“There are three points in time: the right one, the missed one, and the premature one.” – (Stan Nadolny) –

„Thinking is good,“ Stan Nadolny has the father of his ponderous protagonist John Franklin explain in response to Franklin’s slowness, „but not until the offer is made to someone else.“ The sociologist Niklas Luhmann never tired of emphasizing that all action takes place within the narrow window of the present. Everything that happens, he saw, is tied to the moment. It doesn’t happen before or after. Therefore, he spoke of the „uncontrollability of simultaneity“: Those who don’t act now can no longer do anything to prevent someone else from creating facts in their place. Every reaction to unexpected events comes too late, as Bernhard Waldenfels also explains in his concept of time displacement.

Further Reading:

The Commitment to the Moment (Time Subjects)

Keywords:

Waldenfels, time displacement, Luhmann, uncontrollability of simultaneity

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