Abolish Daylight Savings or Uphold Colonialism

You may recall watching the clock on Halloween this year go from 1:59 a.m. to 1 a.m. You may have celebrated the extra hour of partying. You may have commiserated with others about the dark evenings ahead. Some celebrate and glorify the time change, while others dread and denounce it. Regardless, the discourse is loud but, I would argue, largely misguided. As a Comparative American Studies major, I seize any opportunity I can to analyze everyday concepts and ideas through the lens of colonialism. And so, I argue daylight saving time should be abolished not for the sheer annoyance of it all, but because time as we know it exists to sustain the politics of power and empire. Daylight saving time, the seven-day work week, and the twelve-hour clock are not naturally occurring phenomena. Rather, they are socially constructed. Of course, time exists and has been divided in scientific and religious contexts throughout history.

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