The Slow-movement: The Slower The Better
The slow-movement (also called slowing down in Dutch) is a cultural shift that, like many other movements, started by the younger generations. Not so long ago, our goal was to make everything faster. And while this has brought great benefits, it has also left many people on the brink of a nervous breakdown.
The slow-movement is becoming more and more popular. Of course we realized how wonderful it is to be able to move from one country to another in a few hours. But people also started to realize that making love in two minutes, or having lunch in three, wasn’t a good idea.
Experiencing things at the speed of light is not the same as actually experiencing them . The always quick craving for things also means more stress and anxiety. After all, this is not life. Quite the contrary: life becomes shorter when it is lived at an insane pace.
The slow-movement bets on slowness in several crucial aspects of life. It is not a centralized movement and does not stem from one particular group. There are multiple causes and focuses. But what these have in common is a rejection of the endless acceleration that is going on in today’s world.
slow food
The food industry was the first to pave the way for the slow-movement. It started when McDonald’s came to Rome in 1986.
The chefs around were absolutely furious. One of the regions with the oldest culinary traditions in the world suddenly couldn’t compete with fast food.
The Italians, like many other populations with a long culinary culture, do not have a food characterized by speed or convenience. Quite the contrary.
A good cheese or wine is completely dependent on time. And the best dishes often take hours or even days to prepare.
In 1989, the best chefs in the world signed the Slow Food manifesto in Paris. It was an agreement based on the rejection of fast food.
The agreement called for the protection of traditions and good food. That was how the first slow-movement was established.
slow fashion
Fashion was the second area conquered by the slow-movement. It sounds a bit contradictory, because fashion itself is a concept associated with ephemeral things, and fast fashion is still incredibly powerful.
Yet there is a movement within fashion that is making great strides and that is trying to establish a vision of fashion as an environmentally responsible and socially sustainable practice.
The movement made real strides after the tragic accident at a Bangladeshi textile factory in 2013. This loss showed how much the fashion industry profited from appalling working conditions and how damaging many of the practices were to the environment.
Slow fashion wants people to stop buying a lot of cheap clothes. In general, these garments do not last longer than six months. And then the cycle starts again.
What they suggest is to buy clothes that are slightly more expensive, but of better quality. As we can see, the slow-movement is also a rejection of the throw-away culture.
From fashion and food to our inner self
The slow-movement started with food and then clothes. Then it expanded into other areas such as construction and travel. And now the idea of ’slow cities’ is also spreading.
From this perspective, people dream of cities that have no more than 50,000 inhabitants. Cities where the infrastructure has been adapted to allow you to get around on foot or by bike.
Too slow education has become a household name. It is a view that dictates schools to respect the learning pace of their students. The school schedule for children and teenagers will be made more flexible.
The goal is to adapt everything to life cycles. They want it to be motivation and interest that guide education, not rules.
The movement is a revolutionary way of looking to the future. It is becoming increasingly clear that we are much more than just cogs in the production chain.
We are human beings looking for meaning in our lives. There is no doubt about it, slowing down is a concept that continues to grow and which continues to give us hope in a dizzying world.
