Why live another year?
Embracing the linearity of time is the key to a more moral political system and a less painful & more dignified life.
Translation of an article on Al-Akhbar
We call it a new year, but the point at which we chose to start our years —January 1st— is arbitrary. In science’s eyes, there’s nothing special about this “date”—the Earth is just at one of countless points of its orbit around the sun.
Why did we choose to maintain calendars of years? Keeping track of seasons was essential for agricultural societies, so the solar cycle made sense. But interestingly, virtually all human societies, even non-agricultural ones, on all continents, kept track of solar cycles.
The human relation to time is inherently one of fear. Time implies loss—every second that passes is one we will never recover. Time implies the unknown—Time is that place where unexpected things might occur. Time implies nothingness—It reminds us of our inexorable procession toward death. And time is all powerful—There is nothing we humans can do to stop it.
So it helps to view time as circular instead of linear. Breaking down our irrecuperable, unstoppable procession toward the unknowns of life and of death into regular units gives us an illusion of control. “The new year” and its “resolutions” phrase the unknown as a repeat of the known and give us the illusion of agency. Illusions that comfortably numb us as time goes on and as our time on this Earth draws closer to its end.
If you can, I invite you to refuse this. Earth and its life forms are suffering, more as every second passes. Some aspects of this are inherent to life—creatures will grow sick, grow old and die. Others are not and are caused by the capitalist and colonial structure we live in (22,000 people died due to smoking on December 31st). The new year being a repeat of the old year means that this will keep happening until the new-er year comes.
If you can, I invite you to refuse this. Earth and its life forms require a new political structure—one at the antithesis of the one we live in. To dismantle the existing structure and replace it, we need more than “solidarity” and “community”. We need to organize in political moments that understand the socio-political dynamics of the current system, that have a vision of the alternative, that cultivate —among its members and organization-wide— the capacity to view reality outside dominant viewpoints, and that manage to build the capacity to effect political change. In a way, political movements that understand the inexorability of time.
If you can, I invite you to take this leap from the comfort of renewal to the regaining of agency. A leap toward a more moral political system, toward a less painful and more dignified life. It is scary. But I can think of no other reason why to live another year.
“I await socialism for this reason too. Because it will hurl into the trash all of these dates which have no resonance in our spirit and, if it creates others, they will at least be our own, and not the ones we have to accept without reservations from our silly ancestors.” — Antonio Gramsci, I Hate New Year’s Day
Yes, all regularity (like a cycle) gives a feeling of predictability and safety - yet the frightening linear time is also the dimension in which the effects of our actions (arising from our multi-facetted agency) unfold - a frontier we must have the courage to understand (from the past) and model, then simulate/extrapolate into the future - and influence it based on all that - toward the goals underlying our agency.
I completely agree that: " We need to organize in political moments that understand the socio-political dynamics of the current system, that have a vision of the alternative, that cultivate —among its members and organization-wide— the capacity to view reality outside dominant viewpoints, and that manage to build the capacity to effect political change"