Industrial Clock

Since humans ran out of new new kinds of animals and foods to domesticate thousands of years ago, we can study almost any edible plant or farm animal as a microcosm of human history.

This occurred to me when a couple of readers responded to a phrase I used the other day — “industrial clock.” I was talking about how ingrained our work schedules become so we cannot escape the rhythms of the 40-hour week even after we stop going into the office.

What I was referring to with that term was the origin of the coffee break, which was developed by industrialist tycoons as a way to squeeze more productivity out of workers. I first encountered that historical curiosity when I was reviewing a book on the history of sugar many years ago.

Like many other crops, sugar started out as a luxury for the rich and powerful but has gradually filtered down to be one of the many excessive burdens of the poor and powerless.

Over 100,000 people have died of diabetes in the U.S. each of the past two years — disproportionately from minority and poor communities.

Taking sugar with coffee or tea became habitual for the poorer classes during the industry revolution. But by now, virtually everyone goes through at least some phase of sugar addiction. It’s endemic.

And of course there are other risk factors for diabetes — smoking and obesity among them — so my analysis should only be taken with a grain of (pick your substance).

But wars have been fought and empires built on control of sugar or tea or coffee or bananas and every other foodstuff; that much is indisputable.

So that is the story behind my use of the term “industrial clock.” 

(I first published this essay in early 2022.)

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