Slow food, of course, but also Slow sex, Slow money and Cittaslow. In short, slowness as a lifestyle and moral code, in an era, the XNUMXst century, which is increasingly fast. This is the objective of “Slow. Slow down to live better” by Sylvain Menetrey, costume and culture journalist, e Stephane Szerman, philosopher, psychotherapist and coach, published by Egea.
A guide to the discovery of an increasingly important reality, based on a few fundamental points: being sensitive to the seasons, regaining awareness of distances, developing knowledge of the products and the environment in which we live, in short, living at a natural pace, while everything it goes beyond the threshold where acceleration, long considered synonymous with progress and well-being, becomes toxic, with negative consequences on our living conditions.
“We are in the presence – writes Domenico De Masi in the essay that introduces the book – of a new post-industrial paradigm, of a new model of life, as opposed to the industrial one of the fast galaxy that dominated for two hundred years, a model necessary to recover the sense of things, thoughts, feelings and fueled by the culture of slowness understood as a sweet attitude towards life and its infinite pleasures”.
It is a series of movements born out of reaction: from Slow Food, in fact, founded in the late XNUMXs by Carlo Petrini, its current president, in Cittaslow, also born in Italy, in the late XNUMXs, on the initiative of some mayors (Greve in Chianti, Orvieto, Bra, Positano) who wanted to apply the Slow principles to urban centres, in order to strengthen local democracy, improve the quality of life of the inhabitants and promote their own peculiarities, also in this case in opposition with the speed that distinguishes the metropolis.
Around these movements revolves a galaxy of others, more recent and less structured, from Slow Money (whose goal is to catalyze investments in projects linked to local organic food production and fits in the wake of ethical finance) to Slow Education (born to encourage a more personalized education, which takes into greater consideration the rhythms and attitudes of each student), passing through Slow Tourism, Slow Sex, Slow Management, Slow Design, Slow Book, Slow Media and others.
“But”, ask the two authors, “are we ready to slow down, to give up this speed that we accuse of all evil, to turn off all these technological toys that accompany us?”.
