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Title: A Plea for Time
Author: Harold A. Innis (1894-1952)
Date of first publication: 1950
Place and date of edition used as base for this ebook:
   University of New Brunswick, 1950 (First Edition)
Date first posted: 5 February 2008
Date last updated: 5 February  2008
Project Gutenberg Canada ebook #76

This ebook was produced by: Iona Vaughan, Marcia Brooks, Mark Akrigg
& the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net




  HAROLD
  A. INNIS

  A PLEA FOR TIME

  SESQUICENTENNIAL
  LECTURES
  1950

  UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK




A Plea for Time

by

HAROLD A. INNIS

  Dean of Graduate Studies and
  Professor of Political Economy
  University of Toronto


  _One of a series of lectures commemorating
  the 150th anniversary of the University_


Delivered at

  THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK
  MARCH 30, 1950


I must plead my bias in the title for this paper. Economic historians,
and indeed all historians, are compelled to assume a time factor and
their assumptions reflect the attitude toward time of the period in
which they write. History in the modern sense is about four centuries
old but the word has taken on meanings which are apt to check a concern
with facts other than those of immediate interest and its content is apt
to reflect an interest in immediate facts such as is suggested by the
words "all history proves". As a result history tends to repeat itself
but in the changing accents of the period in which it is written. Under
these circumstances history is threatened on the one hand by its
obsession with the present and on the other hand by the charge of
antiquarianism. Economic history is in a particularly exposed position
as is evident in the tendency to separate it from economics or to regard
it as a basis of support for economics.

Perhaps its exposed position may strengthen the urge to discover a
solution of the difficulty, particularly as it becomes imperative to
attempt to estimate the significance of the attitude towards time in an
analysis of economic change. The economic historian must consider the
role of time or the attitude toward time in periods which he attempts to
study, and he may contribute to an escape from antiquarianism and from
present-mindedness. It is impossible for him to avoid the bias of the
period in which he writes but he can point to its dangers by attempting
to appraise the character of the time concept. It has been pointed out
that astronomical time is only one of several concepts. Social time for
example has been described as qualitatively differentiated according to
the beliefs and customs common to a group and as not continuous but
subject to interruptions of actual dates.[1] It is influenced by
language which constrains and fixes prevalent concepts and modes of
thought. It has been argued by Garnet that the Chinese are not equipped
to note concepts or to present doctrines discursively. The word does not
fix a notion with a definite degree of abstraction or generality but
evokes an indefinite complex of particular images. It is completely
unsuited to formal precision. Neither time nor space are abstractly
conceived; time proceeds by cycles and is round; space is square.[2]

I have attempted to show elsewhere[3] that in western civilization a
stable society is dependent on an appreciation of a proper balance
between the concepts of space and time. We are concerned not only with
control over vast areas of space but also over vast stretches of time.
We must appraise civilization in relation to its territory and in
relation to its duration. I have also tried to show that such a state of
stability is rarely achieved and that its achievement is dependent on
powers of rationalization extremely difficult to sustain. A brief survey
of outstanding problems of time will perhaps assist in enabling us to
understand more clearly the limitations of our civilization.

The pervasive character of the time concept makes it difficult to
appreciate its nature and difficult to suggest its conservative
influence. The division of the day into twenty-four hours, of the hour
into sixty minutes, and of the minute into sixty seconds suggests that a
sexagesimal system prevailed in which the arrangement was worked out and
carries us immediately into Babylonian history.[4] The influence
persists more obviously for example in Great Britain where the monetary
system is sexagesimal. The advantages of the system are evident in
calculations which permit evasion of the problem of handling fractions
and had been exploited effectively by the development of aviation. We
are probably carried further into a civilization which was compelled to
determine with relative accuracy the seasons of the year. It is probable
that this was a religious civilization concerned with the problems of
the seasons and of agriculture and registering its concern in the choice
of festivals to mark the important dates of the agricultural year--seed
time and harvest. Dependence on the moon as a measure of time meant
exposure to irregularities and the need for a more reliable measure
dependent on the sun. Sumerian priesthoods apparently worked out a
system for correcting the year by adjustment of lunar months but it
remained for Semitic kings with an interest in the sun to acquire
control over the calendar and to make the necessary adjustments over the
extended territory under their control. Assuming religious authority the
king began the system of reckoning in terms of his own reign much as
our present statutes defy _anno domini_ and date from the accession of
the king in whose reign they are enacted. Control over time by
monarchies, with the human limitations of dynastic and military power,
was limited by the continuing power of the priesthood and by the
effectiveness of an ecclesiastical hierarchy.

In Egyptian civilization a precise knowledge of the year to determine
the approximate date of the Nile floods was even more important and it
is possible that the absolutism of the dynasties was dependent on the
ability of kings to determine the sidereal year in relation to the
appearance of the star Sirius. The power of absolute kings over time was
reflected in the pyramids which remain as a standing monument to their
confidence, in the development of mummification as a tribute to control
over eternity, and in the belief in immortality. It is possible also
that the absolute monarchy was destroyed by the priesthood which
discovered the more reliable solar year. Absolutism passed with control
over time into the hands of the priesthood and checked the expansion
over space in the Egyptian empire.

In Egypt the power of the monarchy was based on stone used in the making
of images and pyramids whereas the power of the priesthood was based on
a complex system of writing and the use of papyrus. The power of the
priesthood in Babylonia was dependent in part on a mastery of complex
cuneiform writing on clay tablets whereas the power of monarchy was
dependent on a mastery of sculpture and architecture based on stone and
was reflected in images and elaborate capitals. Relative stability was
achieved by a compromise between political and religious power over a
long period following conquest by the Kassites but in Egypt the power of
the priesthood checked possibilities of political development of the
monarchy and prevented effective conquest by conquerors such as the
Hyksos and later the Assyrians and the Persians. The Assyrians and the
Persians were compelled to recognize the power of the Babylonian
priesthood and problems of political organization in the Assyrian and
the Persian empires became insuperable with the inclusion of Babylonian
and Egyptian civilizations in which control over time remained in the
hands of the priesthood and in which that control was divided between
Babylonia and Egypt.

Monopolies of the knowledge of time under the control of priesthoods in
Babylonia and in Egypt limited the success of political organizations
in their expansion over space and facilitated the development of
marginal organizations such as those of the Jews in Palestine. Periods
of expansion and retreat of political organization from Egypt or from
Babylonia weakened an emphasis on political organization and
strengthened an emphasis on religious organization. The marginal
relation to cultures with monopolies of complex systems of writing
favoured the development of relatively simple systems of writing such as
emerged in the alphabet of the Phoenicians and the Aramaeans. Religious
organization emphasized a system of writing in sharp contrast with those
of Egypt and Babylonia and in compensation for lack of success in
political organization with control over space built up an elaborate
ecclesiastical organization with control over time. The latter
emphasized the sacred character of writing and drew on the resources of
Egyptian and Babylonian civilizations to an extent obvious to students
of the Old Testament.

The contributions of the Babylonian priesthood to astrology and
astronomy culminated in the introduction of a system of chronology in
the era of Nabonassar in 747 B. C. With this system the periodic
character of celestial phenomena became evident and led to the
domination of fatalism based on scientific knowledge. The apparent
certainty of predictions gave Babylonia an enormous influence on
religious cults in the Near East.

Contact of barbarians on the north shore of the Mediterranean with older
civilizations was followed by the emergence of Greek civilization. An
emphasis on problems of space incidental to a concern with conquest of
territory was evident in the Homeric poems developed in the oral
tradition. Geometry with its bias toward measurement and space imposed
restrictions on a concern with time. The spread of a money economy
strengthened an interest in numbers and arithmetic and in turn in
mystery religions in conflict with the established Appollonic religion.
The flexibility of an oral tradition enabled the Greeks to work out a
balance between the demands of concepts of space and time in a city
state. In the reforms of Cleisthenes control over time was wrested from
religion and placed at the disposal of the state. The results of a
balanced society were evident in the defeat of the Persians and the
flowering of Greek culture in the fifth century. But such a balance was
not long maintained. The spread of writing in the latter part of the
century accentuated strains which destroyed Greek civilization.

Following the collapse of Greece and the success of Alexander, the east
was divided in the Hellenistic kingdoms. In Alexandria the Ptolemies
attempted to offset the influence of the priesthood and of Babylonian
science by the encouragement of research in libraries and museums.
Aristotelian influence was evident in the concern with science and in
developments in astronomy. The names of the planets and constellations
remain as testimonials to the interest of antiquity in astronomy. Leap
year was introduced in 238 B. C. After the conquest of Egypt by the
Romans, Julius Caesar employed an Egyptian astronomer, Sosigenes, to
work out an accurate calendar and it is probably suggestive that the new
calendar recognized the festivals of Isis and contributed to the spread
of Egyptian and other religions in the empire. Exploitation of the
irregular measurement of time and the demands of the republic for
regularity of time and the power of Julius Caesar in enforcing it led to
the adoption of January 1, 46 B. C. or 708 from the date of the
foundation of Rome and a year of 365-1/2 days. Alternate odd months were
given 31 days and even months 30 days excepting February which had 29
days and 30 days every fourth year. The month following that named for
Caesar namely July, was called Augustus and was given the same number of
days. A day was taken from February and given to August. September and
November were reduced to 30 days and October and December increased to
31 days to avoid three months in succession with 31 days. Control over
time exercised by a powerful bureaucracy continued in the empire at Rome
and at Constantinople. It recognized a fixed date of reckoning namely
that of the foundation of the city and reflected the interest of Rome in
the unique character of a single day or hour and the belief that
continuity was a sequence of single moments. An emphasis on specific
single acts at a unique time contributed to the growth of Roman law
notably in contracts. Time is of the essence of the contract.

The break between the east and the west culminating in the crowning of
Charlemagne enabled the church to establish a new time base namely the
birth of Christ. Significantly Charlemagne was apparently the first
secular authority to give the new scheme official recognition. Control
of the church was recognized in the reform introduced by Gregory XIII in
March 1582 which recognized the inaccuracy of a year based on 365-1/4
days and reckoned the 5th of October as the 15th of October. It was not
until 1750 that Great Britain accepted the calendar and under statute
ordered the 2nd of September 1752 to be regarded as the 14th of the
month, and it was not until the overthrow of the Tsarist regime in
Russia that the Julian calendar was abolished in favour of the
Gregorian. The Christian system followed Roman religion in giving a
fixed year, that of the birth of Christ, a unique and fixed position.
Control over time was not only evident in chronology but also in its
place in the life of the Middle Ages. Spread of monasticism and the use
of bells to mark the periods of the day and the place of religious
services introduced regularity in the life of the west. The use of sun
dials, limited in the more cloudy skies of the north gave way to water
clocks and finally to more effective devices for measuring time with
greater precision.[5] As in Egypt and in Rome control over time was
emphasized by architecture notably in the enduring monuments of the
Gothic cathedrals.

Regularity of work brought administration, increase in production,
trade, and the growth of cities. The spread of mathematics from India to
Bagdad and the Moorish universities of Spain implied the gradual
substitution of Arabic for Roman numerals and an enormous increase in
the efficiency of calculation.[6] Measurement of time facilitated the
use of credit, the rise of exchanges and calculations of the predictable
future essential to the spread of insurance. With these developments the
church lost control over time to the new nationalist state though its
interest in time is evident in its control over feast days. Introduction
of paper, and invention of the printing press hastened the decline of
Latin and the rise of the vernaculars. The printing press supported the
reformation and destroyed the monopoly of the church over time. Science
met the demands of navigation, industry, trade and finance by the
development of astronomy and refined measurements of time which left
little place for myth or religion. The church recognized at an early
date the threat of astronomers to the monopoly over time and treated
them accordingly.

The struggle between church and state for control over time had centred
about the iconoclastic controversy in the Byzantine empire in the east
and in a series of measures in the states in the west. In Germany the
struggle became acute in the religious wars and in England first in the
abolition of the monasteries, and later as the Tudors assumed the mantle
of divine right from the papacy and in turn, control over time, in the
struggle over monopolies[7] under Elizabeth and James I, and in the
absolute supremacy of parliament. The control of parliament over time
was evident in the statute of limitations, in restrictions on the period
for patents and copyright, in the rule against perpetuity in wills, and
in abolition of entail. It was not until 1774 that perpetual copyright
in common law was destroyed by a decision of the courts following the
refusal of Scottish courts to recognize the pretensions of English
common law and the London booksellers.

It is beyond the bounds of this paper to enumerate the inventions for
the measurement of time or to suggest their implications to the various
developments of modern industrialism. I am concerned rather with the
change in attitudes toward time which precede the modern obsession with
present-mindedness and which suggest the balance between time and space
has been seriously disturbed with disastrous consequences to Western
civilization. I suggested earlier that the character of the medium of
communication tends to create a bias in civilization favourable to an
overemphasis on the time concept or on the space concept and that only
at rare intervals are the biases offset by the influence of another
medium and stability achieved. Dependence on clay in Sumerian
civilization was offset by dependence on stone in Babylon and a long
period of relative stability followed in the reign of the Kassites. The
power of the oral tradition in Greece which checked the bias of a
written medium supported a brief period of cultural activity such as has
never been equalled. Dependence on the papyrus roll and use of the
alphabet in the bureaucracy of the Roman Empire was offset by dependence
on parchment codex in the Church and a balance was maintained in the
Byzantine Empire until 1453. "Church and army are serving order through
the power of discipline and through hierarchical arrangement."
(Metternich).[8] On the other hand in the West the bias of the parchment
codex became evident in the absolute dominance of the church and
supported a monopoly which invited competition from paper as a new
medium. After the introduction of paper and the printing press,
religious monopoly was followed by monopolies of vernaculars in modern
states. A monopoly of time was followed by a monopoly of space.

A balanced civilization in its concern with the problem of duration or
time and of extent or space is faced with several difficulties. Systems
of government concerned with problems of duration have been defeated in
part by biological considerations in which dynasties fail to provide
a continued stream of governing capacity and by technological
considerations in which invaders are able to exploit improvements in the
technology of warfare at the expense of peoples who have neglected them.
Writing as a means of communication provides a system of administration
of territory for the conquerors and in religion a system of continuity
but in turn tends to develop monopolies of complexity which check an
interest in industrial technology and encourages new invaders. "For
where there is no fear of god, it must either fall to destruction, or be
supported by the reverence shown to a good Prince; which indeed may
sustain it for a while, and supply the want of religion in his subjects.
But as human life is short, its government must of course sink into
decay when its virtue, that upheld and informed it, is extinct."
(Machiavelli). A balanced concern with space or extent of territory and
duration or time appears to depend on a dual arrangement in which the
church is subordinate to the state and ensures that the mobilization of
the intellectual resources of the civilization concerned, by religion or
by the state, will be at the disposal of both and that they will be used
in planning for a calculated future in relation to the government of
territory of definite extent. If social stratification is too rigid and
social advancement is denied to active individuals as in plutocracies a
transpersonal power structure will be threatened with revolt.[9]

Lack of interest in problems of duration in Western civilization
suggests that the bias of paper and printing has persisted in a concern
with space. The state has been interested in the enlargement of
territories and the imposition of cultural uniformity on its peoples,
and losing touch with the problems of time, has been willing to engage
in wars to carry out immediate objectives. Printing has emphasized
vernaculars and division between states based on language without
implying a concern with time. The effects of division have been evident
in development of the book, the pamphlet and the newspaper and in the
growth of regionalism as new monopolies have been built up. The revolt
of the American colonies, division between north and south, and
extension westward of the United States have been to an important extent
a result of the spread of the printing industry. In the British Empire
the growth of autonomy and independence among members of the
Commonwealth may be attributed in part to the same development. In
Europe division between languages has been accentuated by varying rates
of development of the printing industry. Technological change in
printing under constitutional protection of freedom of the press in the
United States has supported rapid growth of the newspaper industry. Its
spread to Anglo-Saxon countries has sharpened the division between
English and languages spoken in other areas and in turn contributed to
the outbreak of the first world war.[10] Not only has the press
accentuated the importance of the English language in relation to other
languages, it has also created divisions between classes within English
speaking countries. Emphasis on literacy and compulsory education has
invoked concentration on books with general appeal and widened the gap
between the artist concerned with improvement of his craft and the
writer concerned with the widest market.

Large scale production of newsprint made from wood in the second half of
the 19th century supported large scale development of newspaper plants
and a demand for effective devices for widening markets for newspapers.
The excitement and sensationalism of the South African war in Great
Britain and of the Spanish American war in the United States were not
unrelated to the demands of large newspapers for markets. Emergence of
the comics[11] coincided with the struggle for circulation between
Hearst and Pulitzer in New York. Increased newspaper circulation
supported a demand for advertising and for new methods of marketing,
notably the department store. The type of news essential to an increase
in circulation, to an increase in advertising, and to an increase in the
sale of news was necessarily that which catered to excitement. A
prevailing interest in orgies and excitement was harnessed to the growth
of trade. The necessity for excitement and sensationalism had serious
implications for the development of a consistent policy in foreign
affairs which became increasingly the source of news. The reports of
McGahan, an American newspaper man, on Turkish activities were seized
upon by Gladstone and led to the defeat of Disraeli.[12] The activity of
W. T. Stead in the _Pall Mall Gazette_ was an important factor in the
fiasco of Gordon's expedition to Egypt. While it would be fatal to
accept the views of journalists as to their power over events it is
perhaps safe to say that Northcliffe played an important role in
shifting the interest of Great Britain from Germany to France and in
policy leading to the outbreak of war.

Technological advance in the production of newspapers accompanied the
development of metropolitan centres. In the period of western expansion
"all these interests bring the newspaper; the newspaper starts up
politics, and a railroad."[13] A large number of small centres were
gradually dwarfed by the rise of large cities. In turn the opinion of
large centres was reflected in their newspapers and in an emphasis on
differences. "No," said Mr. Dooley. "They've got to print what's
different."[14] Large centres became sources of news for distribution
through press associations and in turn press associations became
competitive with an emphasis on types of news which were mutually
exclusive. The United Press became competitive with the International
News Service (Hearst) and with the Associated Press. The limitations of
news as a basis of a steady circulation led to the development of
features and in particular the comics and photography. Improvements in
the reproduction of photographs coincided with the development of the
cinema. News and the cinema complemented each other in the emphasis on
instability. As a result of the struggle between various regions or
metropolitan centres political stability was difficult to achieve. "It
is one of the peculiar weaknesses of our political system that our
strongest men cannot be kept very long in Congress."[15] While Congress
was weakened the power of the President was strengthened. Theodore
Roosevelt appealed to the mass psychology of the middle class and
significantly gave the press a permanent room in the White House.[16]
Oswald Garrison Villard claimed that "Theodore Roosevelt did more to
corrupt the press than anyone else."[17]

The steadying influence of the book as a product of sustained
intellectual effort was destroyed by new developments in periodicals and
newspapers. As early as 1831 Lamartine would write "Le livre arrive trop
tard; le seul livre possible ds aujourd'hui, c'est un journal." The
effect of instability on international affairs has been described by
Moltke who wrote: "It is no longer the ambition of princes, it is the
mood of the people, the discomfort in the face of extreme conditions,
the doings of parties, particularly of their leaders, which endanger
peace."[18] The western community was atomized by the pulverizing
effects of the application of machine industry to communication. J. G.
Bennett is said to have replied to someone charging him with
inconsistency in the _New York Herald_ "I bring the paper out every
day." He was consistent in inconsistency. "Advertisement lives in a one
day world."[19]

Philosophy and religions reflected the general change. "It was the
gradually extended use of the printing press that dragged the obscure
horrors of political economy into the full light of day: and in the
western countries of Europe the new sect became rampant."[20] Hedonism
gained in importance through the work of Bentham. Keynes has described
his early belief by stating that he belonged to the first generation to
throw hedonism out the window and to escape from the Benthamite
tradition. "I do now regard that as the worm which has been gnawing at
the insides of modern civilization and is responsible for its present
moral decay. We used to regard the Christians as the enemy, because they
appeared as the representatives of tradition, convention and
hocus-pocus. In truth it was the Benthamite calculus based on an
over-calculation of the economic criterion, which was destroying the
quality of the popular Ideal."[21] "This escape from Bentham, joined to
the unsurpassable individualism of our philosophy ... served to protect
us from the final _reductio ad absurdum_ of Benthamism known as
Marxism." But Keynes was to conclude "we carried the individualism of
our individuals too far" and thus to bear further testimony to the
atomization of society. Economists (Physiocrats) "believed in the future
progress of society towards a state of happiness through the increase of
opulence which would itself depend on the growth of justice and
'liberty' and they insisted on the importance of the increase and
diffusion of knowledge."[22] The monopoly of knowledge which emerged
with technological advances in the printing industry and insistence on
freedom of the press checked this development. In religion "the new
interest in the future and the progress of the race" unconsciously
undermined "the old interest in a life beyond the grave; and it has
dissolved the blighting doctrine of the radical corruption of man."[23]

The Treaty of Versailles recognized the impact of printing by accepting
the principle of the rights of self-determination and destroyed large
political organizations such as the Austrian Empire. Communication based
on the eye in terms of printing and photography had developed a monopoly
which threatened to destroy Western civilization first in war and then
in peace. This monopoly emphasized individualism and in turn instability
and created illusions in catchwords such as democracy, freedom of the
press and freedom of speech.

The disastrous effect of the monopoly of communication based on the eye
hastened the development of a competitive type of communication based on
the ear. Effectiveness of an appeal to the ear was enhanced by
development of the radio and by the linking of sound to the cinema and
to television. Printed material gave way in effectiveness to the
broadcast and to the loud speaker.[24] Political leaders were able to
appeal directly to constituents and to build up a pressure of public
opinion on legislatures. In 1924 Al. Smith appealed directly by radio to
the people and secured the passage of legislation threatened by
Republican opposition. President F. D. Roosevelt exploited the radio as
Theodore Roosevelt had exploited the press. He was concerned to have the
opposition of newspapers in order that he might exploit their
antagonism. It is scarcely necessary to elaborate on his success with
the new medium.

In Europe an appeal to the ear made it possible to destroy the results
of the Treaty of Versailles as registered in the political map based on
self-determination. The rise of Hitler to power was facilitated by the
use of the loud speaker and the radio. By the spoken language he could
appeal to minority groups and to minority nations. Germans in
Czecho-Slovakia could be reached by radio as could Germans in Austria.
Political boundaries in relation to the demands of the printing industry
disappeared with the new instrument of communication. The spoken
language provided a new base for the exploitation of nationalism and a
far more effective device for appealing to larger numbers. Illiteracy
was no longer a serious barrier.

The effects of new media of communication evident in the outbreak of the
second world war were intensified during the progress of the war. They
were used by the armed forces in the immediate prosecution of the war
and in propaganda both at home and against the enemy. In Germany the
realism[25] of the war was exploited by taking moving pictures of
battles and showing them in theatres almost immediately afterwards. The
German people were given an impression of realism such as compelled them
to believe in the superiority of German arms and realism became not only
most convincing but also with the collapse of the German front most
disastrous. In some sense the problem of the German people is the
problem of Western civilization. As modern developments in communication
have made for greater realism they have made for greater possibilities
of delusion. We are under the spell of Whitehead's fallacy of misplaced
concreteness. The shell and pea game of the country fair has been
magnified and elevated to a universal level.

The printing industry had been characterized by decentralization and
regionalism such as had marked the division of the Western world in
nationalism and the division and instability incidental to regions
within nations. The radio appealed to vast areas, overcame the division
between classes in its escape from literacy, and favoured centralization
and bureaucracy. A single individual could appeal at one time to vast
numbers of people speaking the same languages and indirectly, though
with less effect, through interpreters to numbers speaking other
languages. Division was drawn along new lines based on language but
within language units centralization and coherence became conspicuous.
Stability within language units became more evident and instability
between language units more dangerous.

The influence of mechanization on the printing industry had been evident
in the increasing importance of the ephemeral. Superficiality became
essential to meet the various demands of larger numbers of people and
was developed as an art by these compelled to meet the demands. The
radio accentuated the importance of the ephemeral and of the
superficial. In the cinema and the broadcast it became necessary to
search for entertainment and amusement. The demands of the new media
were imposed on the older media, the newspaper and the book. With these
powerful developments time was destroyed and it became increasingly
difficult to achieve continuity or to ask for a consideration of the
future. An old maxim "sixty diamond minutes set in a golden hour"
illustrates the impact of commercialism on time. We would do well to
remember the words of George Gissing "Time is money--says the vulgarest
saw known to any age or people. Turn it round about, and you get a
precious truth--money is time."[26]

May I digress at this point on the effects of these trends on
universities. William James held that the leadership of American thought
was "passing away from the universities to the ten-cent magazines."[27]
Today he might have argued that it had passed to the radio and
television. But it is still necessary to say with Godkin in the last
century "There is probably no way in which we could strike so deadly a
blow at the happiness and progress of the United States as by sweeping
away, by some process of proscription kept up during a few generations,
the graduates of the principal colleges. In no other way could we make
so great a drain on the reserved force of character, ambition, and
mental culture which constitutes so large a portion of the national
vitality."[28] By culture he meant "the art of doing easily what you
don't like to do. It is the breaking-in of the powers to the service of
the will."[29]

If we venture to use this definition we are aware immediately of the
trends in universities to add courses because people like to do them or
because they will be useful to people after they graduate and will
enable them to earn more money. In turn courses are given because
members of the staff of the universities like to give them, an
additional course means a larger department and a larger budget and
moreover, enables one to keep up with the subject. These tendencies
reflect a concern with information. They are supported by the text book
industry and other industries which might be described as information
industries. Information is provided in vast quantities in libraries,
encyclopedias and books. It is disseminated in universities by the new
media of communication including moving pictures, loud speakers, with
radio and television in the offing. Staff and students are tested in
their ability to disseminate and to receive information. Ingenious
devices, questionnaires, intelligence tests are used to tell the student
where he belongs and the student thus selected proceeds to apply similar
devices to members of the staff. A vast army of research staff and
students is concerned with simplifying language and making it easier for
others to learn the English language and for more people to read and
write what will be written in a simpler language. I have attempted to
use the word information consistently though I am aware that the proper
word is education. George Gissing has referred to "the host of the half
educated, characteristic and peril of our time. Education is a thing of
which only the few are capable ... only a small percentage profit by
your most zealous energy."[30] "To trumpet the triumphs of human
knowledge seems to me worse than childishness; now, as of old, we know
but one thing--that we know nothing."[31]

The relative adaptability of various subjects to mechanical transmission
has threatened to destroy the unity of the university. "The University,
as distinct from the technological school, has no proper function other
than to teach that the flower of vital energy is Thought, and that not
Instinct but Intellect is the highest form of a supernatural Will."[32]
It tends to become a congeries of hardened avid departments obsessed
with an interest in funds in which the department which can best prove
its superficiality or its usefulness is most successful. Governments
have been insensitive to the crucial significance of a balanced unity in
universities and have responded to the pleas of specific subjects with
the result that an interest in unity has been distorted into that
strange inartistic agglomeration of struggling departments called the
modern university. The University of Oxford has recognized the threat
and has set up a committee on the effects of university grants on
balance in university subjects. It will probably be argued that social
scientists have lost out in this race for government grants or that they
should suffer for views as to the dangers of direct government
intervention in the social sciences to the political health of the
community. But I am afraid that like other subjects if the federal
government should provide grants the social scientist would be on hand
with the most beautifully developed projects for research that federal
money could buy.

Under these circumstances we can begin to appreciate the remarks of an
Oxford don who said after solving a very difficult problem in
mathematics "Thank God no one can use that." There must be few
university subjects which can claim immunity or few universities which
will refrain from pleading that its courses are useful for some reason
or other. The blight of lying and subterfuge in the interests of budgets
has fallen over universities, and pleas are made on the grounds that the
universities are valuable because they keep the country safe from
socialism, they help the farmers and industry, they help in measures of
defence. Now of course they do no such thing and when such subjects are
mentioned you and I are perfectly able to detect the odour of dead fish.
Culture is not concerned with these questions. It is designed to train
individuals to decide how much information he needs and how little he
needs, to give him a sense of balance and proportion, and to protect him
from the fanatic who tells him that Canada will be lost to the Russians
unless he knows more geography or more history or more economics or more
science. Culture is concerned with the capacity of individuals to
appraise problems in terms of space and time and to enable him to take
the proper steps at the right time. It is at this point that the
tragedy of modern culture has arisen as inventions in commercialism have
destroyed a sense of time. "Our spiritual life is disorganized, for the
over-organization of our external development leads to the organization
of our absence of thought."[33]

The limitations of Western culture can perhaps be illustrated by
reference to the subject with which I pretend some acquaintance, namely
the social sciences. Enormous compilations of statistics confront the
social scientist. He is compelled to interpret them or to discover
patterns or trends which will enable him to predict the future. With the
use of elaborate calculating machines and the development of refinements
in mathematical technique he can develop formulae to be used by industry
and business and by governments in the formulation of policy. But
elaboration assumes prediction for short periods of time. The difficulty
of handling the concept of time in economic theory and of developing a
reconciliation between the static and dynamic approaches is a reflection
of the neglect of the time factor in Western civilization. It is
significant that Keynes should have said that in the long run we are all
dead and that we have little other interest than that of living for the
immediate future. Planning is a word to be used for short periods--for
long periods it is suspect and with it the planner. The dilemma has been
aptly described by Polany: "laissez-faire was planned, planning is not."
The results have been evident in the demand for wholesale government
activity during periods of intense difficulty. The luxury of the
business cycle has been replaced by concerted measures directed toward
the welfare state and full employment. Limited experience with the
problem has involved expenditures on a large scale on armaments.

The trend towards centralization which has accompanied the development
of a new medium of communication in the radio has compelled planning to
a limited extent in other directions. Conservation of natural resources,
government ownership of railways and hydro-electric power for example in
Canada and in T. V. A. in the United States, and flood control are
illustrations of a growing concern with the problems of time but in the
main are the result of acute emergencies of the present. Concern with
the position of Western civilization in the year 2000 is unthinkable. An
interest in 1984 is only that of the satirist or the utopian and is not
applicable to North America. Attempts have been made to estimate
population at late dates or the reserves of power or mineral resources
but always with an emphasis on the resources of science and with
reservations determined by income tax procedure, financial policy or
with other expedients. Obsession with present-mindedness precludes
speculation in terms of duration and time. Morley has written of the
danger of a "growing tendency to substitute the narrowest political
point of view for all the other ways of regarding the course of human
affairs and to raise the limitations which practical exigencies may
happen to set to the application of general principles, into the very
place of the principles themselves. Nor is the process of deteriorating
conviction confined to the gusty or noisier transactions of nations....
That process is due to causes which affect the mental temper as a whole,
and pour round us an atmosphere that enervates our judgment from end to
end, not more in politics than in morality, and not more in morality
than in philosophy, in art, and in religion."[34]

Concern of the state with the weakening and destruction of monopolies
over time has been supported by appeals to science whether in an
emphasis on equilibrium suggested by the interest of the United States
in a balanced constitution following Newtonian mathematics or in an
emphasis on growth, competition and survival of the fittest of Darwin.
Attempts to escape from the eye of the state have been met by succession
duties, corporation laws and anti-combine legislation. The demands of
technology for continuity have been met by rapid expansion of the
principle of limited liability and devices such as long term leases
guaranteeing duration but these have provided a base for active state
intervention in income taxes. Little is known of the extent to which
large corporations have blocked out the utilization of future resources
other than in matters of general policy. A grasping price policy
sacrifices indefinite possibilities of growth. A monopolist seeks an
expanding business at a reasonable profit rather than the utmost
immediate profit.[35] Organization of markets and exchanges facilitates
the determination of predictions and the working out of calculations
which in turn have their effect on immediate production as an attempt to
provide continuity and stability, but its limitations progressively
increased as evident in business cycles and their destruction of time
rigidities. The monopoly of equilibrium was ultimately destroyed in the
great depression and gave way to the beginnings of the monopoly of a
centralized state. The disappearance of time monopolies facilitated the
rapid extension of control by the state and the development of new
religions evident in fascism, communism and our way of life.

The general restiveness inherent in an obsession with time has led to
various attempts to restore concepts of community such as have appeared
in earlier civilizations. The middle ages have appeared attractive to
economic historians, guild socialists and philosophers, particularly
those interested in St. Thomas Aquinas. "The cultivation of form for its
own sake is equally typical of Romanticism and classicism when they are
mutually exclusive, the romantic cultivating form in detachment from
actuality, the classicist in subservience to tradition." (Fausset).[36]
It is possible that we have become paralyzed to the extent that an
interest in duration is impossible or that only under the pressure of
extreme urgency can we be induced to recognize the problem. Reluctance
to appraise the Byzantine empire may in part be a result of paralysis
reinforced by a distaste for any discussion of possible precursors of
Russian government. But the concern of the Byzantine empire in the Greek
tradition was with form, with space and time. The sense of community
built up by the Greeks assumed a concern with time in continuity and not
in "a series of independent instantaneous flashes" (Keynes) such as
appealed to the Romans and western Christianity. "Immediacy of
presentiment was an inevitable enemy to construction. The elementary,
passionate elements of the soul gave birth to utterances that would tend
to be disconnected and uneven as in the rhythm of emotion itself."[37]
There was a "parallel emergence, in all the arts, of a movement away
from a need which whether in ascendant or not, was always felt and
honoured, the craving for some sort of continuity in form."[38] The
effort to achieve continuity in form implies independence from the
pressure of schools and fashions and modes of expression. In the words
of Cazamian the indefinite duration of productive vitality in art and
letters requires that the individual writer or reader be reinstated in
the full employment of rights.[39]

Wyndham Lewis has argued that the fashionable mind is the time denying
mind.[40] The results of developments in communication are reflected in
the time philosophy of Bergson, Einstein, Whitehead, Alexander and
Russell. In Bergson we have glorification of the life of the moment,
with no reference beyond itself and no absolute or universal value.[41]
This contemporary attitude leads to the discouragement of all exercise
of the will or the belief in individual power. The sense of power and
the instinct for freedom have proved too costly and been replaced by a
dummy sham independence of democracy.[42] The political realization of
democracy invariably encourages the hypnotist.[43] The behaviourist and
the psychological tester have their way. In the words of one of them
"Great will be our good fortune if the lesson in human engineering which
the war has taught us is carried over, directly and effectively, into
our civil institutions and activities." (C. S. Yoakum).[44] Such
tactlessness and offence to our good sense is becoming a professional
hazard to psychologists. The essence of living in the moment and for the
moment is to banish all individual continuity.[45] What Spengler has
called the Faustian West is a result of living mentally and historically
and is in contrast with other important civilizations which are
"ahistoric". The enmity to Greek antiquity arises from the fact that its
mind was ahistorical and without perspective.[46] In art classical man
was in love with plastic whereas Faustian man is in love with music.[47]
Sculpture has been sacrificed to music.[48]

The separation and separate treatment of the senses of sight and touch
have produced both subjective disunity and external disunity.[49] We
must somehow escape on the one hand from our obsession with the moment
and on the other hand from our obsession with history. In freeing
ourselves from time and attempting a balance between the demands of time
and space we can develop conditions favourable to an interest in
cultural activity.

It is sufficient for the purpose of this paper if attention can be drawn
on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of a university on this
continent to the role of the university in Western civilization. The
university is probably older than Hellenistic civilization and has
reflected the characteristics of the civilization in which it
flourished, but in its association with religion and political
organization it has been concerned with problems of time as well as of
space. I can best close this paper by an appeal to Holy Writ. "Without
vision the people perish."


FOOTNOTES:

[1] P. A. Sorokin and R. K. Merton, "Social time: a methodological and
functional analysis," =American Journal of Sociology= (1936-7) Vol. 42.

[2] R. K. Merton, "The Sociology of Knowledge," =Twentieth Century
Sociology=, ed. G. Gurvitch and W. E. Moore. (New York, 1945) 387-8.

[3] =Empire and Communications= (Oxford 1950); also "The Bias of
Communication," =The Canadian Journal of Economics and Political
Science=, (November, 1949).

[4] See J. T. Shotwell, "The Discovery of Time," =The Journal of
Philosophy, Psychology, and Scientific Methods= (1915), 198-206,
254-316. It is argued that mathematics made the use of time possible.

[5] A. P. Usher, =A History of Mechanical Invention= (New York, 1929);
also Lewis Mumford, =Technics and Civilization= (New York, 1934).

[6] L. T. Hogben, =From Cave Painting to Comic Strip= (London, 1949) pp.
103ff.; see also Etienne Hajnal, "Le rle social de l'ecripture et
l'evolution europienne," =Revue de L'Institut de Sociologie=, (1934).

[7] C. H. McIlwain, =Constitutionalism, Ancient and Modern= (Ithaca,
1940) p. 124.

[8] Cited Alfred Vagts, =A History of Militarism= (New York, 1937) p.
16.

[9] N. S. Timasheff, =An Introduction to the Sociology of Law=
(Cambridge, 1939) p. 207.

[10] H. A. Innis, =The Press--A Neglected Factor in Economic History in
the Twentieth Century= (London, 1949).

[11] Coulton Waugh, =The Comics= (New York, 1947).

[12] Archibald Forbes, =Souvenirs of Some Continents= (London, 1894).

[13] Mathew Josephson, =The Robber Barons, the Great American
Capitalists, 1867-1901= (New York, 1934), p. 27.

[14] Cited L. M. Salmon, =The Newspaper and the Historian= (New York,
1923) p. 29.

[15] Brand Whitlock, =Forty Years of It= (New York, 1925) p. 157.

[16] Matthew Josephson, =The President Makers, 1896-1919.= (New York,
1940) p. 145.

[17] Oswald Garrison Villard, =Fighting Years, Memoirs of a Liberal
Editor= (New York, 1939) p. 151.

[18] Alfred Vagts, =A History of Militarism=, p. 173.

[19] =Ibid.=

[20] Wyndham Lewis, =Time and Western Man= (London, 1927) p. 28.

[21] John Maynard Keynes, =Two Memoirs= (London, 1949) pp. 96-7.

[22] J. B. Bury, =The Idea of Progress, an Inquiry into its Origin and
Growth= (London, 1920) p. 175.

[23] J. B. Bury, =A History of Freedom of Thought= (London, 1928) p.
227.

[24] William Albig, =Public Opinion= (New York, 1939) p. 220.

[25] S. Kracauer, =From Caligari to Hitler= (Princeton, 1947) pp. 297-8.

[26] George Gissing, =The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft= (London,
1914) p. 287.

[27] =The Changing Years, Reminiscences of Norman Hapgood= (New York,
1930).

[28] E. L. Godkin, =Reflections and Comments, 1865-1895= (New York,
1895), p. 157.

[29] =Ibid.=, p. 202.

[30] George Gissing, =op. cit.=, p. 70.

[31] =Ibid.=, p. 178.

[32] Henry Adams, =The Degradation of the Democratic Dogma= (New York,
1919) p. 206.

[33] Albert Schweitzer, =The Decay and the Restoration of Civilization=
(London, 1932) p. 32.

[34] John Viscount Morley, =On Compromise= (London, 1921) p. 6.

[35] J. M. Clark, =Alternative to Serfdom= (New York, 1948) p. 65.

[36] E. E. Kellett, =Fashion in Literature= (London, 1931) p. 282.

[37] Louis Cazamian, =Criticism in the Making= (New York, 1929) p. 72.

[38] =Ibid.=, p. 64.

[39] The novelists Smollett, Fielding, Sterne and Richardson and the
cockney artist Hogarth all had an intimate connection with early
journalism, sharing its time sense as a series of discrete movements
each without self-possession as well as its notion of the concrete as
residing in the particular entity or event sensorily observed.

[40] Milton Klonsky, "Along the Midway of Mass Culture," =Partisan
Review=, (April, 1949) p. 35.

[41] =Time and the Western Man= (London, 1927) p. 24.

[42] =Ibid.=, p. 27.

[43] =Ibid.=, p. 316.

[44] =Ibid.=, p. 42.

[45] =Cited ibid.=, p. 342.

[46] =Ibid.=, p. 29.

[47] =Ibid.=, p. 285.

[48] =Ibid.=, p. 299.

[49] =Ibid.=, p. 419.




[End of _A Plea for Time_ by Harold A. Innis]