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} If I may answer your last question first, chronological indifference is
} a widely argued topic that scholars across many different fields of
} discipline still to this day struggle to address. Ever since the
} domestic post-war period of peace leading in to the uneasy cold-war
} paranoia, there emerged and flourished a staunch contingent of people,
} mostly children of surviving World-War libertines, whose psychological
} makeup simply did not meet with the mold of what was considered the
} "norm" at that time. Whether this was a result of the sheltered
} innocence of their upbringing (as compared to the prevailing
} shell-shocked post-war consciousness and the subsequent inequivalency
} of interpersonal communication therewith) or simply a natural tendency
} to shirk the mantle of middle-class complacency indirectly forced upon
} them by their parents, guardians, and figures of authority, is a
} question for psychologists. The undeniable result, however, was a
} sub-culture of people prone to socially dehabilitating, long-lasting
} periods of depression, often accompanied by lachrymation and fits of
} mild hysteria. It became evident to these people during their dolor
} that the subdividing of their periods of lachrymose into measurable
} chronological units was folly (perhaps because in their state of
} dementia such quantifications proved too difficult). Nevertheless,
} these people were in a state of chronological indifference, satisfied
} with the notion "We've got time enough to cry."
}
} By the time the Soviets began to realize their place as a Eurasian
} superpower and to dig their political tendrils into Western
} governments, a larger and more vocal subset of the American culture
} directed their social uneasiness to an entirely different emotional
} extreme: paranoia. Unlike the aforementioned "sad" group, these people
} were typically made up of the American bourgeois and were mostly
} positive, outgoing, and contributing members of society. In fact, one
} might say this crowd exhibited an unhealthy attraction to the "American
} way of life," as it existed in their own family units and as it was
} portrayed on the radio and TV. As Communism reared its head, many of
} this crowd buckled under the pressure of what surely after the Cuban
} Missile Crisis seemed like an inevitable rise to power of World
} Communism, and as a result, an intense fear of the USSR (and especially
} nuclear destruction) set in. This fear and paranoia was every bit as
} socially dehabilitating as the post-war ennui exhibited by the "sad"
} group, and had the curious effect of making its victims chronologically
} indifferent, although this quality often manifested itself in a more
} brusque fashion. A famous example of this was the often-told story of a
} woman who told a stranger "My diamond watch has stopped cold dead!" to
} which the angst-ridden stranger replied "Who cares? We've all got time
} enough to die!"
}
} As the millenium comes to a close, the Western world is now comprised
} of the children and grandchildren of the postwar era. Planes, trains,
} and other scheduled forms of transport are exhibiting exponentially
} increased amounts of chronological imbalance, while we as individuals
} are continuing to make excuses for being late to work, late for dinner,
} late to Johnny's ball practice, etc. at a rate far surpassing the
} development of devices such as cellular phones and microwaves that are
} supposed to act as "time-savers." Truly, the concept of "What time is
} it?" has never been in greater peril than in these modern times.
} Whether this is because of the society-altering sociopsychological
} developments of our predecessors or because of newer, more distracting
} bugaboos such as Travelgate or El Nino, it cannot be denied that the
} footprint of chronological indifference cast by our fathers in the wet
} concrete of the Third World still matches the outline of the feet of
} all of us today.
}
} If I may answer your first question last, it's 3:22 p.m. CST.
}
} You owe the Oracle some blood, sweat, and/or tears.
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