Time for a change. A time change, that is.

Tomorrow morning, Nov. 5, at 2:00 a.m., America will revert back to Standard time and move the hands on the clock back one hour. This will (supposedly) give everyone an extra hour of sleep, although in my case, it will not matter. I go to sleep when I am tired and get up when I wake up–a pattern which is not driven by the clock.

For some history on the subject and “justification” for the practice, see here, here, and here.

For the next few months, Standard time will be the norm until Daylight Saving Time is resurrected again in the spring. The ritual is repeated over and over again, year after year, with some attempts made to end it and no real expectation that it will be. This is nonsense and foolishness on a grand scale as there is no good and compelling reason for its continuation. In fact, there is only bureaucratic inertia, as Federal regulations forbid individual states to maintain Daylight Saving Time (DST) year-round, and everyone knows (or should) that when a regulation is entered into the Federal Register, it never comes out.

Sort of like the Hotel California. “You can grumble and complain all you like, but you can never leave.”

The main problem with making the shift to a uniform time, regular or DST, is that when anything is proposed, some special interest group will squawk and ramp up their efforts to persuade the politicians according to their own “lights”. Pardon the pun. Such is life under democracy, but ultimately, this shifts the power of decision-making to the bureaucracy which will never, ever rock the boat until and unless overwhelming power and influence is brought against them. Career bureaucrats simply do not change unless forced, therefore, the way we measure time will not change either.

My personal preference is that DST is maintained year-round, giving us more daylight in the evening. Of course, this means that I would have to drive to work during the winter months in darkened conditions, often wet and/or icy, with whitetail deer crossing the road in total disregard of oncoming traffic. (It is my observation that mule deer are not prone to this suicidal habit, only the whitetails, but I am not a Scientist and, therefore, have not done any “controlled, replicable experiments” on the theory. That has no bearing on the subject. I just threw it in as a bonus. Value added, you know.)

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has introduced legislation numerous times to make DST permanent…and failed every time. While I disagree with the man on many, many, many issues, in this he and I are in lockstep.

“This ritual of changing time twice a year is stupid. Locking the clock has overwhelming bipartisan and popular support. This Congress, I hope that we can finally get this done,” Rubio said in a press release on March 2.

https://time.com/6261629/daylight-savings-time-2023/

There are multiple arguments put forth in favor of DST and just as many against it. I will not elaborate here. You can easily find them online. However, I have a theory which, as far as I know, has never been mentioned by anyone else. This is not to say that I am the originator, but I have never heard it from another source. Perhaps you have and can send me a link. Perhaps I am just being overly suspicious.

My theory is that the government, all-powerful in its own eyes, simply cannot resist the temptation to tinker with and control time. Considering that DST in America began with Woodrow Wilson, that despicable progressive piece of humanity, and considering that DST has now become a Fixture of American Life, it is not far-fetched to think that there are those in power who actually believe they have the authority to change time itself. Obviously, they cannot change the way the sun rises in the morning and sets in the evening, but they can alter the means we use to measure the amount of daylight we experience.

One thing will not change, however. Midnight and midday, those natural occurrences which designate the points halfway between sunrise and sunset will never be altered. No matter how much we, in our perceived arrogance, seek to obfuscate and confuse the issue, midnight and midday will always be with us…exactly as they have been from the very beginning. Considering my obstinate insistence on accuracy, probably I will have to change my own attitude and start advocating for reality, otherwise known as Not Daylight Saving Time.

It really will not matter to me whichever way it goes. I just want to have one set time and stop having to make the requisite bi-annual adjustments on my clocks.