Religious and non-religious people alike think that many people are living shallow and superficial lives. They have noticed that many are rushing through life at break-neck speeds, with little regard or thought to what they are doing. Author Pete Davis explores this issue by going back to 1986 and the improbable opening of a McDonald's restaurant in Italy:

When the burger chain opened in the Piazza di Spagna, one of the most famous squares in Rome, an outcry erupted across Italy. Thousands rallied to protest what Italians saw as the desecration of a historic center by a symbol of shallow consumerism. One of the chain's opponents, Italian journalist Carlo Petrini, thought sign and angry chants were not enough to convey the depth of the protest's message. So, he went to the square and handed out bowls of pasta, a symbol of Italy's deep culinary tradition. Petrini and his compatriots shouted: “We don't want fast food. We want slow food.”

Thus, the International Slow Food movement was born, advocating not just for local cuisines but "slow and prolonged enjoyment.” The Slow Food movement spread around the world. It was perfectly timed for an era when people were beginning to notice the downsides of the global forces that had been prioritizing quantity over quality, spectacle over depth, and the fast over the slow. It felt bigger than food. It was a whole different mindset than that being served up by the global corporations of the day.

Davis ends the segment by quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson and elaborates:

“In skating over thin ice, our safety is in our speed.” When there's not much underneath the surface of our superficial routines, best to move fast to distract ourselves from our shallowness. When we force ourselves to move slow again, as the Slow movement calls us to do, we confront it. The confrontation can be terrifying. But as we move through it, we can begin to rediscover depth.