On Time & In Time

Britannica.com has an historical overview about time and its measurement.

George Woodcock writing on "The Tyranny of the Clock" provides an important note on the political economy of mechanical time:

Modern, Western man [] lives in a world which runs according to the mechanical and mathematical symbols of clock time. The clock dictates his movements and inhibits his actions. The clock turns time from a process of nature into a commodity that can be measured and bought and sold like soap or sultanas. And because, without some means of exact time keeping, industrial capitalism could never have developed and could not continue to exploit the workers, the clock represents an element of mechanical tyranny in the lives of modern men more potent than any individual exploiter or any other machine.
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The problem of the clock is, in general, similar to that of the machine. Mechanical time is valuable as a means of co-ordination of activities in a highly developed society, just as the machine is valuable as a means of reducing unnecessary labour to the minimum. Both are valuable for the contribution they make to the smooth running of society, and should be used insofar as they assist men to co-operate efficiently and to eliminate monotonous toil and social confusion. But neither should be allowed to dominate mens lives as they do today.

Now the movement of the clock sets the tempo men's lives - they become the servant of the concept of time which they themselves have made, and are held in fear, like Frankenstein by his own monster. In a sane and free society such an arbitrary domination of man's functions by either clock or machine would obviously be out of the question. The domination of man by the creation of man is even more ridiculous than the domination of man by man. Mechanical time would be relegated to its true function of a means of reference and co-ordination, and men would return again to a balance view of life no longer dominated by the worship of the clock. Complete liberty implies freedom from the tyranny of abstractions as well as from the rule of men.

Among the funkijazzical cuts I played on my radio show last Wednesday was a wicked cover of Sly & the Family Stone's "In Time" recorded by a group led by Maceo Parker and featuring fellow funkateers Fred Wesley, Pee Wee Ellis, and Bootzilla himself, Bootsy Collins.

In preparing for the show, I discovered a tune recorded by The House Guests (the group Bootsy formed after he left James Brown and which morphed into Funkadelic) called "My Mind Set Me Free" which appears on a couple of hard-to-find funk compilations (I found it on SoulSeek; see this discography for more info). The other single by that group, "What So Never the Dance," is my favorite track from the best-of-Bootsy compilation.

Well, the countdown clock is getting close to The One, so here's to keepin' the funk alive in '05.

Heads I win, tails you lose ("How do you spell relief?")
Would you trade your funk for this? ("you deserve a break today")
Or that? ("have it your way")
A funk a day keeps the nose away; ain't it true?
I ain't gonna hold the lettuce, the pickles or the mustard.
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Mind your wants 'cause someone wants your mind.
--George Clinton, "Funkentelechy"