FRIDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 2009	INDEX
Walking back to hippyness? I was never a particularly fast walker, but over the years I've noticed that I have been getting slower relative to the speed travelled by Londoners. Until recently I put this down to ageing. I thought I was simply getting slower. But there may be another cause. Dealing With Time (Director Xavier Marquis/ producer Bruno Nahon) says there is scientific proof the pace of modern life is quicker than it was a decade ago. Apparently the speed of urban pedestrians is being monitored and it is getting faster... Modern life presents many ironies. For example our cities are cleaner and less polluted than ever, yet we are more concerned about damage to the environment than we have ever been. Mechanisation has automated many tasks and made most of the remaining work much quicker and easier, yet a higher percentage of the under 60s and over 20s work than ever before and we are working long hours, perhaps even longer than a generation ago. Almost everyone I know is busy almost all the time. Yet the press says there are millions of couch potatoes out there watching tv 30 hours a week or more. It is very odd that we seem to be putting more pressure on ourselves and are taking the benefits of scientific and technological progress in terms of additional wealth rather than extra leisure hours. Is this a conscious choice? Are people spurning leisure and driving themselves harder in pursuit of some material gain? I can't remember anyone ever asking my opinion on the subject. Mind you, I can't remember anybody asking me my opinion about most things....
FRIDAY, 20 NOVEMBER 2009	INDEX