I don’t like the lemming-like nature of DST and what it says about human behavior.
I mean, DST is quite popular and seems to be expanded evey year. Now, all DST really does is “call” 8AM 9AM, and so on. So, if people want to start work earlier, and finish earlier, why not have individual businesses agree that the “typical” workday (whatever that is), is now 8-to-4, instead of 9-to-5?
But the opinion is, “that’ll never work…too impractical.” but what happens instead is that gov’t institutes DST, which has the exact same effect as what I mentioned (only being a bit less intellectually honest), and all the lemmings comply without a peep of protest regarding “practicality.”
It says something sad about human nature that (apparantly) people want to move their working hours ahead one hour, but are utterly incapable of accomplishing this until the gov’t steps in and decrees…“Hey, remember 12 noon? Well, now it’s ‘officially’ 1PM. Good day, and remember to take your SOMA pills.”
I guess I “heard” it - but it makes no sense whatsoever. About 300 million people in the US. Millions of businesses. 6+ billion people the world over. A huge & complex global political economy that works as an organized system. Transport schedules. School & business schedules. Hell, even the measly 30,000+ people involved in the organization I work in every day. And all of this will be coordinated by individuals each making their own decisions about when to come and go and do? And the only issue is when people want to go to work? And the fact that individuals don’t make these decisions themselves makes “the government” some big bad guy and people a bunch of morons? Just how small is the tiny little world you live & work in?
In the West (globally speaking) clock time started with the first factory style production and only accelerated with industrialization. Coordinated clock time fundamentally makes the world go 'round. None of that means that DST is a good or a bad idea. But your story about it is truly insane.
The point is, apparently people want to start and finish work an hour earlier, at least the majority of the year. The straightforward way to do this is just change the typical work shift, but this is never done…as it is “unfeasible.”
Instead, the gov’t just “decrees” 8AM to be 9, etc…and everybody falls in line. That sort of passivity makes one wonder what else can be decreed…
Oh, BTW, the nature of time as we know it (variety of “time zones,” each 1 hr. apart) is a product of the railroads, not industry. Prior to that, each town had it’s own “time,” based on when the sun was directly overhead, and might be a few minutes different from towns to the east/west. Of course, that made RR schedules hard, so…
First, DST is not about when “people” (whoever they are) want to start & finish work. But even if it was, perhaps it would make more sense to say that it isn’t a govt “decree” - maybe instead it would be the govt assisting people in coordinating getting what they want. No matter, since DST has nothing to do with when people want to go to work. That assumption is just nuts - along with the assumption that people - in contemporary, industrialized nations - can just go along ad libbing time according to their own wishes.
Yes, I know the story of the RRs and time - it is very strange that you would say “the railroads, not industry” since the railroads lie at the heart of industrialization. The RRs are fully wrapped up in the heart of the industrial age and integral to sets of systems that demand integrated clock time. You went on to give the reasoning that - given how we live - time needs a source of central, standardized coordination - i.e. the RRs couldn’t operate on sun time.
Once again, this has nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not DST is a good idea or not. The coordination of time is not some abuse of power by the state in the face of a passive public. I can think of all sorts of reasons to criticize states and their passive publics - but the coordination of time isn’t one of them.
Did he really imply this?I always maintained if you want more time in the daylight hours,get up early- no other natural systems recognize this(dont think the military abides by DST either)-Kevin
DST should be dumped along with neckties and high heel shoes. My DST list at home is to reset the clocks on:
kitchen wall
microwave
stove
bedroom clocks (2)
TV
VCR (still have one)
shop
garage
4 cars
relative’s glucose meter
relative’s watch
my pedometer
At work I reset the time in:
office clock
building thermostat
time clock
shop clock
dispatch clock
office camera system
shop camera system
FAX machine
phone system
I’m sure there are more. I’ll stumble into them during the next month or so. This is such a waste of time! It shouldn’t be that difficult to repeal DST.
Interesting about the railroads and 12 noon being when the sun is straight up. I have always thought it was the British Navy which decreed that local time anywhere on the planet, which they used to pretty much own, heh, heh, be set by the high point of the sun there. This was before railroads existed.
There is a movement, which I view pretty much a waste of time, though I happen to think it’s a great idea, to put the whole planet on Zulu time, aka as GMT. That way everyone would know exactly when something was going to happen, or when it did happen. Under our current system, in international business, it can be confusing not only to know what time something is supposed to happen, but which day it is there.
It will not happen. We in the US can’t even adapt the metric system universally.
By the way, in the 70’s an old-timer told me when they first came out with DST, an older woman called the radio station and said she was against it, because her house plants needed all the sun they could get. She was not joking.