Dear list,
This struck a nerve...
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Syndicated columnist Bob Greene of Tribune Media Services wrote on
October 11, 1998
The world is evolving into a 24/7 operation...24 hours a day, seven
days a week.
He say's:
"We live this way not because we want to -- but simply because we
can. What do we gain by speeding up our existance this way?
What we loose is peace. What we loose is a sense of reflection --
of soothing emptiness.. Social theorteician Stephen Bertman, author of
(Hyperculture: The Human Cost of Speed,) argues persuasively that most
of the current crises facing society derive from our new addiction to
living fast and constant.
"Driven by the momentum of technologies operating at the speed of
light," Mr. Bertman writes, "our social speedometer has continued to
climb ... (W)e are now nearing a velocity called 'warp speed,' ...
(I)t is one that can, if we are not wise or strong enough, warp the
fundamental nature of our lives ..."
"Unlike the monastery of the desert where mystics once attained
transcendent perspective by withdrawing from the world, the realm of
NOW is an environment of prevasive sensory stimulation and swift flux,
a continually altered cosmos that offers us no fixed horizon. As a
consequence, our lives come to be characterized more by their random
trajectory than by any reasoned destination."
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Do we do what we do just to do it?
Microsoft's advertizing asks the the question:
Where do you want to go today?
Do you have a reasoned destination?
Sincerely,
Larry Blasch
System Administrator for Engineering Services
OPW Fueling Components Voice: (513) 870-3356
P.O. Box 405003 Fax: (513) 870-3338
Cincinnati, OH 45240-5003 USA
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* "The faster I go...the further behind I get" *
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