Some time ago I saw a video (unfortunately I can't find it anymore to link to it) of some leftist talking about how in many African tribes their concept of time was quite different from the western world. Something about not even having the concept of a "future" and everything being thought of and talked about in past terms.
Unsurprisingly, this wasn't presented as some kind of curiosity about an antiquated culture and belief system, and most definitely not as some form of criticism. Indeed, in a very modern leftist fashion she was presenting this as if it were a completely valid alternative and perhaps even a better system than this concept of "time" of ours. At least something to consider as a legit alternative, or something.
Of course she's not the only one talking about that, as it has been a far-leftist talking point for quite many years now. Somehow strict timetables, being on time, planning for the future, organizing things to happen in the future, is "whiteness" and "white supremacy" and "colonization". Which, of course, is absolutely asinine (and completely ignores the myriads of non-white cultures, going all the way to antiquity, that used similar exact strict measurements of time and future planning.)
Well, news flash: A culture, a form of cultural thinking, that does not worry about the future, that does not plan for the future, that doesn't even plan ahead so much as to the next day, is not a good thing.
It is, in fact, one of the reasons why sub-Saharan Africa was still literally in the stone age (no exaggeration or hyperbole) at the same time that in Europe and the far East there were gothic cathedrals, million-citizen cities full of multi-storey buildings, international economy and trade, ships that could travel across oceans, and even the printing press. It's the reason why in sub-Saharan Africa the most advanced weapons were spears and primitive bows made of wood while in Europe they had firearms. It's the reason why in sub-Saharan Africa the most advanced musical instruments were drums and maybe some primitive flutes while in Europe orchestras were playing elaborate orchestral compositions in gigantic opera houses and music halls.
(Of course, as pointed out in that other blog post, the primary reason for a lack of social and technological development, as well as the lack of planning-ahead for the future, was the lack of agriculture. But that lack of planning ahead just aggravated and perpetuated the situation, particularly when that kind of thinking became an inherent part of the culture, as pointed out by these very leftists.)
As someone quite aptly commented in the comment section of that video, the deeply ingrained "not planning ahead" / instant gratification culture can be summarized as:
When it rains: "I can't repair the roof now. It's raining."
When it doesn't rain: "Why should I repair the roof? It's not raining."
Not planning ahead did not give us mega-cities, luxuries and computers. Planning for the future did.
So no, that stone-age way of thinking about time is not a good thing.
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