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Cultural Preconceptions of Time: Can We Use Operational Time to Meddle in God's Time?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2009

Siamak Movahedi
Siamak Movahedi
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Boston
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Extract

Almost on the eve of the Iranian revolution, the shah's regime adopted a policy of daylight-saving time to cope with a chronic power shortage in Tehran, a densely populated city of more than four million people. The clock was moved ahead by an hour in the spring and set back again in the fall. Few decisions of the old government evoked as much public criticism and outcry as this one. Thousands of complaints were registered against the plan. The Department of Energy was swamped by daily protest letters and phone calls. Iran's daily newspapers printed hundreds of letters and editorials decrying the idea as absurd and futile. Comedians capitalized on the arbitrary nature of the official time as they sought to mobilize public ridicule of the government. Many people rejected the plan outright and adhered to the old time. Others kept both times. When you asked someone for the time of the day, the immediate response was “which time do you mean, the old time or the new time?” For some people, the rejection of daylight-saving time became a symbol of opposition to the shah's regime—it was at least justified as such.

Type
Establishing the Cultural Context
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , July 1985 , pp. 385 - 400
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 1985

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