This year, we get an additional month of Daylight Saving Time, so tomorrow will see a national case of jet lag, with the accompanying rise in fatal accidents. The tradeoff is supposedly a minute decrease in energy consumption. Where are the chants of “No Blood for Oil!” when we need them?
This year, inspired by Jonah Goldberg’s fine book on Liberal Fascism, I have a new thought on the evils of this semiannual resetting of the clock.
The case for DST has always rested on more than its alleged economic benefits. I remember when, in my childhood, Washington State voted on adopting the gimmick. The “yes” campaign ads didn’t say a word about energy; their slogan was, “Enjoy an extra hour of daylight”. As a preteen, I could see that the “extra” hour was merely shifted from another part of the day. Older citizens were evidently more gullible, as the measure passed handily.
At what hour people wake up and go to bed ought to be outside the scope of the government’s interest, if anything is. Yet DST proponents presume to decide the preferred shape of everybody’s day and pass laws to promote that preference. This is nannyism on stilts. The health nazis at least have the excuse that most of what they wish to ban really is bad for your health. Trying to force people to change their sleep schedules twice a year lacks that justification (in fact, is unhealthy) and, once the diaphanous economic arguments are taken off the table, serves only a gauzy aesthetic purpose. The images of kids playing in the park and couples strolling in the sunset as twilight gently falls are poetic but ridiculously far outside the legitimate concerns of government. Here is another instance, to add to the many that Jonah cites, of petty fascism creeping in.
Standardizing weights and measures is within the governments purview though and Daylight savings time falls under that.
I still find it irritating. But I don't find it a usurpation of my perogatives.
Posted by: Jason Taylor | Monday, March 10, 2008 at 09:24 AM