我们的社会正在变得越来越荒谬，越来越离谱，大众则变得越来越心浮气躁，粗俗鄙陋，拿什么来挽救这个时代？美国作家Janet Mendell Goldstein敏锐的抓住了问题的核心 ，看到现代社会凸显出的三大问题： Now instead of later 不等将来，只求现在 Faster instead of slower不再缓慢，快快益善 Superficially instead of thoroughly不求透彻只求浅薄。怎么解决，读一读这篇文章，你会找到答案。
Quick Fix Society
Janet Mendell Goldstein
1. My husband and I just got back from a week's vacation in West Virginia. Of course, we couldn't wait to get there, so we took the Pennsylvania Turnpike and a couple of
interstates. "Look at those gorgeous farms!" my husband exclaimed as pastoral scenery slid by us at 55 mph. "Did you see those cows?" But at 55 mph, it's difficult to see anything; the gorgeous farms look like moving green checkerboards, and the herd of cows is reduced to a few dots in the rear-view mirror. For four hours, our only real amusement consisted of counting exit signs and wondering what it would feel like to hold still again. Getting there certainly didn't seem like half the fun; in fact, getting there wasn't any fun at all.
2. So, when it was time to return to our home outside of Philadelphia, I insisted that we take a different route. "Let's explore that countryside," I suggested. The two days it took us to make the return trip were filled with new experiences. We toured a Civil War battlefield and stood on the little hill that fifteen thousand Confederate soldiers had tried to take on another hot July afternoon, one hundred and twenty-five years ago, not knowing that half of them would get killed in the vain attempt. We drove slowly through main streets of sleepy Pennsylvania Dutch towns, slowing to twenty miles an hour so as not to crowd the horses and horse carriages on their way to market. We admired toy trains and antique cars in county museums and saved 70 percent in factory outlets. We stuffed ourselves with spicy salads and homemade bread in an "all-you-can-eat" farmhouse restaurant, then wandered outside to enjoy the sunshine and the herds of cows — no little dots this time — lying in it. And we returned home refreshed, revitalized, and reeducated. This time, getting there had been the fun.
3. Why is it that the featureless turnpikes and interstates are the routes of choice for so many of us? Why doesn't everybody try slowing down and exploring the countryside? But more and more, the fast lane seems to be the only way for us to go. In fact, most Americans are constantly in a hurry — and not just to get from Point A to Point B. Our country has become a nation in search of the quick fix — in more ways than one.
4. Now instead of later: Once upon a time, Americans understood the principle of deferred gratification. We put a little of each paycheck away "for a rainy day". If we wanted a new sofa or a week at a lakeside cabin, we saved up for it, and the banks helped us out by providing special Christmas Club and Vacation Club accounts. If we lived in the right part of the country, we planted corn and beans and waited patiently for the harvest. If we wanted to be thinner, we simply ate less of our favorite foods and waited patiently for the scale to drop, a pound at a time. But today we aren't so patient. We take out loans instead of making deposits, or we use our credit card to get that furniture or vacation trip — relax now, pay later. We buy our food, like our clothing, ready-made and off the rack. And if we're in a hurry to lose weight, we try the latest miracle diet, guaranteed to take away ten pounds in ten days... unless we're rich enough to afford liposuction.
5. Faster instead of slower: Not only do we want it now; we don't even want to be kept waiting for it. This general impatience, the "I-hate-to-wait" attitude, has infected every level of our lives. Instead of standing in line at the bank, we withdraw twenty dollars in as many seconds from an automatic teller machine. Then we take our fast money to a fast convenience store (why wait in line at the supermarket?), where we buy a frozen dinner all wrapped up and ready to be put into the microwave... unless we don't care to wait even that long and pick up some fast food instead. And if our fast meal doesn't agree with us, we hurry to the medicine cabinet for — you guessed it — some fast relief. We like fast pictures, so we buy Polaroid cameras. We like fast entertainment, so we record our favorite TV show on the VCR. We like our information fast, too: messages flashed on a computer screen, documents faxed from your telephone to mine, current events in 90-second bursts on Eyewitness News, history reduced to "Bicentennial Minutes". Symbolically, the American eagle now flies for Express Mail. How dare anyone keep America waiting longer than overnight?
6. Superficially instead of thoroughly: What's more, we don't even want all of it. Once, we lingered over every word of a classic novel or the latest best seller. Today, since faster is better, we read the condensed version or put a tape of the book into our car's tape player to listen to on the way to work. Or we buy the Cliff's Notes, especially if we are students, so we don't have to deal with the book at all. Once, we listened to every note of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Today, we don't have the time; instead, we can enjoy 26 seconds of that famous "da-da-da-DUM" theme — and 99 other musical excerpts almost as famous — on our "Greatest Moments of the Classics" CD. After all, why waste 45 minutes listening to the whole thing when someone else has saved us the trouble of picking out the best parts? Our magazine articles come to us pre-digested in Reader's Digest. Our news briefings, thanks to USA Today, are more brief than ever. Even our personal relationships have become compressed. Instead of devoting large parts of our days to our loved ones, we replace them with something called "quality time", which, more often than not, is no time at all. As we rush from book to music to news item to relationship, we do not realize that we are living our lives by the iceberg principle — paying attention only to the top and ignoring the 8/9 that lies just below the surface.
7. When did it all begin, this urge to do it now, to get it over with, to skim the surface of life? Why are we in such a hurry to save time? And what are we going to do with all the time we save besides, of course, rushing out to save some more? The sad truth is that we don't know how to use the time we save, because all we're good at is saving time... not spending time.
8. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we should go back to growing our own vegetables or making our own clothes. I'm not even advocating a mass movement to cut all our credit cards into little pieces. But I am saying that all of us need to think more seriously about putting the brakes on our "we-want-it-all-and-we-want-it-now" lifestyle before we speed completely out of control. Let's take the time to read every word of that story, hear every note of that music, and enjoy every subtle change of that countryside. Let's rediscover life in the slow lane.
第九课 快节奏的社会
1. 我和丈夫在西弗吉尼亚度过了一周刚刚回来。当然，出发前我们迫不及待的想要到那，所以，我们去到宾夕法尼亚收费高速公路和几条洲际高速公路。“看那些美丽的牧场！”当田园风光以每小时55英里的速度从我们身边闪过时，我的丈夫高喊道：“你看到那些奶牛了吗？”但是每小时55英里的前进速度让我们很难看清楚任何事物;美丽的农场在后视镜中成了移动的绿色棋盘，成群的奶牛也缩成了小小的圆点儿。4个小时里我们唯一的消遣就是不断的数出口的标志，憧憬着车子再次体停下来时我们将拥有的感觉。当然去那儿的旅行不如预期的快乐，实际上，毫无快乐可言。
2. 因此，当我们要返回坐落在费城外的家时，我坚持走一条不同的路线。我建议说：“我们领略一下乡村风景吧。”两天的返程充满了新鲜奇特的经历。我们去参观了内战的战场，我们站在一座小山上，125年前，正是在那里，在一个同样炎热的7月下午，15,000的南部邦联士兵企图将它占领，却没想到自己会失败且牺牲半数。我们还在幽静的宾夕法尼亚荷兰小镇的大街上慢慢前行，为了不和去市场路上的马匹和车辆挤在一块，我们的车速见到了20英里每小时。在线博物馆离我们欣赏了玩具火车和老爷车，在工厂门市部购买我们节省下来70%的钱。我们在一家自助农家饭馆饱餐了风味沙拉和自制面包，然后我们到了。然后我们回到家，注入了活力，恢复了精力，重新体验了一次新生活。这次途中真是妙趣横生。
3. 那为什么我们大多数人会选择这种毫无意义而言的高速公路或州际公路呢？人们为什么不试着放慢脚步来欣赏一下乡村的风光呢 ？渐渐地，快车道似乎成为我们唯一能走的路。实际上，美国人市中匆匆忙忙棗不仅是从甲地到乙地。我们的国家已变成了一个多方面追求快节奏的国家。
4. 不等将来，只求现在：以前美国人懂得减缓欲望的原则。我们回从工资中省出一部分以备不时只需，比如我恩想买一个沙发或向在湖边的小木屋里住上一周，我们会是先把钱攒出，并且银行也会向我们提供圣诞俱乐部和独家俱乐部的特别储蓄帐户。如果我们住在适宜的地方，会种植玉米和大豆并且耐心地等到丰收。如果我们想变苗条我们可以采取最简单的方式，少吃我们喜欢的食物并且耐心的等待体重一磅一磅地减下去。但如今我们不再如以前有耐心了。我们不再储蓄，而是贷款，或使用信用卡买家具，度假，采取超前消费棗先享受后付款。想买服装一样，我们可以直接从货架上购买到我们所需要的食物。如果我们急于减肥，我们可以尝试最新的神奇减肥餐，保证10天内减掉10磅……加入前足够多，我们还可以做吸脂减肥。
5. 不再缓慢，快快益善：我们想立刻拥有，甚至刻不容缓。之中普遍“讨厌等待”的浮躁心态影响我们的方方面面。我们可以用几秒钟在自动提款机内取到20美元而不必去银行排队等候。接着我们拿着我们快速从银行取出的这些钱到一家便利店（为什么要在超市排队等候呢？），在那里我们可以买到自己打好包的只需微波炉加热的速冻晚餐棗如果我们不介意等一会儿，我们还可以去吃快餐。如果我们吃了快餐觉得不舒服，赶紧去药品柜棗你已经于想到了棗吃些可迅速缓解痛苦的药。我们喜欢一次成像的照片，所以买宝丽来相机。我们喜欢快捷娱乐，所以把最喜欢的电视节目用录像机记录下来。我们当然也喜欢快捷的信息：电脑屏幕上的信息，电话一端到另一端的传真文件，在“募集新闻”栏目中90秒内的事实报道，概括为“200年纪录”的历史。最有象征性的是以美国鹰为标志的快递邮件，有谁胆敢让美国人等到第二天？
6. 不求透彻只求浅薄：还有，我们不仅讲求速度，甚至只想知道大意而非全部。我们曾经对古典小说或近期畅销书爱不释手而沉浸其中。而如今由于越快越好的观念，我们会读浓缩版或去工作的途中在车上听这本书的录音剪辑。我们，尤其是学生，买克里夫斯的评论而不用去读整本书。以前我们会聆听贝多芬《第五交响曲》的每一个音符，现在我们没有时间，我们可以听26秒长的著名“哒椷者諚嘟”乐曲主旋律的CD上面还有其他99首名曲子片段。毕竟，已经有人为我们精选出了最好的部分，我们为什么还要浪费45分钟去听整首曲子呢？我们在《读者文摘》中读到的文章已经是被摘选过了的。有了《今日美国》这份报纸，我们的键名新闻一比以前更加简明。甚至连我们人与人之间的关系也变得简单了。我们不再把大部分时间用到亲人身上，而是利用所谓的“专门时间”，大多是根本没有时间。当我们忙碌与书籍，音乐，新闻甚至人际关系中时，我们没有意识到我们生活在“冰山准则”之中棗之中肤浅的表面，却忽视了下面近8/9的深刻内涵。
7. 这种急功近利，急于求成，不求甚解，略知一二的生活态度是什么时候开始的呢？为省时间我们疲于奔命到底，到底为什么？除了用来节约更多时间，我们省出来的时间用来做什么？令人感到悲哀的事实是：我们不知道怎样利用我们省下来的时间，而不善于利用时间。
8. 请不要误解我，我没有想回到过去万事都自己动手，自给自足的日子的意思，也不提倡毁掉所有信用卡。在这种“我们都想要，并且马上要”的生活方式没有失控之前，我们应该认真思考来抑制一下。让我们一字一句地仔细地阅读一个故事，把一首歌从头到尾听完，把乡村的每一寸土地的微妙变化尽览无余。让我们把车开到慢车道上，重新发现生活的快乐吧！
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