In capitalism, slowness is either expensive and a privilege - relaxation, bought with inherited or earned wealth - or free and a stigma: the dawdling days of the elderly and the unemployed. The difficult task then is to understand slowness not as an obstacle to production but as a valuable mode of perception in its own right. If the mantra directed towards children used to be 'behave!' now it seems to be 'hurry up!' Although this represents a sort of progress - at least it shifts the attention from sitting up straight to engaging in the everyday buzz around you - it negates what little kids have a real sense for: those suspended moments in time when, for example, they stop to marvel at a bug for minutes at a time. Artists, like kids, for centuries have resisted the demand to behave. Now they can play up their efficiency at resisting the demand to hurry up.

Not to be confused with – indolence, insouciance, torpidity or neglectfulness.