March 16, 2004
Kamloops Daily News



The precise measurement of time, combined with technology
and capitalism, is a powerful force in controlling our
lives.

Ancient kings, chiefs, and shamans realized the power of
time. The calendars of past civilizations were more than
simple charts. They represented the power control people and
nature.

For example, a 25 ton Aztec stone calendar in the
Anthropological museum in Mexico City symbolizes the ancient
power and control of technology.  Those masters of
technology had the ability to seemingly control natural
events and he rhythm of life - - when to plant crops, when
to appease the gods,  when to go to war.

Mastery of the modern clock confers power to control the
pulse of daily living.  "It is the clock and not the steam
engine that is the key machine on the Modern Age," says
social critic Lewis Mumford.  

The shamans of modern technology and time have revved up the
pace of modern life to the max.  The increase in speed has
us in a rush to nowhere.  We are expected to multitask like
computers, to juggle a number of balls in the air - -
family, work, relationships, community.

The Titanic has become a metaphor for the folly of speed,
says Richard Swift in his article for New Internationalist
magazine.

The race to set new records and impossible schedules drove
the ship’s captain to plough the new ship full-throttle into
a icefield.   His preoccupation with speed cost 1,500 lives
on that fateful night in 1912.  Since then, the toll on
lives from the frenzied pace of modern culture has only
increased.

The use of stimulants is increasing to keep us more alert
with less sleep.   The U.S. air force routinely gives pilots
amphetamines to keep them alert for hours at a time.   The
U.S. pilot who ordered the bombing of Canadian soldiers in
Afghanistan made the questionable decision while on speed.

Some soft drinks, like Jolt, have increased caffeine and
sugar.  Diet drugs have used amphetamines to rev up
metabolism in order to burn off the calories produced by too
much sugar consumption.

Speed is part of daily life.  We are evaluated to make sure
we are "up to speed."   The masters of time have invented
different categories of  time, such as "quality time" that
we spend with loved ones in which we are supposed to give
full attention to one thing only.

Capital has sped up, too.  The faster that money can be
turned over, the faster a profit can be realized.  Day
traders sit at their computers all day waiting for the value
of stock to increase by pennies, at which time they will
sell.  It’s like a giant, global Las Vegas.

Day trading, which accounts for 25 per cent of all trading, 
is not based on any real value in stocks.  Decisions are
based on a herd mentality that magnifies minor fluctuations.  
That group-think led to the greatest loss in NASDAQ’s
history - - 13 per cent of its value in just 3 hours.

Karl Marx admired capitalism more than he should have when
he called it "the most revolutionary" of social systems. 
Industrial production has increased  through "just in time"
inventory control.   Workers are simply cogs in the grinding
wheel of industry.

In a free trade zone of Southern China, young women workers
live on one floor, production takes place on the second, and
inventory is stored on the third.  For "security purposes,"
women workers are locked in, resulting in deaths from
factory fires.

It used to be that time was a measure of natural events -
-rotations of the earth, the time it takes to cook rice, a
woman’s menstrual cycle.   Industrial society has pulled
time out of nature and colonized new worlds.

Time measurement transformed Europe from a marginal outpost
of a Mediterranean power into global colonizers.   The
imposition of industrial time on backward colonies was a
source of pride.

Work-shirking natives could be dismissed as slothful and
incapable of wise use of time. Local methods of telling time
were swept away in favour of standard time for which Europe
was the reference place.  "Indian time" is used as a
dismissal of a natural rhythm of life.

When time is removed from natural cycles and events,
contemplation and critical thought can be dismissed as a
waste of time.  And a questioning public is the enemy of
turbo capitalism.

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