Simmel defined modern life by accelerated tempo across city, intellect, and fashion.
Evidence
In addition, he emphasizes that in modern society this tempo increases violently and without cease. … In fact all the elements invoked and presented by Simmel as “elective affinities” that distinguish modern life from that of previous eras stand out for their intensified dynamics and movement. According to Simmel, what is characteristic of modernity are the fast city as against the slow countryside, the dominance of the mobile intellect over the more static, slowly changing emotional life, dynamic individualism in the sense of a liberation of individuals from fixed, stable traditions and bonds as against the collective social fabrics of the past that change only incrementally and with difficulty, and thus a specific “disloyalty” (Treulosigkeit) regarding associations, values, and activities as well as a related preference for the rapidly alternating tempo of fashion, etc. — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 205
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Simmel defined modernity as psychologism reacting to acceleration with blasé indifference and stimulus addiction — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration: A New Theory of…, 207; Simmel’s city analysis applies to pre-modern large settlements too. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 1082
Broader Connections
- Simmel defined modernity as psychologism reacting to acceleration with blasé indifference and stimulus addiction
#expands(0.85) — Hartmut Rosa, Social Acceleration, 207 - Simmel’s city analysis applies to pre-modern large settlements too.
#qualifies(0.80) — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 1082