(maybe) we're (not so) condemned to be free

Passage below is taken from Goenawan Mohamad's On God and Other Unfinished Things pg.14

"Killing time" is an unfortunate expression, particularly here, in the corridor of Senen Station. The clock is shadowy. It is not clear whether time has become frozen in space. But as the train starts to move with increasing speed, one realizes that in this busy city, time gains strength. It may be abstract, but it is never a void. It is full of potent force.

Time is money, people now say, often half-whining, but never without conviction. Speed is an increasing determinant, while geographic markers will soon become mere figments of the imagination. In the realm of the stock market, where fund transfers take place in an instant, space is attenuated, meaningless.

So time is the name of the game, despite its paradox. You see it becoming more powerful each day. It can even be deadly; in the exact distance between two seconds, a terrorist knows how to detonate a bomb. Yet, at the same time, time also instills in us a conceit of sorts, because it is we who are measuring it and imbuing it with force.

Then again, it may just be that we always view our liberty through worried eyes.