Infinite Browsing Mode comes with a cost: When we spend our time frantically seeking out new experiences, we miss out on the deeper experiences that can only arise from sticking with something for a long time.

Susan Clark and Woden Teachout have proposed Slow Democracy—the local, community-based form of politics that runs counter to the spectatorial mass politics of cable news debate shows and presidential campaign ads. There’s even Slow Gaming—a call for video games that are more humane, more reflective, and more personal.

Thirty years later, a wave of “Slow” movements have spread to dozens of other areas of life. Architect John Brown has proposed Slow Home—an antidote to cheap and easy suburban sprawl. Psychologist David Tresemer has proposed Slow Counseling—an antidote to “one pill fits all”

People want to be held accountable, because accountability gives us meaning.

But this Culture of Open Options is not a neutral holding pattern. It’s a culture that arranges our economy against loyalty to particulars: particular neighborhoods, particular people, particular missions. It’s a culture that substitutes a morality of honor—guiding people toward the good and away

The liberatory spirit of our age has helped us tear down bad institutions, but it hasn’t helped build up new ones. It has helped avoid some tragedies, but it hasn’t built global peace. It has helped diagnose the maladies of our time, but it hasn’t figured out a cure.

from the bad—for a morality of indifference. It’s a culture that educates for advancement—résumé building and the ladder of success—over attachment: to crafts, causes, and communities of competence.

Caught between liberation and dedication, we are glad to not be rigid, and yet we pine for a more solid life amid the dizzying flow.

“What the son wishes to forget the grandson wishes to remember.”