That Paltry Deity, Efficiency

Book of Hours, Valencia, c. 1460

The old school Judeo-Christian God of millenia-gone-by had a few faults. He could be ruthless and order the extermination of a people (see: Canaanites). He could could be cruelly capricious and torment the faithful (see: Job). And by the time of Augustine, He even signed off on the dreadful doctrine of Original Sin. But it can't be said that He was obsessed with achievement and industry and all the cold, neurotic obsessions of our time.

And so it was that the monks of the Middle Ages (or as they are less kindly known, the "Dark Ages") were free to spend their days and years lovingly creating illuminated manuscripts, those amazing creations in which sacred literature was adorned with detailed patterns and designs, often botanical in nature and rendered with gold or silver gilding that made them literally shine. The monks only had to take time out to pray or to brew and imbibe their monastery's own special ale.

Today, however, we are controlled by that unimaginative and narrow-minded deity Efficiency -- a  close cousin to William James's "bitch-goddess success," the "exclusive worship" of which, he said, constitutes "our national disease."

So what does Efficiency make of those manuscripts? Are they not beautiful? "I suppose they are," She replies. "But could they have been created faster if they were less beautiful?" That's what She wants to know. Her apostle was Frederick Winslow Taylor and Her minions are known as Data. The teacher-as-artist is replaced in this faith by the teacher-as-number-cruncher. The joy!

The Buddhist and poet Gary Snyder tells an instructive story. As a young man he went to Japan to study the language and to be apprenticed in a Zen monastery. One day, as the monks went about their chores, the young man from the Pacific Northwest said to them, "You know, it would be faster if you did it this way." The monks answered, "We don't want to do it faster." Try using that line around here these days.

Of course, this blog is time-consuming and produces no quantifiable benefits. And for that reason I will persist.