Some sketches on the matter of time in contemporary political economy
Some sketches on the matter of time in contemporary political economy
by N. L. Kryachkov
The text below is no pretension to an exhaustive answer as to what the notion of time is for political economy. It is merely a reaction to the current historical revision of principal directions of the economic reforms in the USSR as done within the European leftist thought like, for instance, Johan Silvio Gesell's heritage. Thus the discussion may lead either to an apology of the Leftist ideology or to the criticism of same. In which case there would occur an omission of such epistemological aspect as time which, of course, is open to ideological appeals but exists beyond ideologies.
Any economic acts effected in respect of time or, rather, any suggestion that time may be used for the sake of economy – such as delay of payment – provoke the inevitable problem of defining the status of time in morals as well as in legislation. Time, what is that? Who is the lord of time and on what basis?
In the old Russian autocracy the Czar's credit policy by means of special banks for nobility might seem legitimate, due to the emperor's status as God's commissionеr on Earth, since only God can create a thing out of nothing. However, this could not prevent the hostility and hatred toward the Czar from the over-mortgaged landowners and the inevitable drift of the power over time, if at all conceivable, from the person of Czar to the power in the name of impersonal people as reflected in several consecutive constitutions by bolsheviks.
The chaos of indebtedness, the vast variety of debtors and obligations and growth of bad debts – all that disrupted the production links and made the problem of time to turn its other side, the problem of planning. It proved necessary to work out strictly scheduled and therefore attainable prospective marks to be achieved consecutively and focused on socio-economic development. But this, in turn, has led us again to the chaos of debts, i. e. making us attempt the impossible: to enter twice the same river and, moreover, remain dry.
Attributing a psychological aspect to time by means of an “extension of soul” (lat. distentio animi) entailed an “extension of exchange”. Such an approach to time has exhausted itself, but is not yet inactive. Time cannot be abolished or stopped by any Commissioner of God, nor by any democracy. Some politico-economic parallelism, at least as a discussion, would be therefore not a bad step – if not a solution of the problem of time, then rekindling of an interest in the matter.
Translated form the Russian by Geo D. Swanson.
by N. L. Kryachkov
The text below is no pretension to an exhaustive answer as to what the notion of time is for political economy. It is merely a reaction to the current historical revision of principal directions of the economic reforms in the USSR as done within the European leftist thought like, for instance, Johan Silvio Gesell's heritage. Thus the discussion may lead either to an apology of the Leftist ideology or to the criticism of same. In which case there would occur an omission of such epistemological aspect as time which, of course, is open to ideological appeals but exists beyond ideologies.
Any economic acts effected in respect of time or, rather, any suggestion that time may be used for the sake of economy – such as delay of payment – provoke the inevitable problem of defining the status of time in morals as well as in legislation. Time, what is that? Who is the lord of time and on what basis?
In the old Russian autocracy the Czar's credit policy by means of special banks for nobility might seem legitimate, due to the emperor's status as God's commissionеr on Earth, since only God can create a thing out of nothing. However, this could not prevent the hostility and hatred toward the Czar from the over-mortgaged landowners and the inevitable drift of the power over time, if at all conceivable, from the person of Czar to the power in the name of impersonal people as reflected in several consecutive constitutions by bolsheviks.
The chaos of indebtedness, the vast variety of debtors and obligations and growth of bad debts – all that disrupted the production links and made the problem of time to turn its other side, the problem of planning. It proved necessary to work out strictly scheduled and therefore attainable prospective marks to be achieved consecutively and focused on socio-economic development. But this, in turn, has led us again to the chaos of debts, i. e. making us attempt the impossible: to enter twice the same river and, moreover, remain dry.
Attributing a psychological aspect to time by means of an “extension of soul” (lat. distentio animi) entailed an “extension of exchange”. Such an approach to time has exhausted itself, but is not yet inactive. Time cannot be abolished or stopped by any Commissioner of God, nor by any democracy. Some politico-economic parallelism, at least as a discussion, would be therefore not a bad step – if not a solution of the problem of time, then rekindling of an interest in the matter.
Translated form the Russian by Geo D. Swanson.
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