Do you believe that time is a construct?
Do you REALLY believe that time is a construct? Are you secure about that?
Let’s put it to the test.
We can claim to believe literally anything. It’s very easy to use words and lie, lie, lie…
Do you know what’s difficult? Backing up what we say.
I’ve seen many a guru, priest, oracle, etc say they believe that time is a construct. All good and well on a surface level, but if you dig a little deeper… There is no substance behind their words. And how do I know that? Simple: they say they believe time is a construct, but they do not behave as though they truly believe that with every fibre of their being.
You see, people’s claims do not impress me. You can claim whatever you want, even extraordinary things. I’ll be much more pleased to see you claim something simple and overall unremarkable, but backed-up by your daily thoughts and behaviour. If you live your truth, my friend, THAT is real power. All else is fake. All else is masks and façades.
It’s not easy to live your truth. I’m not here to demand that from anybody. I’m only saying that if you already achieved that level of truthfulness, I admire you. And if you haven’t, but you’re interested in it, here is one of the articles that hopefully will help you with food for thought.
First of all: words are not monoliths.
I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but just in case, allow me to remind you of this simple fact: words are not monoliths. In fact, even a dictionary will help clear that up. When you look for a word in a dictionary, its meanings are often more than one. Very often. In any language.
I know some people fantasise with having power of decision over the one and only thing [they hope] a word truly means, but alas, nobody is that powerful. Not even dictators. It was Saussure who said that, not me, complain with him if you don’t like hearing it. (Oh, some of you weren’t expecting that reference? Yes, that’s right, I have a degree in Linguistics. I am that, and a lot more. I’m a box full of surprises, so don’t be making assumptions).
Now that I’ve [hopefully] addressed some inflated egos that might be lurking in the background, on to what matters:
What does this word, “time”, means? Have you ever looked it up? Let’s do it (again), for fun:
1
a: the measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues : DURATION
b: a nonspatial continuum that is measured in terms of events which succeed one another from past through present to future
c: LEISURE
time for reading
2: the point or period when something occurs : OCCASION
3
a: an appointed, fixed, or customary moment or hour for something to happen, begin, or end
arrived ahead of time
b: an opportune or suitable moment
decided it was time to retire
— often used in the phrase about time
about time for a change
4
a: a historical period : AGE
b: a division of geologic chronology
c: conditions at present or at some specified period — usually used in plural
times are hard
move with the times
d: the present time
issues of the time
The same dictionary (and others) go on and on beyond these first meanings, so feel free to click on the links and have fun. I’ll keep it short for convenience.
One overarching theme in these definitions is the fact that they come from a place of subjective perception. How does one define, for certain, that a minute lasts for what we have socially constructed to be a minute? Couldn’t it have ended up being, say, a minute and 26 and a half seconds? How do we decide to divide this “measured or measurable period” in exact units? There is no science for that, all there is to it is arbitrary decision. Someone, somewhere, randomly decided to record periods of time and give them names. And they did so, because it makes our lives easier. It makes our lives more convenient to describe and to talk about. But just because dividing, naming and categorising time is “not a bad thing” per se, let’s not delude ourselves into believing there is any inherent exactness to it.
When I say “time is a construct”, I’m not claiming that this observable succession of events marked by cause and consequence does not exist. It obviously does, and science can prove that! Instead, I’m talking about time in pragmatic terms: what USE can we really have for this thing, this concept that we call “time”? Well… it records what happened for posterity, gives us a sense of what is happening, and helps us predict what is to happen.
Past, present, and future all exist within “time”. But which one of them do we really have power over? The past? Oh, really? Have you invented a time machine? Yeah, I didn’t think so either. The future? Oh, really? Do you always know what is to come, and therefore you never worry? Yeah, I didn’t think so either.
The present is all we can control. It’s the period of time during which we can live. Past and future aren’t real, because the past stopped being real the moment it was no longer “present” (or else you could change it, you could manipulate it); The future isn’t real either, because it hasn’t become real; You haven’t gotten there yet, and thus you can’t change or manipulate it for certain. The present, though… you’re ALWAYS changing and manipulating. Even if you’re doing so unintentionally.
So, pragmatically speaking, time is a construct that helps us keep track of cause and consequence in our lives, but we can’t live in the past or in the future. We can only live in the present. If you take this message literally, you’ll find it redundant — and in fact, it is. But redundant or not, a lot of people act as though they didn’t know it. That’s why I’m writing about it.
If you’re in charge of others at work… Do you get annoyed at someone for making a mistake “even though they’re no longer new to the job”?
Okay. That’s a common conclusion to take.
Now, tell me: do you do that, AND believe time is a construct? And you can’t see the irony in it? Wow. Well, in that case, you might be in need of some humbling. Let’s get to it:
I’m sorry to inform, but you can only conclude such a thing if you believe past, present, and future are all equally real. Right? Let’s imagine a world where that premise is true: this imaginary world is probably A LOT MORE deterministic than the real world we’re actually living in. So, say, it would be possible for a group or organisation to decide (and enforce!) that a person’s only reason for failing to perform a task would be unfamiliarity with this task as part of a normal induction period. That’s because, if you fast-forward to the future, when the person is more familiar with their role, and for some reason unrelated to unfamiliarity, fails again to perform the same task… They can still be held accountable for incompetence because, you see, in this deterministic universe, it’s totally possible to time travel freely. And consequently, you can also predict every possible future scenario with 100% accuracy. Hence, if someone someday predicts, “oh, tomorrow situation X will cause me to repeat a mistake I unfortunately already made at work”, they’d have the power to instead time-travel back to that period when “making that one mistake was still acceptable”, let it happen then, come back to the present (which is thus a different present), and carry on as normal without disappointing this figure of authority.
Maybe I’m sounding sarcastic, but I’m dead serious. The sarcasm is all in your interpretation, not because I caused it to happen, but because there IS an inherent ridiculousness to the expectation at hand… Which people conveniently forget to note.
I won’t invalidate anyone’s feelings, and I won’t say you can’t hold people accountable for repeating mistakes — definitely do that, it’s your right. But sometimes… We cross the line into surrealism, don’t we?
I mean… What we call “a repeat” of a past situation, often simply is a similarity observed when we hold a present situation against a memory we have of a past situation — but they’re never exactly the same. They can’t be. It’s impossible. You don’t step on the same river twice. Perhaps you jump to the conclusion that they are exactly the same, because you’re emotionally triggered… But that’s not accuracy, that’s just an emotion. Frustration, in most cases. Valid, but not the greatest justification for holding someone else up to impossible standards.
Why not, instead: bring attention to what happened and how it closely resembles something from the past, but listen and also register the unique present circumstances that allowed such a thing to happen now. It didn’t re-happen. It happened. For the first time. Because, similarities aside, it was the first time.
I’m not proposing a get-out-of-jail-free card for anybody. I’m simply saying that we can address and correct situations without getting caught-up in obsessions inside our minds with something that is no longer real.
Imagine all the drama that could be prevented if we only lived by that simple lesson! All the inefficiencies we could stop creating! All the time wasted pointing fingers and shouting at each other, which we could decide not to waste and instead use towards detaching emotionally from this hurricane of past memories and just fixing the thing.
Do you think “History repeats”?
Okay. That’s a common thought people have.
Now, tell me: do you think that, AND believe time is a construct?
Let’s apply a similar logic to the one we used in the previous example: yes, similar events happen throughout History… but they aren’t really “a repeat”, are they? And I’m not just being pedantic. Often, when people say History repeats, they mean we somehow haven’t learned with the outcome of past situations, and again, it comes from an emotional place. A place of frustration. I understand it. I empathise, believe it or not. But no, I won’t enable it or applaud it.
This is a conclusion taken from a place of victimhood. A place of wanting to prove to yourself and others that you suffer, and you’re helpless, and you’ll keep suffering and being helpless — because secretly, you bask in the attention that comes from being a helpless victim. Yes, the repetitions are for emphasis.
“History repeats” is similar to “you can’t make the same mistake twice or you’re personally offending me”, but it’s on a bigger scale, so I thought of mentioning it here. For example, instead of a [perceived] reoccurrence involving the same person… it’s a [perceived] reoccurrence involving different people, places, and even motives. In a way, it’s outrageous that we consider it a repetition at all!
Science explains why we jump to this conclusion, though: we have evolved to recognise patterns, which in turn aids in our ability to survive under stress. Monkey brain wants to eat banana because monkey ancestor said banana is safe to eat.
But patterns aside, your attention should be here and now. Not in accusing somebody of “being like somebody else from the past”. Otherwise, nothing gets dealt with.
Do you agree that certain actions “can only lead to one outcome”?
Okay. That’s a common belief to agree with.
Now, tell me: do you say that, AND believe time is a construct?
So… what do you think is the purpose of predicting the future, if you’re really positively certain that it is determined down to the smallest detail? There isn’t a whole load you can do, is there? Unless YOU had the power to determine it down to the smallest detail (like we saw above), but that’s a fantasy of powerlessness all the same — paradoxically, I know.
I mean: if everything is already decided (for whatever reason that would support this conclusion), therefore all you can do is go with the flow. You have no real agency. You can’t cause something unexpected to be by the sheer power of your decision-making. On the flip side, you don’t need to deal with the responsibility of causing something unexpected to be by the sheer power of your decision-making. Yeah… It’s a bit shameful to admit it. I see that. Your ego is probably attached to the idea of looking for safety no matter what. You don’t want uncertainty in life because you don’t want to feel unsafe. That’s understandable and valid, but again, I won’t enable it.
Adulting is hard. I get it. Nonetheless, we must brave it; because if we don’t, if we instead choose to give all our power away to a parent figure in our lives (even if imaginary, projected), we can’t ever fulfil the mission we came to this planet to do — whatever you believe that to be (the meaning of life is an extensive topic for a whole other article, or several).
The list of ironies is non-exhaustive.
Add yours in the comments. I’m super curious about what other examples you guys will come up with.
This article was one big, provocative, serving of “food for thought”. Some will love it, some will hate it, and some will have all sorts of reactions in between. But allow me to be a bit of a smartass: my article is now in the past. Sorry, you can’t change it or cause it to change.
Until next time!
