Is Being On Time White Supremacy?

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Alright Tim, the question for today's episode is, is being on time white supremacy?

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I mean, I guess so. You guess so? I wasn't expecting you to say that.

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Why do you say you guess so? I mean, if white people prioritize being on time more than other people, and they're successful at it,

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I guess that means they're supreme in it. I don't think that's quite the question

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I was asking. That's not what you were asking?

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You got an E for effort on that one. You got a C for creative.

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So the question isn't, are white people supreme at being on time?

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The question is, is being on time white supremacy? I mean, alright, so basically, if you're using the words in the literal sense, then you can answer one way apparently.

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But no, I mean, so I guess white supremacy in this context, the way you're asking it, just means bad.

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Yeah, is it evil? No, no, no, I don't mean bad, I mean evil. An abomination.

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Oppressive, yeah. So basically, you have the

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National Museum of African American History who basically put out that infamous poster on internalized aspects of whiteness to where punctuality showing up on time was an internalized aspect of whiteness that apparently

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African American people suffer from. So the idea behind that kind of statement, essentially, is the idea that cultural expectations for timeliness differ from culture to culture, essentially.

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And then in America, I mean, there's

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German time. German time is a lot more strict than American time, so to speak, but different cultures have different expectations for that.

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Those expectations are differing, even in America, with different ethnicities.

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So if you're going to talk about white expectations for time, they're different than black expectations for time or something along those lines. And then if white people expect black people to show up on time and don't make allowances for a lack of timeliness, then that would be,

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I guess, an exercise of colonial dominance or something along those lines. Now you're getting that,

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Tim. Okay, yeah. All right. Yeah, so basically you're asking me, is that bad?

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Like, would it be—so the question behind the question is then, is it bad for— like, is timeliness important?

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I mean, there's several questions behind the question. So one is, is timeliness important in general? Like, does

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God value timeliness? Is timeliness subjective?

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Like, is it just purely subjective? And then, you know, kind of a third component of that is, should like one cultural group— should they impose their standards of timeliness on another, or would that be somehow bad?

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So all that, right? Yeah, yeah. All right. So, I mean, I think if you can just kind of— if you can think through the principle, is timeliness, punctuality, is that culturally relative?

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And I think there's a part of this discussion that has to do with just where we're at in this moment of history in general.

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Meaning, like, we all have—like, most people in America, we have phones. We have phones that tell us the time.

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We have GPSs, you know, right now, that have made it such that, like,

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I can— you know, if you have a GPS, you put your destination, and you have a car, right? So you have a car that has a clock.

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You have a phone that has a clock. You have a built -in GPS in your phone that can tell you exactly when you're going to get from point

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A to point B within the minute, right? So within a minute variance.

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And so at this point in history, most of the built -in excuses that individuals might have for a lack of timeliness are being removed.

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Meaning, like, we all have very accurate clocks that are all coordinated together that mean that we all, give or take, can fine -tune our expectations of when things start.

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And it may be that if you lived in a time pre, you know, watches or clocks or all that, then you're going to throw a party or something along those lines.

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Then you tell people, like, hey, we're going to have a party, you know, tomorrow evening or something like that, right?

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And then there's some expectation— like, it's kind of an open invitation to come whenever you want kind of thing, and there's no expectations.

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Hey, we're going to have a party. It's going to start at 6 o 'clock, and you need to get there, give or take, between, you know, 6.

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6 o 'clock, you know, between 6 and 6 .01

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if you're German or something, you know, 6 and 6 .15 if you're American. So part of it is, yeah,

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I mean, maybe, you know, with the unique levels of technology that we have right now that allow us to be more timely, you know, you can take a step back from that, and then you can ask yourself, well, is there some kind of universal binding expectation that God puts on the human race to respond in a timely way as defined by a society that has, like, phones and clocks and GPSs and all that with the exact, you know, precision that we expect at this point in history?

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Or, you know, is it perfectly reasonable to respond in the timeliness that one might expect of a primitive society that has none of these things?

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Does that make sense? All right. So part of it is, like, well, does this new, like, part of this is a question of, yeah, well, does this new technology introduce, like, more, like, differing expectations upon us?

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I mean, you can ask this question in different ways, even related to, like, if you send someone a text, is there some sort of expectation in your mind that they will respond to that text immediately?

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Do they gain that access to you now that you have a phone that they didn't before that to where, like, what does, like, response look like now as compared to in a society where you'd have to send a letter and wait, you know, weeks to get an answer back from your letter or something along those lines?

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I mean, I think all of those are valid kind of questions to ask of this, but then they all kind of muddy the water about what's actually being communicated in general as it relates to this topic.

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Okay. What do you mean? Well, I mean, like, if you're in America and you're, you know, you all have access to the same phones and you all have access to GPS and you all, like, you all have this kind of access.

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You have the same kind of stuff. You know what time it is. And then you're communicating certain expectations, you know, particularly this mainly becomes important in the area of business and work and everything else to where you do have to coordinate certain things.

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You have to coordinate, like, if we're going to make food, you have to coordinate when is that food going to be ready? Like how am

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I going to keep the food hot? Right. That kind of thing. And then if you're going to have meetings all day, you know, you have appointments that you're scheduled, like you're a doctor, you have a doctor's office, you're trying to figure out how to be as efficient as possible with the people who are coming to see you.

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You have to set certain schedules and have some sort of expectation that people are going to follow those. And then if, you know, if you're having to make allowances for, like, all right, you're going to show up on time.

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One people group is going to show up on time. Another people group might show up within a six -hour window. Like it becomes absolutely impossible to do business under those kind of terms.

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So, like, you know, part of this is like, if you just kind of take, take a step back, like, you know, every culture has to figure out how to operate in some sort of efficient way.

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And then, you know, as you're thinking about these kinds of things, you have to figure out, well, how are we going to operate in an efficient way?

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And those cultures that have like demonstrably, like the more efficient you are as a culture, the better it is for everyone, right?

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Yeah. So now that we have access to all these things, I mean, you just look at that and you say, well, what, what does the

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Bible say? How does the Bible apply to this kind of topic of punctuality and timeliness? And, you know, the

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Bible does say, like, you let your yes be yes and your no be no. And anything else from that is from the evil one.

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So if you do, like, there is an expectation. If you communicate to someone that you are going to be at a certain place at a certain time, and there's no reason you shouldn't be, then it's a matter of integrity at that point to actually follow through with that.

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Does that make sense? So letting your yes be yes and your no be no. If I say, hey, I'm going to get here at six, then

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I should get there at six. And now everyone has some sort of like category for human beings being fallible.

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We're not like God. We can't make absolute binding commitments that we're going to absolutely do something like that.

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But there is a certain kind of person who's going to say, yeah, I'll be there at six. And to them, that means I'm going to be there probably at 630.

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Right? Right. Yeah. And there's a kind of person who says, I'm going to be there at six. And that means they're going to get there at 545.

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And then there's the kind of person that says, I'm going to get there at six. And that means I'm going to get there at, you know, 605.

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And all like the problem is that the more that people are expecting you to make broader allowances for when they're going to show up, it makes planning and coordination almost impossible.

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Okay. So if you have to plan for the 545, the 605 and the 630. Yeah. It just gets like to be a mess.

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Right. So, you know, thinking about it along those lines, like just being punctual, the idea of being punctual is the idea of just integrity.

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That's all it is. It's the idea of integrity. It's the idea of just doing what you say you're going to do. And so, like now, like greater degrees of precision are possible now, but then if you move it out to a society that doesn't have those degrees of precision that are possible, there's still like whatever you communicate you're going to do, you should do.

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You get what I'm saying? Yeah. So come over this evening. Well, that doesn't mean the morning. Right.

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That doesn't mean tomorrow. Okay. So whatever you communicate, you should stick to that. Right. And now you say, well, you think about it as it relates to God, whatever

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God communicates he's going to do, he's going to do. And God is like way more precise than even the strictest

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German on German time. Okay. The strictest German on German time. I mean, he is.

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I mean, so like he upholds the universe by the word of his power. Like science is possible because God is so precise.

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He does exactly what he says he's going to do. Right. So the sun rises when it's going to rise according to his plan.

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And it does so in a very precise way. The planet is rotating in a very precise way.

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When God knows the day and hour of his return and he has it planned out to the millisecond and he's not going to be late 30 minutes to his second return or second coming.

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Yeah. Yeah. Like he knows exact. So part of this is like God is very precise.

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He knows the day, the hour, the moment of your death is all going to happen according to his plan.

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And there's a moment planned for you when you're going to die that he's planned before the foundation of the world and you're heading towards that.

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And there's nothing that's going to stop that. You're going to die at that exact moment. And he has it decreed. And he knows exactly when it is.

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And so for God, because he's God, he can make the outcome exact.

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Right. So now as it relates to us because we're fallible, maybe we obviously can't act with the same degree of precision that God does.

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But to the extent to which we can, we should. Does that make sense? Mm -hmm. And that's just part of letting your yes be yes and no be no.

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So does that mean like the Japanese subway conductors in Japan, they're like two minutes late and they issue public apologies to the city for being two minutes late?

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Have you heard about that before? Yeah. Well, I mean, but that's what's amazing. So that's a good, that reflects well on a society.

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Do you understand what I mean? Yeah. Like the fact that they can time their subways to such precision in the way that they do factoring and all sorts of variables.

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That's like a good thing. Like that's not just like white supremacy or something like that. That's a good thing. Like that's what every culture should be striving to that level of efficiency because everyone can plan their life around that level of efficiency.

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Right. And they're not even white and they're doing that. No, but that's like a great thing.

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And so like to the degree to which your society can do that, that's a good thing because it lets everyone know what's happening.

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And then when you have people who refuse to follow those kinds of expectations, then you get in real problems really quick.

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Okay. So, I mean, like I work a job like my blue collar job or whatever, like it's a job that I have to deal a lot with construction workers and construction people.

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And like construction superintendents can be some of the most like unreliable people imaginable, like as it relates to this kind of thing.

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Meaning like they're the kind of people who like they will tell you I'll be there in five minutes.

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And you know, like you can predict with almost mathematical certainty, they probably won't be here for 20 minutes, you know, five minutes.

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If they say, oh, wait, what's generally going to happen is they're going to say I'll be there in five minutes. Right. And then like 10 minutes after they're supposed to be there, they'll call you and say they're running a little late.

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They'll be there in five minutes again. And so, you know, like, I mean, you know, from the outset, like it's probably going to be about 30 minutes.

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Yeah, I've been in those situations. And then there's times where, you know, you're kind of asked, you're supposed to meet them at a certain time and give them a 15 minute heads up.

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And if you know they're going to be 30 minutes late, then the thought comes into your mind. Well, how do I communicate to a person who I know is lying to me?

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Like I know they're lying to me. I know they're not going to do what they say. And so how do

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I even plan for this? Do I tell them like when I'm 45 minutes out that I'm going to be there in 15 minutes so that we can time it at the right time?

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You know, is that me contextualizing this time is relative, you know, timeliness, punctuality is relative and say, all right.

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So when you say 15, you'll be there in 15. You mean you'll be there in 45. So when I say I'll be there in 15,

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I mean 15. So basically I need to use your definition of 15 or my definition of 15.

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Right. And it gets really, I mean, it's like you can't really like this is like a horrible way to interact.

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You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Like this isn't a help. Like what needs to happen is you need people who actually like,

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I mean, I know people who are so unreliable as it relates to this kind of stuff that they can be literally looking at their

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GPS, which is telling them they won't be there until 15 minutes. And then they'll tell you I'll be there in five just so that you won't get upset with them.

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Right. Yeah. So, but then all that ends up happening is it's like you just lied in order to keep them hanging, you know, and then they'll say, oh,

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I'm still got some traffic. You know, I'll be there in a few. And all that's happened is you develop a reputation for just being unreliable.

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Right. Yeah. So anyways, I mean, yeah, I mean, punctuality is great. And to the extent to which we can be punctual, you know, we should.

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And the societies that get better at being functional, they accomplish a lot more than the societies where you say, hey, show up to work at this time.

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And it could be, you know, who knows how long it's going to take, you know, how long, you know, this is just a horrible way to live life.

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Okay, fair enough. This has been another episode of Bible Bashed.

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