorned with great tubes like serpents with explosive breath ... a roaring motor car which seems to run on machine-gun fire, is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace.”
- Marinetti, The Futurist Manifesto
Speed is modernity and modernity is speed. As time has moved on we have become increasingly enthralled with, seduced by and shaped by each new technological advancement- clockwork, steam, the locomotive, the automobile, the computer, the internet- all means of moving people and information at an ever-quicker pace. Technology is speed and speed is progress. And anything that fits with the West’s dynamic progress myth is unquestionably accepted as being for the greater good. So alongside the vague promises of ‘Change!’ we find the greedy exhortation for ‘More!’ all accompanied by cries of ‘Faster!’. Move fast, as fast as you can, as fast as is possible and if you break something along the way just continue to charge blindly forward. This ‘move fast and break things’ idea is a famous-to-the-point-of-being-cliche Silicon Valley maxim. And I suspect that every day you walk among the shards of the industries that were broken by those companies who made this their mantra on their hasty assent to monopolistic dominance.
We no longer know when we have enough.
If greed is good, as Gordon Gekko had it, then speed is better because speed allows greed to suddenly bloom. When you stop, you think and it’s from that pesky practice of still contemplation that the pangs of conscience begin to nag. How many vast corporations and business behemoths would have died on the vine if their founders had slowed down for a second and thought through some of the second order effects of their ‘disruptive’ innovations? This is precisely why they must bulldoze on. Ethics are a product of doubt which is a product of stillness. Morality slows you down if you really want to get to the very top. Take some time to stop and think and there is a good chance you may talk yourself out of the destructive action you were about to embark on which will hamstring your hopes of worldly success even if it does end up saving your sanity1.
Speed is the wellspring of this world we find ourselves in. The pedal is pushed down to the floor, the engine is overheating, the scenery streaks by the window in a blur. And I for one question the beauty of it. And if there isn’t a better approach.
Consider the time before the breakneck pace of the present. In medieval times (specifically 15th century England) the ‘legal day’ was measured not in hours but miles. Twenty miles to be precise, the distance a reasonably fit person could be expected to cover in a day2. That sounds impossibly slow to our ears- I’m sure that for some unfortunate souls twenty miles is but a fraction of the commute they drive each day, both there and back again.
It is that physical and temporal limitation that in part shaped medieval society. Monarchs had to rely on distant lords to oversee the far-reaches of their kingdom with essentially no oversight, as they were simply too far away to monitor closely. The world felt vast because it was so slow.
By the late Middle Ages travel speed doubled via the breeding of faster horses and more importantly setting up networks of stations where riders could transfer onto rested horses throughout the journey. With this increase in messenger speed the extent and scope of the monarch’s power also increased. With ever-greater speed comes ever-greater centralisation, which is a rule that is very much in operation today. Increase the speed of messenger travel and you also increase speed and quantity of information transferred, which further centralises and consolidates power. Spies become useful only when they can relay power back to their master before it becomes out of date. The modern world of globalisation, centralised power, data-mining, 24 hour news and instant continuous worldwide messaging is just a continuation of this logic, of this process. And it is only possible with near instant communication times. This is the reason why there is a continual push to increase the efficiency and scope (not to mention the intrusiveness) of communications. This is why those who control and increase the speed of communication channels are the ones who rule the world, tacitly if not overtly.
The same as it ever was.
This is all very interesting you might say. But is this perpetual acceleration of the speed of life not simply an inevitability? Is this not one of those overarching forces that are beyond our control? Yes and no. Sure, on the wider macro level the pace will almost certainly continue to hasten at least for a while. But the individual always has a choice. In fact, moving around at a disorientating pace is one of the very things that makes people forget that they do have some choice and control in how they live their lives. When you stop you think, so the first move is often to just to stop. Not contemplate stopping at some point, not acknowledging the fact that it can be good to stop sometimes but actually stopping.
Just. Stop.
That’s the slogan for the t-shirt.
Just. Stop3.
What are we sacrificing for convenience? And is the convenience worth the sacrifice? The faster the communication, the more centralised the power can become. We need to constantly question who is this ubiquitous increase in communication speed convenient for? And stop defaulting to the convenient, when we don’t really need it. And ask ourselves who is really benefitting? Us? Our children? Or the powers that won’t let us be?
And, dare I say, your soul.
For more on this concept of the medieval ‘legal day’ and how increased communication speed led to an increasing centralisation of power I would refer the reader to the excellent Medieval Horizons by Ian Mortimer.
N.B:
-Going off in another direction is not the same as stopping.
-Just. Stop
-Not everything has to be a thing. This includes stopping.
-Just. Stop.
Great essay, Tom. I've been considering this topic recently, mainly because 2024 was not a massively productive year for me. I slowed down but replaced busyness with more passive consumerism. Watching videos and reading posts and books, still searching for the elusive key to success. It's like having a box with what you need inside it (your clear thoughts) but piling things on top of it (other people's thoughts). This year, I'm spending longer in stillness, allowing all the thoughts and ideas within me to percolate and generate the answers I need. The practice is already bearing fruit.
Great essay, and it fit perfectly with the essay I read just before yours. . . https://www.noemamag.com/how-disinformation-deforms-democracy/