Slow Down if you want to Save the World
Nature never hurries, yet much is accomplished. – Lao Tzu
My brother was doing some research on voter interest on the environment and climate action. It seemed to come down to this: when economic times were good in rich countries people had the “luxury” of actually caring and demanding legislation to deal with these issues. On the other hand, if you are poor, living in a 3rd world country or there is high inflation [like now!] or high unemployment, even if you live in a “rich” country, voter engagement on the environment and climate action drops to nothing. It seems that with the war in Ukraine, inflation and general negative “everything is wrong” attitude that we are now in such a time. Why is that? What can we do about it?
Well, fortunately 2 psychologists did an experiment that partially answers that question.
In 1973, John Darley and Daniel Batson, two Princeton University psychologists, conducted a social experiment inspired by the biblical story of The Good Samaritan. This New Testament story is a familiar one – a lone traveler has been beaten and left for dead by robbers on the road between Jerusalem and Jericho. Both a priest and a Levite – two religiously pious and morally upright men – come upon the helpless man on separate occasions, and neither stop to assist. Finally, a Samaritan man, a member of what was a socially despised and religiously unclean sect of people in Jewish culture, comes on the scene, “bound up his wounds” and took him to an inn to rest and heal. In the end, the parable obliterates all social and religious expectations as the religious men whose faith in God demands they stop and offer help to the oppressed failed to do so, while the least likely of characters acted with lavish generosity.
Darley and Batson met with a group of Princeton Theological Seminary students and asked half of the them to prepare a short talk on employment opportunities for divinity students after graduation, and the other half to prepare a talk on the parable of The Good Samaritan. The subjects were then told they would need to walk across campus to another building in order to present their talk to a group of divinity students. A significant variable was introduced into the experiment – some presenters were told they were running late and needed to hurry across campus, and some were told they had a few minutes to spare and did not need to rush. Strategically placed on campus was a man who appeared to have been mugged, and as each theological student made their way across campus they would encounter him slumped in an alley, head down, coughing and groaning, in desperate need of assistance. The purpose of the experiment was to find out who would stop to help, who would not stop, and why. One would assume given the fact that these test subjects were seminary students, and should therefore hold to a high theological standard of compassion and mercy, that all of them would stop to help a man who seems to be in need.
The results, however, are stunning, and are largely governed by one mitigating factor – whether they were in a hurry to get across campus or not. All of the students were well versed in The Good Samaritan, and many of them were preparing to give a talk on the subject, yet of the ones who were told they were running late, only 10% stopped to help the man in need on campus. Of the group who knew they had a few minutes to spare, 63% stopped to offer aid.
What this study suggests is that at times, when hurried or rushed, the beliefs we hold to are not necessarily translated into the actions of our behavior. It exposes a group of people who theologically align with the concepts of compassion and mercy, yet when set in a context of hurry, rush and busyness, become indifferent to the sufferings of those around them. It shows that pace of life can play a large role in whether or not we authentically demonstrate what we declare to be true. This simple study reveals a profound truth about the current rhythm of many of our lives – we’re too busy, we’re too hurried and we’re too rushed. We’re so overloaded with schedules that we lose focus of what’s really important. For many of us, our current pace of life leaves little room for us to be ambassadors of reconciliation and agents of hope. [1]
Astounding, isn’t it? Only when we are not over whelmed, in this case by time, do we have the “bandwidth” to do the right thing. Just knowing and believing in the right thing is NOT enough. The experiment is clear, if you and I want to actually be able to have an impact we must, as a first step, slow down and have time to smell the roses, so that we have the “luxury” of time to reflect.
This experiment reminds of a modern children’s fairy tale by a German writer called Michael Ende. He may be known to you from the kids movie “The Never Ending Story”, but he wrote an even better book called “Momo”. It is the tale of a homeless girl living in an old Roman amphitheatre in Italy who sees all her friends sell out to ….. well, I don’t want to tell you much more, except to say that it involves Father Time and slowing down to find out what is really going on. So, what are YOU DOING to slow down? In what way are YOU BEING a Good Samaritan?
References
https://jasonjohnsonblog.com/blog/too-busy-to-be-a-good-samaritan#.YytW0HbMLIU=
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