When we’re in trouble, we ask, “When did things go wrong?” Here are some possibilities:
• Things went wrong when we replaced Elvis singing “Love Me Tender, Love Me True” with rappers and rockers using language we can’t repeat in polite company, or even in impolite company.
• Things went wrong when the Great Society payed women with children not to have a man in the house. As a result, 70% of minority kids grow up without a father.
• Things went wrong when we replaced “Is it right?” with “Is it legal?” and then with “Can I get away with it?”
• Things went wrong when we replaced a handshake with a bevy of lawyers seeking a hole in the contract.
• Things went wrong when we replaced Sunday morning church with sleeping late and the game.
• Things went wrong when we replaced “adolescent,” meaning becoming an adult, with “teenager,” meaning teenager.
• Things went wrong when we tried to get rid of super-patriots and nearly got rid of all patriots.
• Things went wrong when we tried to get rid of “toxic masculinity” and nearly got rid of all masculinity, leaving women to wonder where they can find a man they can depend on.
• Things went wrong when we got rid of the extended family, then the nuclear family, and then replaced husband and wife with partner, or simply boyfriend and girlfriend. A 45-year-old boyfriend? Acting like high school in middle age? How’s that working out?
But my theory is that things went wrong when we had the hubris to imagine that we could overcome the motions of the Sun and Earth. So we proclaimed Daylight Saving(s) Time. Beyond the arrogance, there is the reality that little or no energy is actually saved.
“A California Energy Commission study concluded that extending DST had little or no effect on energy consumption. A U.S. Department of Energy report found a decrease in energy use per day of extended DST, but only by 0.5 percent.”
It was bad enough when we inserted ourselves in the place of Moses receiving the Ten Commandments. But then we inserted ourselves in the place of God Himself. No more commandments, no more rules, now no more standard time. Well, at least that’s my theory. What’s yours?