An Analysis of Time as a Concept

Sitting on a computer, I brainstorm as I take another sip of my unhealthy energy infused beverage. I was led here by a walk down concrete alleyways and trash cluttered streets, chaotic with construction, the smell of traffic, and rain water pouring down. Before embarking on my walk to this location, I drove my car to a parking garage, a place where I pay money in order to leave something that belongs to me, in a place that belongs to someone else. Money is a fiat printed paper that holds value simply because our society deems it as valuable. It is a trading mechanism, eliminating the need to barter, and providing a medium of exchange to those who wish to trade. Something that normally would not be valuable to anyone becomes valuable to everyone, simply because everyone agrees that it holds value.

Had I not driven to that parking garage, I wouldn’t have come to this library and sat down on this computer. Had I not gotten out of bed this morning I wouldn’t have driven to that parking garage. Had I not decided to go to college, I wouldn’t have gotten out of bed in this city this morning, and had my parents not met by chance, I would not exist. The concept of history as a timeline is a staggering one. One small event can change the way that time pans out, but we cannot look forward into time, so we may never know the effects of these changes. Had Adolf Hitler’s parents never met one another, it is very likely that the Holocaust never would have occurred. There is, however, no way to tell one way or the other, and this is the complication of time itself. Yesterday does not exist. Neither does tomorrow. The only thing that we have is the present. Our decisions in the present are influenced by the words in our history books and the knowledge we have come to accumulate. All of this building knowledge influences our decisions which influence the future.

Scientific discoveries are the basis of development during the span of human existence. These discoveries have enabled us to live longer, healthier, and more relaxed lives. It is because of scientific discoveries that we sit in houses lit by electricity and use the bathroom inside of our homes, without the burden of disposal. We simply pay money for it to become someone else’s problem. Sometimes, these discoveries have been so significant that they have caused complete paradigm shifts among societies. In example, the heliocentric model of the universe, established by Nicolas Copernicus, shattered the views that the earth was at the center of the universe. This not only gave everyone an entirely different perspective of the world, but also probably induced some feeling of insignificance. Scientific discoveries continue to expand and with each new thing learned, another old theory is put out of commission. Humans have been wrong before, and will be wrong again. Science continues to aid in extinguishing the incorrect beliefs and bringing forth factual information.

Throughout time, or the concept of time, the roles of women and men have varied significantly. It seems as if they were furthest apart at the beginning and have been slowly coming closer ever since. At this day in age, women in the Western world are able to be completely independent, get their own educations, make their own money, and choose their own paths through life. This was not always the case. Women of the past were controlled by men, married by status roles rather than choice, and had little control of their own lives. Time however, is a concept, which keeps order and allows us to quantitatively measure the world around us. It is nothing more than a system of measurement, such as inches or meters, and the official time is kept by the official measuring device, the world clock. The aforementioned women do not exist, only their decaying bones underneath of a stone in the ground. Most of the stones have numbers engraved in them which tell us how many times the earth has rotated since the decaying body of the person we are standing over was breathing and making its own decisions.

The decisions made by a collective of individuals, usually in a common place, or chunk of land, determine the “wealth” of the individuals on that land. Wealth may be defined as the abundance of valuable possessions or money. Valuable possessions may be anything that increases the quality of life. To some, valuable possessions are defined by the price of attainment. To others, valuable possessions may be items that bring security and safety to the user. Money may be viewed as valuable but it is only valuable in the sense that possession of money brings the ability to acquire more items that are actually valuable. Some chunks of land contain super-developed metropolis areas, while others are still quite underdeveloped and are comprised of people who still live off the land. The lifestyle of people today is determined by decisions of the prior inhabitants of that chunk of land, that “nation.”

With nations, comes the collectivity of ideals and the view that one’s way of doing things is the best way of doing things. When one group sees another group doing things in a way they don’t believe in, conflict arises. Always, it seems that verbal attempts are made to end the disagreement, but when an agreement can’t be made, a war is started. This is possibly the most animalistic of behaviors by humans. Simply kill the other team. Kill them before they kill us and continue to kill them until they agree to our way of doing things. A success is viewed as a great triumph, and a failure is viewed as a shame. Win or lose, many lives are lost and families are shattered because of one chunk of land’s inhabitants’ inability to get along with another’s.

With the success of some nations and the downfall of others, some political systems come to be more dominant and widely accepted. The democracy of America is successful because America has won wars and gives its citizens the right to choose their own path into the world. The whole system is based on the fiat paper money that everyone enjoys so much. Without it, our lives would probably be far less glamorous. We would have no way to get a coffee every morning from Starbucks’s because we would have to bring something to trade with the employee’s every day. If we don’t have something to offer them, they have no reason to make our coffee and hand it through the window. This is the function of money and it defines the successful political systems of today. It provides incentive for our children to succeed and obtain knowledge. Attainment of more knowledge increases future obtainment of money, which increases wealth, or attainment of valuable goods.

I was born on July 27, 1990. Today is April 19, 2011. Our measurement system tells me that the earth has made 7,574 full rotations since the day I was born. I spent most of my early childhood with my grandmother, and went on to elementary school at the age of 5. On the first day of my attendance of elementary school I locked myself in the car and kicked the locks out because I was in such fear of leaving my mother. Had I not made this decision, the principal would not have walked out and escorted me into the building. Had he not walked out, my mother may have never met him on a personal level. Had my mother never met him, my academic success may not have been what it has become, and the smallest decision on my part as a scared 5-year old, could have affected my entire future. There is no way to tell. There is no way to tell what will happen in the next 5 minutes. The only thing that is certain is death. With all the knowledge gained over time, the largest question remains unanswered. What will happen when we die? No one knows, and a lot of people probably don’t want to know. Whether death is a separation of our consciousness from our bodies, or an extermination of our consciousness entirely, the only thing we can do is continue to grow and learn from past decisions and future mistakes.

 

I'm not sure what you mean. This is my work, as a philisophical essay for my Western History class.

 

I was lazy. Direct copy from microsoft word. Teacher said she was saving this on file to show to future employers as a representation of her teaching philosophy though. Quite pumped after hearing that.

 

True story. Fixed it.