The Modern Economy and the Tyranny of Time

The tyranny of time is a fact of life in the modern world. The fear of the future and of emptiness, ingrained in everyone, is exploited to turn time into a scarce commodity to be maximized. Time presses relentlessly on us today: it drives us to work, produce and consume, in pursuit of an accumulation of wealth that offers us the illusion of immortality. 

What has our relationship with time been throughout history? It's a question that should be on everyone's mind.  In ancient times, time was perceived as cyclical and unpredictable, directly linked to the rhythms of nature. Ancient civilizations accepted it as an external, sometimes mystical force that could neither be controlled nor quantified. 

But this vision has changed over the centuries. With the development of technology and the influence of secular Greco-Roman values, a transformation began. It was in the second half of the Middle Ages that a new relationship with time was established, transforming the Western, and then the global, economy forever. 

The Church's loss of influence in the West leaves more room for doubt , and allows the market society to triumph. The relationship between merchants and time clashes with that of believers: the former fears that time is finite, while the latter considers it infinite, thanks to the promise of the afterlife. The merchants, haunted by the finiteness of their own lives, introduce a vision of time guided by the idea of maximizing it for as long as possible. The result was a paradigm shift in which wasting time became a sin. The Florentine merchant Giovanni Rucellai illustrates this mentality well when he declares that “the necessity is to practice the economy of time, for it is the most precious thing we have.” This concept was to lay the foundations of modern capitalism, where control of time is reserved for the rich and powerful (which is why former French Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebbari declared that “the time of decision-makers is precious”).

From a medieval time, punctuated by the religious calendar and hours of prayer (the canonical hours), time became a precious resource where every minute had to be used efficiently. Whether in artisan production, commerce, or leisure activities themselves, time was structured to increase profits and optimize production.

It was also at this time that the modern financial system developed: in 1151, the first bank was founded, and debt became its main lever. The future became a commodity, as time has to be made profitable in order to pay off the debts contracted. By relying on credit, this economy created the impression of linear, or even exponential, time, to the rhythm of interest. This transition marks the passage from the market economy to capitalism, a dynamic economic system that is constantly looking to the future at all costs. Profit and growth also become imperatives for debt repayment. This need fuels the money-commodity-money (M-C-M) cycle described by Marx, the end of which signals economic crises linked to overindebtedness and overproduction. 

In fact, crises began to multiply during this period, as credit became more widespread, notably with bills of exchange, while the circulation of metallic currencies slowed. Metallic currencies embodied a tangible value, anchored in the present, as they represented immediately available physical resources. Whereas debt ties us to the future and expectations of return, physical gold and silver bring us back to concrete values, independent of the uncertainties of the future.

In this way, money goes from being a simple means of exchange to a symbol of security. For a society anxious about the passage of time, saving and hoarding are tantamount to accumulating time, in a form of symbolic immortality. As Keynes suggests, “A rich man could, after all, enter into the Kingdom of Heaven-if only he saved.” Money takes on an almost sacred character, and perpetual growth masks an essential dynamic: that of capital accumulation. 

Societies reorganized themselves around this intensified relationship with time. Towards the end of the Middle Ages, the first mechanical clocks appeared in the bell towers of Europe, introducing a precise measurement of time that allowed work schedules to be quantified. Days became more fragmented, particularly in Italian merchant cities, the cradle of capitalism. The Renaissance then marked a symbolic turning point, as man aspired to become “master and possessor of nature”, according to Descartes. Time became a strategic factor in commercial trade, as the great powers competed to control the fastest sea routes. The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain amplified this trend: factories organized assembly-line work and imposed “working time” as a measure of productivity linked to wages and output. 

The concept of accelerated time now permeates all fields of society: the development of railways, then high-speed trains, reduces distances and travel times; while the time zones introduced at the beginning of the 20th century overturn work practices worldwide. Technology is transforming distances and erasing borders.

More recently, these innovations have been joined by the Internet and digital tools, which fragment time into a multitude of short contents - continuous information, short videos - in consumerist societies where the law of “always more, right away” reigns, with products designed in vast quantities for a short lifespan. 

This compression of time, now omnipresent, influences every aspect of our daily lives. Our days are lived at a frenetic pace, driven by the credit economy, which imposes constant productivity and makes everyone impatient. The system rejects moments of rest. It hates it when people spend time at the table, when they take vacations, when they want to work four days a week, when they want to retire at 60... Basically, when people take time off, because this act becomes a form of resistance.

The repercussions on our thinking are profound. As Günther Anders has pointed out, it's not just the obsolescence of objects that's at stake, but that of man himself. Reflection is reduced, influenced by the dictatorship of the short-term. At the same time, this system tragically fulfills Pascal's idea of entertainment, where the inflation of artificial needs and services distract us and fill our time with life, making us forget about death. 

In advanced economies, the year now seems to pass like a month, the month like a week, and the week like a day. Whereas time is a dimension that once linked us to nature and the very essence of our being, today this dimension is being exhausted under the weight of an economy that is moving towards a theological goal, in a complete artificialization of society. Today more than ever, the search for lost time is imperative...