The Tyranny of Time
It’s 4 AM once again as I write this, or rather attempt to. One more late night, one more day where I wake up past noon, one more time I play catch-up with my to-do list, one more evening of doom-scrolling that bleeds into one more 4 AM writing session out of desperation. I trace back my steps knowing what I should have done to be in REM sleep by now, knowing full well where I strayed and that I shall do it again. At this stage the differences between sleeping late and any addiction are close to zero. You know it’s bad for you, you know it’s reducing your very life expectancy. but in the here and now, you just can’t help yourself. May be this is what living in the moment means.
Having exploited the entire planet, the only thing left to extract is our very humanity. And we are doing it one reel at a time, a hundred reels a day. All gurus insist we muct stay in the present, as the animals do, following only our instincts — no analysis, no introspection. We have finally achieved this state through social media algorithms feeding us the precise cat to cleavage ratio to keep us hooked to our feeds, even while taking a dump
Data; like any other drug, ought to be regulated. Countries that are able to do it despite all the inertia and commercial interests will end up on the right side of history. But in the here and now; governments, just like people, keep falling for short term highs. Data is unlimited but life is not. All advantages of information and connectivity aside, the human brain is not designed to take in so much information in a day. From genocide to porn to throbbing brain rot, we are already short-circuiting into indifferent passive receptacles of content.
In many ways, the height of technological achievement and by extention; contemporary society, is the Apple iWatch. The biggest success of capitalism is quite fittingly a source of constant and multiple anxieties that people willingly and at great cost wear on their person round the clock. It is not possible to feel more modern than when one is smoking with one hand and watching his pulse rate go up on his watch on the other hand. Tracking death by the minute as it creeps up on you and walking knowingly towards it, blurring the line between stupidity and courage and increasing shareholder value in the process.
In the east, we figured out long ago that it is futile battling against time. So we worship it instead. An endless mirage of nights and days that one can only be amused by. Our systems are slow, if at all functional and our plays are comedies and farces. The west with its linear view of time, its efficient but rather cold systems was bound to write tragedies instead. What other response in the face of eons of drama but laughter and what other response in the face of impending and eternal judgement but ruthlessness. In some ways, the west was destined to rule the world. If at all the east catches up in this century, it will do so only by using the west’s own playbook.
One could argue that the 24 hour day and clock itself is a western imposition. An inevitable decree in the pursuit of industrial efficiency. ‘What is measured gets done.’ Goals should be SMART. Output Maximum — Downtime Zero. The world is a factory and we are merely replaceable cogs. There is no escaping this system. Because no matter how defiant, boutique or bespoke you keep yourself and your business, the more ruthless slave drivers will push you out with the volumes they accrue, the clout they build and the regulations they dictate. And if everything else fails, they can always buy you out.
This hunt for efficiency is at its ugly best in our modern industries. But its drive is ancient, primeval even. Because it is the same as the will to power. It is hard-coded, pre-verbal, perhaps even pre-human. Peace, harmony and sustainability are conscious choices. Usurping and asserting power is sub-conscious, hence always stronger. The environment and the very better angels of our nature don’t stand a chance against it. No one does. Because the lust for power/dominance is truly agnostic. Whatever, politics, religion and even art manisfest through the eras are only means power uses to perpetuate itself.
The closest thing I have experienced to timelessness is when I was away in the hills in the second lockdown for months with no return ticket. There for a few days I had no track of what day it was and what hour of the day we were at. But the whole world had to come to a standstill for that. And within that catastrophe I was in a position of extreme privilege and fortune to be able to experience those few days of bliss. It’s not even about ‘being practical’ or alternate perspectives. There is no respite from the glare of the clock because there are bills to be paid, deadlines to be met and flights to be caught. Even if all clocks were to be abolished, the body itself keeps score. All our stories have a beginning, a middle and and end because our life does too. But it is the dying everyday that can be avoided.
There is no escaping the tyranny of time. But the tyranny itself can be your saviour. If you truly realize; at a cellular level, that the countdown is always on. The trick is to cultivate a sense of urgency that supersedes the benign sense of doom that permeates contemporary mindset. A sense that life is too short to debate ideologies, fashion trends and batting averages. Too short to fret about a past that is already dead or worry about a future that may never come. Too short to shudder against even the greatest of cruelties. Life is only long enough to just about understand yourself completely. Once you do that, all the frustrations of the world are reduced to curiosities. The industrialists still win. But they can’t get you in the one place where you can actually be free and the one place that matters the most, your own mind.
It’s 4 AM again, tomorrow is fked again. But I am glad I stayed on the page and finished this blog, one more day away from Neuralink.
- Punit Pania
