Why We Must Look at the World

This last weekend in Saigon was an exercise in mindlessness and cacophony. I felt overwhelmed; like I was standing in the wrong place at each turn. Because of this sensation, I felt an inner call to return to being more mindful about the small things.

Here are 10 things that I learned:

  1. I have allowed too much of my life to be led in an un-mindful manner. This can lead to quick intolerance, easy judgment, increased self-concern and a desire for simplistic change. To be mindful of the moment—given the limited time we are given—means to embrace what is and to attempt to change less. Be patient. Allow things to be exactly what they are and participate in their ongoing transformation.
  2. This helped me to better understand the mission of The School of Slow Media (SoSM). I concluded, yet again, that I do not have much confidence in our individual capacity to change large systems in our lifetime — you could say I remain agnostic (or at least have immense misgivings) about our modern, self-appointed roles of messianic “changemakers.” However, I do believe we have a responsibility to look at life as it is, and that the only way that true and lasting positive change becomes possible is when we contemplate what is, before we try to transform it. So we must first look.
  3. Our goal at SoSM is to help people slow down as an act of resistance and life-affirming practice. This means that our target group is the overwhelmed, the disillusioned, the disenfranchised, those who yearn for higher quality of life by choosing less.
  4. We must learn to be more humble: less ambitious in scope, less “life-changing” in our aim, and, rather, attempt to do a few things well. Our goal is to help people slow down and see better. Do we believe that storytelling can create social impact? Perhaps. Is that where we want to put our efforts? No. We believe that this is a time when we must carefully resist the temptation of brandishing story as a “tool for change” like its a panacea. Instead, we must focus on it as a way of sharing life and being- together— a practice that equips us to choose humanizing ways of existing in this world. A way to attune ourselves to the lives of others. Storytelling is a craft and practice that can help catalyze transformation in the space between people (keeping in mind that “change” can be positive, negative or both). In the end, storytelling cannot build a school, feed a person or create policy changes. It can merely be a tool to recalibrate our understanding of reality.
  5. We cannot deny the raw reality that limited time, resources and capacity lead to very stressful processes of media-making. But we mix it with an adamant call to STOP! LISTEN! LOOK! that forces us to take stock of what the moment is asking of us. Practically speaking this makes our school unique because of what I call the “sprints-to-slow” structure of our curriculum and experience. Our aim then is to pay attention to the imperative to observe and describe the world before imposing labels of “purpose”, “transformation” or “impact” onto what is is unfolding before us. This takes time.
  6. Ultimately, it is an exercise in contrasts.  This “sprints-to-slow” dynamic is already built-into our program but now we are continuing to refine how it will be the distinguishing feature of the school. The way sea salt makes a chocolate chip cookie taste orgasmic. Or silence punctuates a percussive moment of staccato drums and makes it feel more explosive and emotive. It is the juxtaposition of mindfulness and creative frenzy that makes our program stand out. It is powerful because it mimics life as we live it without resorting to escapism or fatalism.
  7. Festina Lente. “Make Haste Slowly.” This brings us back to Mindfulness as the tool we have chosen to help us slow down and contemplate a fast paced world. Mindfulness practice can be posited as an act of resistance for our community of resistance. We believe this can lead to more mindful media-making.
  8. If this is really the case then we need to invest more time, money and capacity-building into mindfulness. We need to finish our books, discuss them, internalize them and take our daily practice—as a company and community—more seriously.
  9. All of this should lead us to further examine the relationship of the human being to technology and silence, amongst other things. It should also lead us to examine the relationship between information → contemplation → action. This is, admittedly, more cyclical than a linear relationship.
  10. The School of Slow Media is that space for active contemplation. A space to examine our relationship — as practitioners and as a creative community — to reality first, our capacity to communicate it, and the possibility of change based on that consciousness.

Philosophical Postscript

I’m thinking of the pre-socratic philosopher Gorgias, a favorite of mine during university.

He argued “first, that nothing exists; second, that even if existence exists, it is inapprehensible to humans; and third, that even if existence is apprehensible, it certainly cannot be communicated or interpreted to one’s neighbors.”

In a Trump-shadowed world, where people are losing hope and don’t know whom to trust, the call to look at the world as it is may be a brave one.

It’s certainly difficult to do. It is a call to continually refuse to look away in disgust or frustration but simply gaze at what is happening to us all. This is a necessary beginning.

I believe this line of thinking will resonate with people more than a facile or hyper-optimistic call to change the world at large. Hope arises when we boldly grasp what afflicts us, unites us and how together these define us.

Naive idealism is the quickest way to becoming a veiled fatalist. 

It is the easiest way to set ourselves up for failure, and by demanding the impossible, missing what is possible and in front of us.

We at SoSM believe that the world exists. We believe that we can apprehend it and embrace it. We believe that we must face it as a community. And finally, we believe it can be communicated and interpreted with our neighbors.

Much more than that we cannot say, but that is a big beginning. This, we also believe, marks the beginning of wisdom.