Time possesses the property that it can only be experienced as conflict, states Rinderspacher; in this it resembles health or justice.8Where it does not stand in contradiction to one's own desire, where the infringement of temporal standardizations is not subject to social, economic or psychological sanctions, time as such becomes incapable of being experienced. But the conflicts which make time capable of being experienced in this way are of very different origin in the constellations of power which spark them off and in the outlines of society presented as ideal in each case. In the analysis of the conflicts over time, if not before, it becomes clear that time represents a central dimension of power which manifests itself in the systems of time that dictate priorities and speeds, beginning and end, content and form of the activities to be performed in time. In the beginning, it was the priests $\mathbf { w h o } ,$ in almost all societies, established the prevailing systems of time in accordance with those of the supernatural order, and separated sacred times from profane. Today, the systems of time are chiefly fixed by the market and the state. The market fixes times via the work to be done and the exchange relations between time and money. The state imposes its system of time via the legal system and thus structures the lives of its citizens. Standard biographies are created and legitimized, exceptions established. The law dictates biographical status – from when until when somebody is a child, a youth or an adult; which times are earmarked for military service or are given off for the birth and education of children; when the withdrawal from working life and going into retirement becomes obligatory. On the market, time is subject to the more universal medium of money with regard to the material and social range of its effect. Money can be accumulated and stored;
Politics of Time
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