I’m finally reading the highly recommended Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman.   While I’m sure there will be loads to say about the book, I’m only 15 pages in, so I can’t speak intelligently about how well it makes its argument about media’s effect on our society.

Postman points to Lewis Mumford’s observations about clocks being “a piece of power machinery whose ‘product’ is seconds and minutes.”  Then he said this, which really grabbed my attention:

The clock made us into time-keepers, and then time-savers, and now time-servers.   

Reading that made me think about how often I look at the clock while I’m working.  I try to use the clock to measure my discipline by setting goals for myself:  ”Can I do X more things before five o’clock?”   I even bill by the hour!

Not just my work life, but my life-life is ruled by this mechanical construct of time.   Tomorrow, the clock will wake me up, chastise me for being late out the door, late to work, late back from lunch, late leaving for home, and, as usual, late going to bed.

How have I never noticed what a wide influence the “power machinery’s” product has over my life?  More importantly, is there any way to stop it?