We've Got Issues: Daylight savings time

Daylight savings time is one of those convenient fictions that we choose to decidedly ignore. Until the time comes twice a year to adjust our clocks, we carry on in our lives with the assumption that our notion of time is correct and infallible.

Here's something to consider: Do we ever change the measurement of a foot? Have we ever changed the measurement of a liter? Some things are absolute, so given that, why isn't time?

What do we even gain from adjusting our clocks? As far as I can see, the only thing I lost was an hour. Last week I used to wake up and have breakfast with the sun. Now I wake up and make coffee in the darkness, feeling groggy and distant.         

The whole basis behind this irrational practice began with the need to unify local city times and synchronize them with train times. According to the Library of Congress, on Nov. 18, 1883, railroad men accomplished the demarcation of four time zones, and shortly thereafter people were compelled to conform to the trainman's time, or risk being isolated to the rest of the "timely" world.

For all intents and purposes, the trains accomplished the impossible: they held a monopoly on time itself, and were able for a short while to hold the sun still, long enough for everyone in America to conform to their schedule.

Though daylight saving time didn't officially begin here, the consequences of this date mark the first time in our history where we literally adjusted time on a national level.

I wouldn't care in the slightest if we got rid of daylight savings time.  Speaking frankly, I don't reckon you would either. It's utterly useless, inconvenient, and worst of all, a fiction. We've wisely abolished it before, and strangely enough, our society didn't collapse! Widespread panic didn't ensue! America carried on, calmly and agreeably.  When people realized that time wouldn't spin out of control, and antemeridian wouldn't suddenly switch to postmeridian, it became painfully clear that our efforts to try and "adjust" time were fruitless and asinine.

I can understand the "need" for this kind of thing, historically speaking. In the age of telegraphs, information moved at a snails pace, and it was extremely important to devise ways of synchronizing time between people over long distances.  But today, the preservation of such an absurd practice is tantamount to changing the distance of a mile twice a year. We just simply don't need it anymore.

Now, I know. This isn't the most pressing and relevant argument of the day. With all of the political and social problems we're experiencing today, it's hard to justify getting so worked up about an hour's difference on a clock. But just think of all the time we'll save!