The older we get, the faster time seems to pass. We usually attribute this change directly to age, thinking it has something to do with the way time is perceived after we have experienced more of life. But while this change is a matter of subjective experience, the speed of time’s passage has a different cause.
We are just as capable in old age of experiencing time as slowly as children do. We know this because time moves as glacially as it ever has when we are actively waiting for some particular event to occur. Time usually moves more quickly for us simply because we are enormously distracted. We have endless responsibilities and obligations to fulfill, and our preoccupation with these things causes time to fly. Genuine boredom is rarely experienced. Every minute of our day is accounted for with some task, even if the task is only to relax and consume media products.
Children are not nearly so preoccupied. They are largely free from the normative world of obligations, which means they are also more attentive to their own needs. This freedom means that children do experience boredom, and they respond to it in the only way appropriate: by creating new and more exciting forms of play.
Poststructuralism as a Regime of Truth: Foucault and the Paradox of Philosophical Authority
Foucault’s critique of power and knowledge shaped poststructuralism, yet its rejection of truth risks becoming its own orthodoxy. To remain...
