Modern life seems fast-paced, yet largely immobile. I sit behind a desk most of the day (with the exception of the times I’m running from one unit to the next; but even then, my movements are confined to a narrow spot). And when I do need to change locations, I sit in a car or bus to do so. Hence, I’m never really actively moving in any of these given situations, I’m just being sort of passively transported so I can resume my stationary posture at another location. Nevertheless, I feel an unyielding sense of urgency throughout much of the day. The hours are going by quickly, even as I’m doing nothing of interest. Sometimes, I find myself suddenly getting up with a great leap of determination and purpose, eagerly entering an adjacent room, only to have my mind completely space out on what it was exactly I wanted to do/get from therein. (Which then, of course, leaves me with the awkward burden of having to invent some sort of rationale for my behavior by picking up something irrelevant, or curiously looking over some item or another, lest I feel misplaced for entering a room for no reason. And I do this despite being aware fully that there is no one around to judge my odd behavior.)
Throughout most of human history, I imagine the norm was the other way around; life was largely slow-paced, but highly mobile. If all you did for a lifetime was work in the field from dawn to dusk (as some of my cousins out in the country still do), your day was fairly monotone, though very active; leaving the body too tired for any odd quirks in mannerisms. Modern life is also tiring, but our mental sensory is also overstimulated. My attention span has been greatly warped by the one-click, multitasking nature of what passes for a normal work day, that I find it hard to sit through a whole television program without feeling the desire to pause and do something unrelated for a second or two, before returning to the program (I imagine this is why online viewing is so much more appealing these days–it gives a greater impression of control to the audience).
It’s not ADD or ADHD, by any means, because it’s not about focus, but speed (or the illusion thereof). Like changing gears on a highway to match the speed of the other cars around you; everything around me seems to be going at full speed, causing me to increase my pace just to appease the high-speed environment I’m finding myself in. Yet, as I said before, daily life is largely immobile. Therefore, what I’m left with is this mental impression, this urgency, to act on something or another, but find the lack of motility and space offered by modern life insufficient in satisfying this urge.
It is an illusion of urgency, where none may even exist. And even though I recognize the superficiality of this on a conscious level, on some prime impulse I can’t help but feel relentlessly anxious to both slow down and speed up at the same time. With contradictory impulses like this plaguing the mind, it’s no surprise that the psychiatric and psychedelic industry–is there any longer a difference between the two?–is recession-proof.
KRONSTADT REVOLT 