Birth of The Deadline

Somewhere in the past, a thoughtless executive set the first arbitrary deadline. Now the Deadline god rules most aspects of the Western World, from birth to the gaping grave. Time for thoroughness is usually available, but deluded by this bogus god, many westerners will not take the time.

The Western World’s obsession with hurry is a problem that harms children and adults alike. Like a child’s balloon swiftly losing air, Westerners dart here and there. Usually controlled by hurry, they are constantly rushing somewhere. In this environment, few children will learn inner peace.

Some insist on an endless bustle of action, demanding constant noise. Their televisions are always on, their stereos blast out the neighbors, and their car stereos blast out the neighborhood. Unable to stand still, they must do something, even if it is the wrong thing. America is a land of turbulence, and that turmoil has been given a name: The Rat Race

A news article stated doctors “have limited time to spend with patients,” but these constraints are self-inflicted. In their hurry to become rich, some schedule too many patients. When insensitive physicians degenerated to an assembly line speed, the patient became a dollar sign.

The doctor hurries from cubicle to cubicle where anxious patients wait, stripped to the waist. Because of the doctor’s haste and superior attitude, questions are indifferently answered, angering the patient, which is harmful to the patient’s health.

“Making up for lost time” is the can’t-wait American goal, but it is impossible. America feverishly builds automobiles that are recalled before broken in.

It rushes to build costly structures that collapse before their time, and it hastily constructs nuclear power plants with little foresight for safety.

The chaotic American pattern has been exported into every corner of the industrialized world, presenting the spectacle of a gas-masked Tokyo traffic cop hurrying to his oxygen booth to breathe clean air.

In the mall, a mother imparts this foolish fever to her little girl. “Hurry now! We’ve got to get our shopping done. Hurry now!” The little girl will impart the same life-destroying habit to her children.

In their haste, a ground crew caused a fatal plane crash, forgetting to remove duct tape temporarily covering the outside sensors. The captain’s hasty eyes missed the tape on his pre-flight walk-around. All on the plane were doomed because of obsessive hurry.

This was not “pilot error,” but superiors’ error. A profit-driven management imparted their deadline fever to the employees, pounding their hasty attitude into the crews’ minds.