Christiane Müller-Wichmann has rightly complained, in irritation and anger, that it is always also a question of taking into account the chance of disposing of remaining residues of time, in order not to lose sight of the 'unequal access to time'. For managers and other
favoured groups of people, despite their quantitative burden, are nevertheless capable of largely structuring their time themselves. Because they are able, as it were, both to increase time and to make free time in the first place from empty remnants, they are presented with possibilities which women above all do not have, the organization of whose time is either strictly laid down or extremely fragmented, so that the available remnants of time cannot be assembled into meaningful free time.⁵
The problem of the unequal availability of proper time arises again here. But despite these striking differences, the feeling of the lack of time in the face of the wealth of alternative possibilities – of consuming, of working, of living – is spreading in general. Every decision which is made is a destroyed possibility. Above all through modern means of communication, people have become more aware how else they might spend their days or hours. They therefore experience the lack of time more clearly. Whenever they concentrate on a piece of information, they deny themselves the possibility of fully concentrating on another one. 'They are more aware of other places in the world where they might be, with other men, or other women, at other meetings, at other conferences, at other exhibitions, on other trails, reading other books, on other moonlit nights."
The Longing for the Moment
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