Time Out of Mind

In today’s society, we are expected to embrace decadence and become indifferent to the future of ourselves and others. What is needed, rather than hedonism, is a sense of solidarity to gain freedom – for both self and society. A more meaningful approach to solving societal problems and even personal issues is with the idea of self-determination and knowing that we do not have to become mere products of our environment.

To fully rely on faith, the supernatural, or simply time is an approach of those who cannot grasp a sense of prudence – or understanding. There is no “natural” course in a socially rational world and we can look to Newton’s third law for this.

One must also be able to make the distinction between behavior and action. Behavior occurs with little or no thought, while action is the result of conscious processes. The focus of a social atmosphere must be on the action, in which thought intervenes between stimulus and response. Behavior, therefore, is basically meaningless — at least in the sense that people simply do it without giving it much or any thought.

The following is an excerpt from Martin Luther King Jr’s beautifully powerful essay entitled, “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” which parallels nicely to my ideas – and it drives my point home. It is as follows:

I had also hoped that the white moderate would reject the myth concerning time in relation to the struggle for freedom. [...] Such an attitude stems from a tragic misconception of time, from the strangely rational notion that there is something in the very flow of time that will inevitably cure all ills. Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively.

More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men willing to be co-workers with God, and without this ‘hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.

Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy and transform our pending national elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.

- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “Letter From Birmingham Jail”

To rely on time alone to resolve problematic circumstances is to allow for thoughtless behavior to take control of self-direction, or lack there of. It is infantile and lazy to allow for tumultuous times to simply “play out.” People say that time heals all wounds. Not so true – we have to be our own best advocates for our own mental health and emotional well-being (for both society as a whole and individual). And to do this, we must be objective, rational and proactive.