Speed of Discussion

Speed kills cultures.

At the speed of mules, Medieval people learned to discuss, debate, and decide. A certain amount of thoughfulness was possible in the lag time of copying a scroll. Burn a few copies of an intemperate letter and it was gone. At the speed of printing presses, Christians discussed with Medieval rules and there was no longer enough time for thinking, discussing or compromising.  Luther spoke, printed, distributed and the councils could not keep up. The ability to dodge controversy is much diminished when ideas were traveling at the speed of Gutenberg rather than the speed of a goose quill.

I wonder if a cause of World War I was the telegraph, expansion of the telephone, and “immediate” communication. The Pax Britannica was built on the victory over the tyrant Napoleon in the era of post offices and printed communications. When armies entrained on railroad timetables with Prussian precision, the diplomats had less time for parley.

And now my students are worried if I do not return their email, texts, or social media messages in minutes. I was trained for two week responses, but a mobile phone has destroyed any excuse for lag. Even the plane, one haven from communication, is now wired and so I answer email as I sit wedged in a seat designed for Medieval sized men zipping over the continent.

This speed worries me as it (rightly) worried our ancestors. Ignore the fatuous counter-argument that every change in communication has been feared and we have been “ok.” The fear was right and we were ok only after grotesque misunderstandings, wars, and a slow adaptation to the new technology. Theological truth is still discovered over centuries and not seconds. Church councils cannot be scheduled on Outlook. Philosophy waits decades for the dialectic between intellects to give us new means of understanding.

Our very language must adapt to new technology and new ideas. Critics of Christianity often forget this truth: if you want a man to be free, you must set him free in a world he comprehends. God could not tell us some truths in the past because we lacked the conceptual framework and so God was patient. He allowed men, even commanded men, to do things that God would never tell us to do today, because this was the best we could do.

We must presume we can ignore what God could not ignore: the limits of our present language and humanity.

Our global systems must allow some problems to be solved over centuries (deep metaphysics), some to be solved over years (life planning), some over months, and a few things in seconds. We must have time, we cannot be free without it. Tell me I must choose peanut butter or chocolate and I want the time for genius to find the Reese’s cup.

This is why college must not be compressed too much. We might be able to deliver the content of the discussion in less time, but we cannot deliver the experience. It takes time to digest Republic, discuss it with colleagues, reflect on old ideas about it, and then apply it to the world. If we are not given this time with students, then the republic will perish because republicans cannot be created in a day, a week, or even a few years.

My own school, HBU, has (thank God!) refused to compromise quality or rush education. We know technology has changed somethings and that we must adapt new structures and procedures. We rejoice in adopting technological tools, but we are not confused in our calling: transformation of our lives and our students lives under the liberation of the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

This takes time. The discussion I had with a student at the football game as we watched our NCAA teams first season took time. The Plato marathon discussion with University of Rochester professor Al Geier took time. The new student coming to his first class needs the revelation of reason and this socialization takes time. Education takes time. Are the four years worth it? Not at all, if the goal is only information distribution and job preparation, but absolutely if the goal is to produce men and women fit to govern, create, and adapt. Machines can adapt in milliseconds, humans transform in lifetimes. Education must be allowed to proceed in human time or we will fail to produce men and will produce trained animals: able to ape their training, but unable to challenge the system.

Time. We need time.