"We all have our time machines, don't we. Those that take us back are memories. And those that carry us forward, are dreams." - H. G. Wells, The Time MachineTraveling in time means almost nothing in H.G. Wells' The Time Machine. Well, it's a fun way to tell a story. But past that, time traveling is merely a literary conceit, a way to tell a story that considers social, economic, and political realities of 19th-century England. This post will consider the action of the novel and time traveling from an economic and political perspective, thus making a Marxist interpretation. No bore of the worlds here, we've got some ideas to ideate, so let's go.
H. G. Wells' Time (Saving) Machine
“What, unless biological science is a mass of errors, is the cause of human intelligence and vigour? Hardship and freedom: conditions under which the active, strong, and subtle survive and the weaker go to the wall.” - The Time MachineH. G. Wells' time machine, a complex piece of engineering with a chair that the rider sits in and controls to navigate with, reflects the locomotive and the gas powered automobile, new dynamos of transportation that allowed technologically advanced European countries to dominate their colonies. The military could be more rapidly deployed with more rapid transportation. Trade was made more rapid, meaning that colonial spaces became more valuable since the time commitment (and thus the labor commitment) to extract resources from colonies was greatly reduced. Instead of vast heart of darkness, the colonial world was accessible. Instead of taking months to penetrate regions, it might now take weeks or even just days.
Why travel a million years when you can just travel far and fast within the world you live in to exploit those living in your own time? The traveler didn't have to transgress the fourth dimension, he only had to optimize his use of the regular flow of space time.
Why travel a million years when you can just travel far and fast within the world you live in to exploit those living in your own time? The traveler didn't have to transgress the fourth dimension, he only had to optimize his use of the regular flow of space time.
European colonizers in their new machines, by traveling far, almost had the sense of traveling through time. Those hearts of darkness were peopled by primitive groups that had no contact with the advancements of the Western world. When colonists appeared with superior technology, the future arrived all of the sudden even though the time didn't change. But then again, advanced machines did alter the space and time they entered.
When H. G. Wells wrote his now classic science fiction novel, humans had not yet mastered the air, but the idea of a device that could cut down the time it takes to get from one part of the world to the other is very much like a time machine. In the 19th century, no one had yet experienced the disorientation of jet lag. No one had traveled fast enough to feel like they didn't belong in the space they found themselves in.
The Working Class vs The Captains of Industry
In the future, the time traveler discovers that the era's captains of industry are exploiting the working class. This owner class, the Morlocks, are a race of men living underground that have mastery over machines. The Eloi--meaning "the chosen"--are simple folk that lives above ground and don't do all that much other than eat. The Morlocks allow the Eloi to fatten up and then they eat them. But if the time traveler was at all aware of British life, he wouldn't have been all that surprised.
The owners of industry in the 19th century weren't eating people. At least, they weren't out-and-out cannibalizing them. But working conditions in the factories of the 18th and 19th centuries were so bad, that they might as well have been cannibalizing the workers. People worked without rest. They were turned into machines, reflecting the new industrial age.
The owners of industry in the 19th century weren't eating people. At least, they weren't out-and-out cannibalizing them. But working conditions in the factories of the 18th and 19th centuries were so bad, that they might as well have been cannibalizing the workers. People worked without rest. They were turned into machines, reflecting the new industrial age.
Because industrialization gave England a technological and military edge over the non-European world, there was simply no motivation to set limits to the operation of English factories. Laissez faire capitalism reigned, the workers be damned and the environment, who cares about that?
It is unfortunate that humans embraced industrialization without thought to the future and the destruction wrought on the environment. CO2, unlike other gases, does not quickly dissipate. Once it hits the atmosphere, it takes somewhere between three hundred years to thousands of years for CO2 to clear out. So, CO2 molecules that have been released from smokestacks and tailpipes since the beginning of the industrial age are still present in our atmosphere. One day, nanotechnology will be able to scrub all of the carbon dioxide out of our air and water and leave the earth as shiny and new as it was before the first factory belched out its pollution, but it will take time to fully develop that technology, and we don't have a time machine that can speed up the process.
“Very often the children are woken at four in the morning. The children are carried on the backs of the older children asleep to the mill, and they see no more of their parents till they go home at night and are sent to bed.” Richard Oastler, interviewed in 1832.
Children were overworked and fell asleep on machines and were often badly injured or killed from falling into machinery. Even if they weren't physically caught in machines, children were often deformed from working long hours in unnatural positions. Workers lost fingers and limbs. The air in the factories was bad, causing diseases and cancer.
Not working was not an option. Wages were so low that workers couldn't get ahead; they lived hand to mouth. And because of the enclosure acts, the countryside was no longer an option. Mortality rates in London soared during the industrial age, but the population of London continually stayed on the rise since work was available.
Meanwhile, the captains of industry became incredibly wealthy by exploiting a captive and expendable workforce. As cancer and work accidents consumed the workforce, a new body filled the previously vacated position.
It is unfortunate that humans embraced industrialization without thought to the future and the destruction wrought on the environment. CO2, unlike other gases, does not quickly dissipate. Once it hits the atmosphere, it takes somewhere between three hundred years to thousands of years for CO2 to clear out. So, CO2 molecules that have been released from smokestacks and tailpipes since the beginning of the industrial age are still present in our atmosphere. One day, nanotechnology will be able to scrub all of the carbon dioxide out of our air and water and leave the earth as shiny and new as it was before the first factory belched out its pollution, but it will take time to fully develop that technology, and we don't have a time machine that can speed up the process.
Child Labor & Exploitation of the Worker
Consider that children were put to work in factories and mines as early as the age of four. And work was from dawn till dusk:“Very often the children are woken at four in the morning. The children are carried on the backs of the older children asleep to the mill, and they see no more of their parents till they go home at night and are sent to bed.” Richard Oastler, interviewed in 1832.
Children were overworked and fell asleep on machines and were often badly injured or killed from falling into machinery. Even if they weren't physically caught in machines, children were often deformed from working long hours in unnatural positions. Workers lost fingers and limbs. The air in the factories was bad, causing diseases and cancer.
Not working was not an option. Wages were so low that workers couldn't get ahead; they lived hand to mouth. And because of the enclosure acts, the countryside was no longer an option. Mortality rates in London soared during the industrial age, but the population of London continually stayed on the rise since work was available.
Meanwhile, the captains of industry became incredibly wealthy by exploiting a captive and expendable workforce. As cancer and work accidents consumed the workforce, a new body filled the previously vacated position.
Time Perspectives in The Time Machine
Because The Time Machine is now over 120 years old, we have the privilege of considering the real future of H.G. Wells' time traveler. Are working conditions better in the 21st century? It depends on which societies we examine. The industrial revolution is ongoing. In post-industrial nations like England and the United States, people still work in factories but sanctions protect workers (although the US could do with ensuring a minimum standard of living especially to erase child poverty). The economy of post-industrial societies is diverse, meaning that the industrial sector isn't the only thing going.But in nations that are still in the nascent stage of their own industrial revolution, work conditions worthy of the Eloi still exist. Wages are low, hours are long, and workplace risks are high. Human trafficking and child labor still occurs. You don't need a time machine to take you into the dark spaces where human rights are nonexistent.
So far, as much as we've traveled into the future, industries have remained a consistent source of woe to the disenfranchised among our human population.
When Wells' time traveler travels even further in the future, millions of years deep, he finds a devolved version of humans, weird slow-moving, stupid things. They live as crabs, deformed predators scuttling slowly across a primordial land, still looking for a mark to exploit but totally unrecognizable from the human species.
Wells warns that by exploiting humans, we lose our humanity. And we lose it fast--we lose it immediately. No time traveling machine is needed to see the strange fruit of exploiting our fellow man. We don't have to travel to some distant future to gain perspective about the chasm existing between the upper class and disenfranchised peoples. But perhaps as time progresses we will mourn the loss of primitive peoples with their treasure of culture and traditions handed down through generations that our society has so cavalierly tossed aside.
“But to me the future is still black and blank – is a vast ignorance." H. G. Wells, The Time Machine
So far, as much as we've traveled into the future, industries have remained a consistent source of woe to the disenfranchised among our human population.
When Wells' time traveler travels even further in the future, millions of years deep, he finds a devolved version of humans, weird slow-moving, stupid things. They live as crabs, deformed predators scuttling slowly across a primordial land, still looking for a mark to exploit but totally unrecognizable from the human species.
Wells warns that by exploiting humans, we lose our humanity. And we lose it fast--we lose it immediately. No time traveling machine is needed to see the strange fruit of exploiting our fellow man. We don't have to travel to some distant future to gain perspective about the chasm existing between the upper class and disenfranchised peoples. But perhaps as time progresses we will mourn the loss of primitive peoples with their treasure of culture and traditions handed down through generations that our society has so cavalierly tossed aside.
“But to me the future is still black and blank – is a vast ignorance." H. G. Wells, The Time Machine
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Escape from New York by John Carpenter
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