He let the words drop like a stone into water.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout ten thousand years ago we become settled,\u201d said Dr. AuDHS. \u201cAnd about two hundred years ago we industrialize. Those are two upheavals that have changed our lives faster than our bodies and our minds could adapt.\u201d<\/p>\n
He made a hand movement as if he were tipping a bowl.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the image of the clock: It is as if, in the last minute, gravity suddenly changes \u2013 and we are supposed to just keep on running.\u201d<\/p>\n
You could hear a quiet laugh. It was not mockery; it was recognition.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happens?\u201d asked Dr. AuDHS, and then he answered himself, as if the question were only a rhetorical door-opener.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe move less,\u201d he said. \u201cNot a little less. Structurally less. And we sit more. Our everyday life is built in such a way that movement becomes optional \u2013 and non-movement standard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hans thought of the deckchairs. Lying down had been therapy at the Berghof; up here lying down was luxury. Sitting was everywhere. And now someone said: Sitting is deviation. Comfort became the error.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur diet changes,\u201d said Dr. AuDHS. \u201cMore easily available calories. More processed. More constantly. More sugar, more white flour, more \u2018always possible\u2019. The question is no longer: How do I get food? But: How do I prevent food from permanently rolling over me?\u201d<\/p>\n
Hans inwardly saw the buffets, the altars of sugar, the foam pieces; he saw the popcorn cart; he saw the ice cream bar. And he thought: Rolling over. Yes.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlcohol becomes permanently available,\u201d continued Dr. AuDHS. \u201cThe occasional intoxication becomes regularity. And the scientific tendency of recent years is shifting clearly: The less alcohol, the better \u2013 especially when it is regular.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said it without moralizing, and precisely because of that it seemed moral.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoney becomes the dominant medium,\u201d he said. \u201cMoney makes exchange abstract. And thus it becomes seductive to confuse money with meaning. Money is a means. Not an end. And yet many live as if more money were automatically more life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hans thought of his desertion, of the life of luxury, of hotels; he thought about how expensive escape is.<\/p>\n
\u201cMass production makes consumption cheap,\u201d continued Dr. AuDHS. \u201cAnd thus buying becomes the standard answer to an inner vacuum. Not because we are stupid \u2013 but because it is easy. Immediate. Available. Without risk.\u201d<\/p>\n
He paused briefly.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndustry creates new burdens,\u201d he said. \u201cFine dust, noise, constant stimuli. And at the same time: technology that takes movement off our hands. Escalators, elevators, cars, delivery services. It becomes possible to live an everyday life in which the pulse never rises above one hundred.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hans saw how someone in the room involuntarily felt their own pulse, the way you do when you notice that it exists.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then: screens,\u201d said Dr. AuDHS. \u201cFirst television. Then the internet. Then the smartphone.\u201d<\/p>\n
He did not hold the smartphone up; he did not need to. It was in every pocket.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is important,\u201d he said, \u201cthe smartphone is a great tool. It can enable education, relationships, work, creativity. But it can also be the most efficient machine for killing time \u2013 without us noticing. Not with force. But with convenience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hans thought of \u201cpastime\u201d. Killing time. Making time short. They were two sides of the same coin, and both smelled of modernity.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd now we see the result,\u201d said Dr. AuDHS. \u201cWe have created an environment that constantly offers comfort, calories, stimuli, and distraction. And we have a nervous system that was built for scarcity, movement, community, and meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n
He paused, as if he wanted people not only to hear the sentence, but to feel it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is the core problem,\u201d he said. \u201cNot that we have too little. But that we have too much in the wrong direction. Too much availability \u2013 without meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n
The word \u201cmeaning\u201d hung in the room like a soft chord.<\/p>\n
Hans looked outside again. There was meaning, he thought, because nothing was available there except what is there: light, green, wind. Inside everything was available: water, wine, lectures, plans, rings, powders. And now someone said: Meaning is missing.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow,\u201d said Dr. AuDHS, \u201ccomes a perspective that is so simple that it is easy to underestimate it.\u201d<\/p>\n