“Slow and steady wins the race.” We have all heard the moral of the fable The Tortoise and the Hare. The story is well known: the hare, underestimating the slow tortoise, stopped to sleep, while the tortoise continued at a steady pace to reach the finish line first. For a long time, this story conveyed a timeless lesson on the superiority of consistency over speed. However, today, speed has become the norm across various sectors.
In a logic that Karl Marx would surely have analyzed, the development of information and communication technologies has shaped a social superstructure where speed is a prerequisite for efficiency. Slowness is now an unforgivable flaw. Iconic tools of our era, such as smartphones, social media, and rapid transport, all contribute to this quest for immediacy, creating a “dictatorship of speed” that permeates work, consumption, and social relations.
Philosopher Hartmut Rosa highlights this contemporary paradox: the more tools we have to save time, the more time escapes us in this accelerated society. “Faster and faster” has become the credo of modernity, leading to stress, pressure, and a loss of control. In Madagascar, as major cities are increasingly influenced by the internet, social media, and artificial intelligence, this logic of acceleration has also become a standard to which we must adapt.
Today, the wisdom of The Tortoise and the Hare is becoming obsolete. Our era seems increasingly distant from the spirit of “mora mora” (slowly, slowly). While we must integrate speed into our aspirations for success, we must remember that speed is a means, not an end. Before rushing, it is essential to know one’s destination. There is no point in running if you no longer know why you are running.
Captured & Published at: 2026-08-24 06:24:23 (Madagascar Local Time EAT)
Original Source: https://www.lexpress.mg/2026/08/le-vertige-du-vite.html