Gaston Roberge:Speed --Ethics and Aesthetics

"In Blake's phrase, the doors of Vermeer's perception..." Aldous Huxley (2) 1. speed, felt, experienced, speed, perceived with the inner senses the door to that inner perception of speed is stasis the stasis of self when that shines, everything shines says a verse from the Mundaka Upanishad (3) but when that rests, everything moves for a while reduce visual stimuli reduce discourse to the sound of OM OM OM OM while our minds rest in stasis a singer sings, modulating speed we surf on the wave of his song * * * * * 2. i am the site of an infinite variety of speeds from slow to fast it speeds within me breathing in and out blood flowing nervous impulses firing of brain cells each organ has its own speed as required by its function it speeds also outside me wind clouds rivers fire animals birds and insects humans atoms light each has its own speed as required by its function finally the environment, i within it speeds away towards unknown ports while planet earth spinning on its axis voyages round the sun and drags along its indifferent moon * * * * * 3. all speeds are fixed or fluctuate within fixed limits all speeds are functional determined by the nature and function of the speeding body this might generate predictability and monotony but since each speed is in harmony with the rest there results a grand polyphony a cosmic ballet * * * * * 4. within that cosmic ballet humans have the astounding power to create speeds that are free from any function and can be modulated in arts like, music, verses, songs, dances and films for the sake of beauty for the sake of joy like Lord Shiva, the eternal dancer humans too can dance in freedom * * * * * 5. yet men and women today find it difficult to stop and to rest in stasis (4) in order to appreciate and to create the speeds of art to illustrate: four of us friends had gone out in a car for a ride just to escape just to be together so, we rushed through a short cut to a certain road where we intended to have our ride but on that road the traffic was very intense we could not cruise as fast as my friends desired so my friends became fidgety, unhappy and they decided to go back home at once -what's the hurry, i asked naively -well, we have to reach home -but why, what shall we do at home ? -we shall sit together and talk -but, said i, we are sitting together and we talk -that's different, i was told * * * * * 6. one day i was guiding two visitors from outside india to the taj mahal, in agra, india as soon as we reached the site they said -so, that's the taj -yes, i said proudly and they -where are we going now ? of course, they took some photographs presumably for deferred contemplation * * * * * 7. what has happened to us ? we always had an ecological sense that made us feel perfectly in step with the cosmic ballet for instance, there is an ancient religious poem in which a man in great suffering shouts unto god his anguish why ? he asks and god replies who are you to ask ? can you guide the stars season by season ? (5) thus, over 2000 years ago already people felt intuitively that somehow humans have something to do with the speed of the stars * * * * * 8. that ecological sense has not deserted us ask a scientist today can you guide the stars season by season ? he is likely to reply why the stars ? we guide sub-atomic particles we fire them we accelerate them we measure their spin well knowing that for a change in the spin of a particle the universe is affected (6) true scientists are mostly poets but beware of science devoid of poetry for it leads to pathology (7) * * * * * 9. each period of history has had a dominating science complete with its ideological cocoon there was biology - Darwin there was physics - Einstein the dominating science now is economics with the present market ideology that ideology induces desire in us and speed that is not functional or modulated is desire rushing in space a terror where desire has no object and can never be satiated * * * * * 10. after four decades of so-called development under the market ideology there are today     more poor more sick (with new sicknesses too!) more illiterate more homeless people than ever before in the history of humankind and worldwide 25% of the men women and youths who would work are jobless sacrificed on the altar of the market the incas of ancient mexico who used to sacrifice humans to maintain the stability of their order would look at us with horror if they had not long been eliminated in the name of civilisation * * * * * 11. if we disconnect, disengage ourselves from the market ideology we can again appreciate the wisdom of functional speed the poetry of modulated speed and we can heal or wounded dignity * * * * * 12. since speed that is not functional or modulated is desire rushing in space we must create inner spaces free of desire free of the din of the media the harbingers of the market ideology free of agitation and where stasis is again possible * * * * * 13. we create such inner spaces by means of affirmation for instance, i affirm, my care for the environment by freely not smoking * * * * * 14. i affirm my love for all living beings and my abhorrence of violence by freely not eating meat and fish * * * * * 15. i affirm my freedom from the transnationals and my distance from the system they enforce by freely abstaining from a particular consumer produce a soft drink, for instance * * * * * 16. such affirmations with their concomitant abstentions are not hostile they are not against any one and above all they are not expressions of hatred * * * * * 17. they are steps to an ecology of mind in step with the cosmic ballet (8) they are personal sacraments that is, signs that do what they mean metaphors meant they remind us that we disagree they maintain within a small area of protest and they keep alive our perception they constitute the ethics and aesthetics of speed * * * * * 18. if we are somehow slaves of the market ideology it is because we have not taken steps to free ourselves (9) if we take but one step now, we shall soon dance * * * * * 19. step in now i wish you godspeed, self-speed * * * * * 20. speed on * * * * * 21. peace * * * * * 22. OM * * * * * 23. shanti * * * * *

Notes: 1. For the sake of brevity, the sections of the text in italics were not read at the 8 November 1996 performance. The text was spoken with a number of pauses indicated by the stars. * * * * * During these pauses of 5 to 15 seconds a recorded song was heard: a "khayal" interpreted by Bhimsen Joshi on the raga "lalit", from a live recording of 1991 at Liederhalle Stuttgart, (Digital CD Chhanda Dhara SNCD70392). 2.Huxley, Aldous: "The Doors of Perception,: 1972 3.The Mundaka Upanishad, in The Upanishads., breath of the eternal. The Principal Texts selected and translated from the Original Sanskrit by Swami Prabhavananda and Frederick Manchester. A Mentor Book, 1975, p. 46 4."The sum of evil, Pascal remarked, would be much diminished if men could only learn to sit quietly in their rooms." Aldous Huxley, op. cit. 5.The Bible, The Book of Job, Chapter 38, verse 32 6.In his PensŽes, Blaise Pascal had said similarly that the ocean is changed for one drop of water thrown into it. 7.Bateson, Gregory: Steps to an Ecology of Mind. A revolutionary approach to man's understanding of himself. Ballantine, N.Y. 1972 8.Gregory Bateson quoted by Anthony Wilden: The Rules of are no Game, The Strategy of Communication, London, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1987, p 298 9.Moses Coady, leader of the cooperative movement in Canada, has said "If the masses of the people have become, in a sense, slaves, it is because they have not taken the steps or expended the effort necessary to change society." Quoted by David Bedford and Sidney Pobihyshchy in "Towards a People's Economy: The Co-op. Atlantic Experience", Interculture, Vol xxvi, No. 3, Summer 1993, issue # 120.]