Reactions to the Pace of Change

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“Happiness is What isn’t Availableat any Shopping Mall”A decrease in the demand for heating, anti-depressants,liver operations, or cold counters is hardly tobe expected. But the demand for the natural, theindigenous and, above everything else, for alternativeoptions will increase.The number of health food stores has increased sincethe 60s, the number of societies for the conservationof nature has increased, 19) young medical studentsdemand alternatives to chemical medicine, and thesales of ecological goods are stable. Since 1988, thenumber of ecological farms in Denmark has increasedfrom 219 to 3300 in 1999, in 1999 the production ofecological milk was 393 million kilos as opposed to39 million kilos in 1993, and the stock of ecologicalhens has risen proportionally from 11,693 in 1989to 495,497 in 1998. 20)In The Dream Society, Rolf Jensen describes howour need for having goods told and staged should beintensified and connected with the experience ofauthenticity, rawness, ecology etc. 21) The importantaspect is here to get the feeling of having “dirtiedone’s hands,” of dealing with an exciting reality, andof facing a huge drama.The culture critic Hans Magnus Enzensberger writesin an essay on luxury about reminiscences of abundance:“Luxury has…fallen prey to entropy, to thelaws that govern the equalization of extremes, tosimilarity and uniformity. In all former societies,abundance and wastefulness were the exceptionto the rule. But exactly the fact that luxury left alleveryday norms behind was the reason for its gloryand prestige. Mass production has secured its greatesttriumph and simultaneously signalled its decline…The morgues of luxury are either called Duty FreeShop or Shopping Mall.” 22)Having accounted for how we always turn our backson everything that is abundant – luxury negates itselfin the sense that what is owned by everybodycannot be seen as being special or interesting anylonger – Hans Magnus Enzensberger describes theluxuries of the future as being: “New priorities…scarce,rare and expensive benefits, elementary living conditionssuch as peace and quiet, clean water and adequatespace…Future luxuries part with that which issuperfluous and strive for the necessary, which wemay fear will only be at the disposal of a happy few.What really matters is not on sale in any Duty FreeShop”… Hans Magnus Enzensberger then speaksof: Time, attention, space, peace and quiet, environment,and security.“The future of luxury is not, as formerly, acquiringmore, but acquiring less, not piling up, but peelingoff. It will no longer demand an audience, rather itwill exclude it. Its logic will be just that: to becomeinvisible. In such a withdrawal from life, luxury wouldseem to remain faithful to its origin because it hasalways been warring with the principle of reality.”In many cases this means that a smaller amount willbe offered at a higher price.“Our lives today are marked by ubiquitous plumbing,central heating and music from loudspeakers, and bymankind being healthier and having a longer life expectancythan before. But the important things in life arestill birth and death, love and friendship, loyalty andother people, and the feeling of using oneself well inlife. And in that sense we are no different from peopleliving 200 years ago,” Tor Nørretranders thinks similarly. 23)Reactions to the pace of changeThe past stirs sentimentality in us when it is so distantthat it is almost gone, and in no way presses itselfupon us.We have several ways in which we preserve originalityin modern society. Three categories could be:History, nature and traditions.HistoryMuseums are places where “the authentic” is preserved.Either because it is old or because it is rare. In 1961,7.5 million DKK were designated to preservation on theDanish annual budget, and this amount had increased to471 million DKK in 1998. Preserving the past grows proportionallywith the acceleration of the change of pace.Insisting on identity by way of historic behaviouris an example of seeing the historically original asbeing better, as possessing something which itwould be disastrous to lose.In Denmark, modern families are queuing up to livein the Iron Age. The Iron Age is represented by theIron Age Village in the Lejre Experimental Centre inLejre, Denmark, where families can live almost aspeople did then. That is, without rubber boots, stoves,refrigerators, or electric lighting etc.. Today thereare about 30 places in Denmark that attempt to bringhistory to life with workshops, reconstructions andplays about the Middle Ages.19) The number of members of The Danish Society for the Conservation of Nature went up from 50,000 in 1974 to 270,000 in 1988.Since then, the number of members has dropped steadily. But this should be viewed as the failure of the passive form of associationsrather than a lack of interest in nature. Source: Lars Bo Petersen, The Danish Society for the Conservation of Nature.20) Eco Web Denmark: Ecological farming in numbers – http://ecoweb.dk/tal/2ba.htm – and a listing of ecological farms with milk quotas.21) Rolf Jensen, The Dream Society: How the Coming Shift from Information to Imagination will Transform your Business (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1999)22) Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Zig Zag: The Politics of Culture and Vice Versa (1997; New Press, 1999)23) Article entitled “Nærvær fås ikke på computer” [Computers Provide no Presence] in Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende, December 18, 199912 R E A C T I O N S T O T H E P A C E O F C H A N G E
An interviewed test person at an Iron Age centresaid, “I got in touch with certain primitive instincts”…”When I am dressed in my historical costume I feeldifferent, not set back in time, but different in myroots. I feel Iron Age-like” – implying that this ispositive and authentic. 24)“These families of the past feel that they becomecloser to themselves, and that adults hand down truevalues to children: respecting things, knowing thatthey do not come easily but that one has to workfor them. That it is important to know where thingscome from, to help each other, to work together andenjoy what is at hand…touching the soil, what isright, healthy, growth, the crop, and the elements,”says anthropologist Johanne Steenstrup.One of the obvious benefits of a trip to the Iron AgeVillage is that reality becomes more transparent. Itbecomes more simple and one’s identity more apparent:It becomes obvious which skills and talentsone possesses. A good inventor or an expert on herbsand berries is respected. Families notice whetherother families’ children participate in the chores.The wave of nostalgia and retro comes also underthe heading of history: Selling the old days, even theBronze Age: The Aurion Bakery has launched a newcereal product, spelt. This cereal is treated as itwas 3000 years ago, and archaeologists have foundremnants of it from the later Bronze Age.At the end of the 90s, the UN opened an office forindigenous peoples and their rights. Primitive peoples’living conditions must be preserved at the lastminute or else there will be nothing left to preserve.NatureAs an apparent counterreaction to the large amountof time spent on digital distance-presence, Europeansincreasingly choose nature as their favourite sparetimewhereabouts, despite the fact that the numberof free-time activities in general has increased.• Whereas 90 % of the Danes visit the forest at leastonce a year, only 57 % visit the library, 45 % thecinema, and 32 % the theatre. Visitors to the forestemphasize the attraction of the silence. 25)• The hurricane in Northwest Europe in December1999 caused tumultuous reactions. Nature ruled,and its savagery was top news for a little while,and a rare experience.Biodiversity is threatened. Rain forests are replacedby deserts, and more and more species are either extinctor seriously endangered. Dying species are worthpreserving. The exception being diseases and bacteria,which we are fighting hard to conquer. Genetic technologywill advance certain genes and restrain others.But generally speaking, a selected part of biodiversityis worth preserving. And so we do so, in botanicalgardens and nature reserves. Botanical gardenshave set up banks for seeds and genes with the purposeof preserving threatened and rare plants. Dueto a special treatment, these seeds may keep theirviability and germinability over hundreds of years. 26)A Swedish survey from 1992 shows that childrenin nature kindergartens do better than children inordinary town kindergartens. Their well-being ismeasured in fewer sick days, better motor skills, anda better ability to concentrate. American scientistshave shown a parallel between well-being and nature.“Patients hospitalized in ordinary wards with a beautifulview of nature were in less need of pain-killingmedication and were discharged earlier than thosein wards without view of nature. Other scientists haveworked with nature as a “healer” of an increasinglycommon ailment called “psychological exhaustion”which is thought to originate from information overloadof the brain! People suffering from this diseasewere declared completely healthy after a stay in thewilderness!” 27)Considering the increase in visits to nature, naturekindergartens, and the free-time phenomenon of “enjoyingnature,” the psychologist William Hammit thinksthat inherent in this urge for the wilderness are needsfor psychological recreation. These are basically allcounterparts of modern city life. Two of these are:- Emotional relaxation: nobody watching orassessing one – a need which does not exactlyseem to be experiencing favourable winds withcheap network cameras in most public places.- Finding oneself, and one’s wishes, by way ofsolitude, because solitude is thought to stimulateone’s sense of self and self-respect. 28)C O P E N H A G E N I N S T I T U T E F O R F U T U R E S S T U D I E S24) Article entitled “Jeg kom ind til nogle urinstinkter” [I Got in Touch With my Primitive Instincts] in Danish newspaper Weekend Avisen,September 17, 199925) Danish Forest and Landscape Research Institute26) The idea of conserving nature arose simultaneously in a number of European countries and the US, which opened their first nationalpark in 1872. In Denmark, the Danish Society for the Conservation of Nature was founded in 1911, and the first law governing natureconservation was passed in 1917. This law was concerned with the protection of unique landscape values and the creation of recreationalareas for citizens. The Danish Outdoor Council was established in 1931, the World Wildlife Fund in 1961, and Greenpeace in 1971.In 1972, UNSCO was established with the purpose of protecting the world’s cultural and national heritage. Since 1989, the work carriedout by the Danish Ministry of Environmental Affairs to preserve nature has been supplemented with a new concept of “nature restoration.”In 1989, the UN adopted a resolution of biological diversity.27) http://www.dn.dk/natur_miljo/natborn.html28) http://www.isnet.com/home/getlost/kelly.html as well as article entitled “Isolation is the Answer” in Get Lost Adventure Magazine,getlost@isnet.comM E M B E R S R E P O R T 1 / 2 0 0 013
Page 1 and 2: 12 0 0 0Members ReportCOPENHAGENINS
Page 3 and 4: PrefaceReactions tothe Pace of Chan
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Page 7 and 8: 1086420BillionsWorld UrbanizationUr
Page 9 and 10: Seeing the foundationNobel Prize wi
Page 11: Wanting What’s Been LostWhen some
Page 15 and 16: Seeing Zeus on occasionAs a psychol
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Page 19 and 20: The bakery has undergone a “flexi
Page 21 and 22: BBfestive atmosphere. Being off-dut
Page 23 and 24: Unambiguousness - a scarce benefitB
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