--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Perhaps the deepest indication of our…" description: "\"“Perhaps the deepest indication of our slavery is the monetization of time. It is a phenomenon with roots deeper than our money system, for it depends ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7c1/charles-eisenstein-6748_big-city_perhaps-the-deepest-indication-of-our-sl_546132.jpg" --- # Perhaps the deepest indication of our slavery is the… ![“Perhaps the deepest indication of our slavery is the monetization of time. It is a phenomenon with roots deeper than our money system, for it depends on the prior quantification of time. An animal or a child has “all the time in the world.” The same was apparently true for Stone Age peoples, who…” quote by Charles Eisenstein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7c1/charles-eisenstein-6748_big-city_perhaps-the-deepest-indication-of-our-sl_546132.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7c1/charles-eisenstein-6748_big-city_perhaps-the-deepest-indication-of-our-sl_546132.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7c1/charles-eisenstein-6748_big-city_perhaps-the-deepest-indication-of-our-sl_546132.jpg) > ““Perhaps the deepest indication of our slavery is the monetization of time. It is a phenomenon with roots deeper than our money system, for it depends on the prior quantification of time. An animal or a child has “all the time in the world.” The same was apparently true for Stone Age peoples, who usually had very loose concepts of time and rarely were in a hurry. Primitive languages often lacked tenses, and sometimes lacked even words for “yesterday” or “tomorrow.” The comparative nonchalance primitive people had toward time is still apparent today in rural, more traditional parts of the world. Life moves faster in the big city, where we are always in a hurry because time is scarce. But in the past, we experienced time as abundant. The more monetized society is, the more anxious and hurried its citizens. In parts of the world that are still somewhat outside the money economy, where subsistence farming still exists and where neighbors help each other, the pace of life is slower, less hurried. In rural Mexico, everything is done mañana. A Ladakhi peasant woman interviewed in Helena Norberg-Hodge’s film Ancient Futures sums it all up in describing her city-dwelling sister: “She has a rice cooker, a car, a telephone—all kinds of time-saving devices. Yet when I visit her, she is always so busy we barely have time to talk.” For the animal, child, or hunter-gatherer, time is essentially infinite. Today its monetization has subjected it, like the rest, to scarcity. Time is life. When we experience time as scarce, we experience life as short and poor. If you were born before adult schedules invaded childhood and children were rushed around from activity to activity, then perhaps you still remember the subjective eternity of childhood, the afternoons that stretched on forever, the timeless freedom of life before the tyranny of calendar and clocks. “Clocks,” writes John Zerzan, “make time scarce and life short.” Once quantified, time too could be bought and sold, and the scarcity of all money-linked commodities afflicted time as well. “Time is money,” the saying goes, an identity confirmed by the metaphor “I can’t afford the time.” If the material world”” [Charles Eisenstein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-eisenstein/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The quote argues that turning time into a commodity creates scarcity, anxiety, and a hurried life, contrasting it with societies where time feels abundant and unmeasured. **In simple terms:** Monetizing time makes us feel rushed and poor. Key Takeaway Recognize and protect un‑monetized time. Themes time economics anxiety culture scarcity Mood reflective critical thoughtful Type philosophical social commentary cautionary When to use this quote - urban work life - rural community - personal planning - education - policy Key Concepts commodification social rhythm psychology Questions to Reflect On - How does your daily schedule reflect time scarcity? - What practices can restore a sense of abundant time? A Different Perspective Quantifying time can also improve coordination and productivity, so the critique may overlook benefits. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Big city](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/big-city/) [Experience Life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/experience-life/) [Life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life/) [Material world](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/material-world/) [Money](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/money/) [Pace of life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/pace-of-life/) [Stone age](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/stone-age/) [Time is money](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/time-is-money/) ## Related quotes > [“Time is life. When we experience time as scarce, we experience life as short and poor.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-eisenstein/time-is-life-when-we-experience-time-as-scarce-we-experience-life-as/) [Charles Eisenstein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-eisenstein/) > [Busy people all make the same mistake: they assume they are short on time, which of course, they are. But time is not their…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sendhil-mullainathan/busy-people-all-make-the-same-mistake-they-assume-they-are-short-on/) [Sendhil Mullainathan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sendhil-mullainathan/) > [The way you think you spend your time and the way you actually spend your time are rarely the same.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/douglas-merrill/the-way-you-think-you-spend-your-time-and-the-way-you-actually-spend/) [Douglas Merrill](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/douglas-merrill/) > [“Life moves fast, things change. 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I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nicholas-sparks/its-not-like-ill-never-see-you-again-i-finally-realized-yeah-itll-be/) [Nicholas Sparks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nicholas-sparks/) > [I'm so used to changing time zones that I can sleep at any time. 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Life moves faster in the big city, where we are always in a hurry because time is scarce. But in the past, we experienced time as abundant. The more monetized society is, the more anxious and hurried its citizens. In parts of the world that are still somewhat outside the money economy, where subsistence farming still exists and where neighbors help each other, the pace of life is slower, less hurried. In rural Mexico, everything is done mañana. A Ladakhi peasant woman interviewed in Helena Norberg-Hodge’s film Ancient Futures sums it all up in describing her city-dwelling sister: “She has a rice cooker, a car, a telephone—all kinds of time-saving devices. Yet when I visit her, she is always so busy we barely have time to talk.” For the animal, child, or hunter-gatherer, time is essentially infinite. Today its monetization has subjected it, like the rest, to scarcity. Time is life. When we experience time as scarce, we experience life as short and poor. If you were born before adult schedules invaded childhood and children were rushed around from activity to activity, then perhaps you still remember the subjective eternity of childhood, the afternoons that stretched on forever, the timeless freedom of life before the tyranny of calendar and clocks. “Clocks,” writes John Zerzan, “make time scarce and life short.” Once quantified, time too could be bought and sold, and the scarcity of all money-linked commodities afflicted time as well. “Time is money,” the saying goes, an identity confirmed by the metaphor “I can’t afford the time.” If the material world”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Charles Eisenstein" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-eisenstein/perhaps-the-deepest-indication-of-our-slavery-is-the-monetization-of/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Big city" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-eisenstein/perhaps-the-deepest-indication-of-our-slavery-is-the-monetization-of/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7c1/charles-eisenstein-6748_big-city_perhaps-the-deepest-indication-of-our-sl_546132.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7c1/charles-eisenstein-6748_big-city_perhaps-the-deepest-indication-of-our-sl_546132.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7c1/charles-eisenstein-6748_big-city_perhaps-the-deepest-indication-of-our-sl_546132.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Perhaps the deepest indication of our slavery is the monetization of time. 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