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Welcome to Radical Pamphlets Here and Now, an audio production of the New Perennials Project at Middlebury College.
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For centuries, pamphlets were utilized to demand reform, equality, and justice.
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Sadly, it is the necessary work that must be taken up with every new generation.
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Our pamphlets are rooted in the local and written by teachers, farmers, students, artists, community caretakers, and neighbors.
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They offer common sense and practical advice to slow down and attend to the here and now wherever you are.
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Enjoy.
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Slowing down is a radical act, a new perennials publication written and narrated by Kylie King.
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In a culture that values efficiency and growth, the power of slowing down is often ignored.
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Capitalist consumerism values the rate of growth rather than the depth of growth.
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This rate-centered form of growth is unsustainable.
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It is similar to the rapid and brief life cycle that annual plants undergo.
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They have a relatively shallow root structure that allows them to grow and produce seeds, but then they die at the end of the season.
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An alternative to this rapid growth and death cycle is a slower pace, much like that of a perennial plant, where growth is a result of deep connection and understanding, and the plant's deep-reaching roots are able to support its continued development.
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The value that society places on quantity over quality is visible in the type of media we consume.
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There has been a rise in the amount of short-form content available, which is designed to spread copious amounts of information in the shortest amount of time possible.
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There are countless sources of new information published each second.
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Content consumption is a rat race, exposing people to as much information as possible.
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The goal has become how much you can learn rather than how deeply can you learn.
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Rapid information gives the illusion of learning, yet after hours of scrolling, we know nothing.
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We are not machines, so why do we expect ourselves to take in information as if we are?
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Another issue with short form content is the behavior that it encourages.
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Social media, a type of short form content, encourages individualism and novelty.
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People are encouraged to brand themselves in order to gain popularity and money.
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This results in competition to continuously create new ideas and content, even if it sacrifices depth and meaning.
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We are not encouraged to explore the ideas of previous thinkers and seek to understand the information that is already present, because novelty is valued more than depth.
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The quantity of production is like the above-ground growth of a plant.
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The quality of production is like the roots of the plant.
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When the rate of production supersedes the quality and depth of the roots, the plant ultimately collapses.
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Societal progress does not need to look like exponential growth, but could rather look like a thoughtful, deeper understanding of pre-existing ideas.
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Aside from social media, short form content includes any type of content that is designed to be consumed relatively quickly.
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For example, book summaries.
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While reading a summary of a book allows you to gain a general understanding of the book's main messages, it removes the most important part of reading, which is developing the ability to take in information and think about it critically.
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Being presented with someone else's analysis before having the opportunity to think for yourself makes it difficult to achieve the same level of critical thinking.
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I notice the more that I read other people's opinions on a topic, the more confined my thinking becomes.
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I feel limited to the scope of what other people have already decided is true.
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When thinking about environmental solutions, it's important to think critically about what we currently believe to be true.
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Meaningful change requires that we change the way we think about the environment.
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Therefore, the ability to find solutions to our current climate crisis requires that we first open ourselves up to new ways of thinking and new realities.
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How can we change our reality if we are not even able to envision a new reality?
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One solution I propose is to look to long-form content.
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Unlike short form content, long-form content seeks to deepen the audience's understanding of a topic.
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The difference between long form and short form content is attention levels.
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Short form content requires your attention to be spread thinly across many ideas, whereas long form content requires you to put a lot of attention into one topic.
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Long forms encourage deep thinking and feeling.
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They call the reader to reflect on their experiences rather than drawing them away and distracting
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them from their experiences.
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Long form content is not just about transmitting information, it also creates a conversation of sorts between the content and its readers.
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I believe the best kind of content is that which asks the reader to reflect on their current views of the world and introduces new ways of thinking about the world.
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Long form content encourages slowing down and reclaiming the power of your attention and energy so you can invest them in the things that matter to you.
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It can encourage you to be more selective about what information you consume and how you interact with it.
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Deep understanding and insight are a result of being fully absorbed by what you are learning and opening yourself up to it.
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Spending an extended amount of time with one topic opens one to the possibility of being changed.
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Therefore, slowing down and being intentional about where you direct your attention is necessary for change in self and society.
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The way we consume content influences the way we think and therefore affects the way we approach environmental concerns.
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Progress must be redefined to exclude notions of exponential growth and should instead center the perennial idea of deep roots.
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Progress can be considered doing fewer things in a more intentional way.
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It's unrealistic to expect that we should be able to take in endless amounts of information and retain it all meaningfully.
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Yet, our current society values this type of quantity over quality.
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What would it look like if we all slowed down?
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What would the world look like with a slower flow of information?
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Overwhelming amounts of information make it difficult to process, and it reduces our sensitivity to our own internal messages and observations.
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A step in the right direction is to lean into the power of observation.
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We cannot seek a solution if we do not understand what is causing the problem, or even acknowledge the problem.
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The key to becoming more sensitive to messages from the environment and developing our intuition is to slow down.
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It's difficult to pick up on subtlety when being constantly bombarded with information.
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Being overwhelmed by rivers of facts, opinions, data, observations, and conclusions that can come from almost anywhere prevents us from tuning in to innate knowledge.
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This pamphlet sits in the center of the short to long form spectrum, as each of the ideas presented could be turned into its own pamphlet.
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I hope that you will use the ideas presented as inspiration for further research and conversation.
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Think deeply about what I've said and decide for yourself whether you agree.
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I encourage you to take time to reflect after reading this, observe the feelings that arise in your body, and allow yourself to be changed.
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To learn more about the New Perennials Project at Middlebury College, visit NewPerennials.org, where you can download free versions of all of our books, pamphlets, and educational materials.
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Special thanks to audio engineer Johnny Melli and to our authors and readers.
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Music composed and performed by Caitlyn Miss Adams.
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Introductory narration by Caitlyn Miss Adams.
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You can contact us at newprennials at middlebury.edu.
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Thanks for listening.