October/1999
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HYPERCULTURE: Reviewed by Lynne Lamberg |
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America's addiction to speed has transformed its values, this book contends. "The power of now," Stephen Bertman suggests, enthralls us. It "replaces the long-term with the short-term, duration with immediacy, permanence with transience, memory with sensation, insight with impulse." Bertman, a professor of classics at Canada's University of Windsor, shows how living in the moment has come to dominate numerous aspects of everyday life in recent years. News is reported in increasingly shorter sound bytes. A typical hour of prime time television includes 37 breaks for commercials and other messages. Single images seldom appear on the screen for more than three seconds. These short-lived sensations, says Bertman, teach us not to expect continuity in any aspect of our lives. Fashion merchandising artificially manipulates seasons, forcing us to shop for bathing suits in January, and winter coats in July. Christmas cards hit the stores before Halloween. If we decide to lose weight, we want to lose it fast; quick weight-loss diets enjoy enduring popularity. Cosmetic surgery to turn back the clock is America's fastest growing medical specialty. Well-intentioned parents provide children with a blitz of after-school activities. Yet today's kindergartners, Bertman says, bite more pencils and have more stress-related headaches and stomach aches than those of a generation ago. From fast food restaurants to drive-through funeral homes, we strive to make the most of each minute. Global economies and round-the-clock businesses blur distinctions between day and night. Just-in-time delivery is now routine. All these activities, he suggests, redefine the term "human race." The power of now, however, stops at the bedroom door. Humans can run faster, but they haven't discovered ways to sleep faster. That's not to say people aren't trying: Americans continue to sleep less than their parents, even as complaints about poor sleep soar. The immutability of our biology argues for resisting the power of now in other areas of our lives. Living for the present, Bertman concedes, adds excitement to our lives. But suppressing the past and the future also deprives us of lessons of the past, and robs us of a sense of continuity that could otherwise stabilize and strengthen our lives. "We can, as individuals," he says, "slow the pace of our lives by deliberate choice." That's something to sleep on. |
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