Until the pendulum was introduced in 1658, time was imprecise, a concept foreign to the 21st century. It varied from town to town and from clock to clock. This drew my attention because in 2013, there is a single correct time, which all watches and clocks aspire to. Even after the invention of the pendulum, the concept of time was almost independent from clock to clock.
The device of a clock has progressively evolved from a simple machine to a status symbol and even a portable investment. Thomas states that the “transition to mature industrial society” (Thompson, 79) from an ignorant non-industrial culture revolves around the use of time, which changes with each generation and each person. From the increased efforts of time conservation and time utilization emerged productivity and efficiency, the cornerstones of capitalism.
Holquist starts his article by declaring his bias towards American society over Soviet society. He discusses how Bolshevik surveillance “shape[d] how people thought they could express themselves—while at the same suggesting to them that their views mattered” (Holquist, 430). If anything, Holquist depicts the spying methods of the Bolsheviks and Soviets positively by defining their purpose as “enlightening the population” (435). American culture, traditionally, would reject this view because this type of surveillance would be seen as an invasion of privacy and a desecration of personal freedoms. Holquist depicts himself as biased against Soviet culture but defends their spying in a way similar to the Soviets themselves.