I never really gave much thought to the mentality behind Standard Time, or whatever the official name is.

Spring forward, fall back. In the West, we always just did it automatically. But this past autumn, in Turkey, the government abruptly announced that all Turkish clocks would not follow the change. II chalked this announcement up to the rise of anti-Western (more specifically, anti-European) sentiment. You think of all the back-and-forth between Ankara and Brussels, between Istanbul and London (or Berlin, Paris, etc), between Turks and their European counterparts, over the Syrian war, the refugees, ISIS, as well as the long-festering issue of Turkey’s possible entrance into the EU.

Given the mutual resentment, the retraction, on both sides, Ankara’s sudden time-stopping announcement seemed at first understandable. Who decides these matters such as clocks going back and forwards, anyway? Isn’t it some byproduct of Western imperialism?

But these past couple months have given cause to reflect.

My wife is not a morning person. Still, each morning she has to rise at 7:45 sharp, to make sure she gets to work at her job on the European side promptly at 9.

Yet when her alarm goes off, the whole apartment, the streets of the neighborhood outside, indeed the whole city and much of the country, is still bathed in darkness. Seriously. It feels like we’re still deep in Fitzgerald’s dark night of the soul.

“What time is it?” my wife moans, still deep in dream.

“Almost eight,” I say, commiserating. The coffee was already on in the kitchen. Fortunately, early mornings have never bothered me. And I don’t usually don’t have to report for lessons until the afternoon.

A woeful cry of despair erupts from my lovely wife, and with a team effort, we manage to rouse her from the bed.

Why does it have to be this way?

Ask the Turkish government, apparently. Anyway, this turn of events had already been filed and forgotten – just one of those things. Still, a headline this past week jolted it back. Below is a recent story that appeared in the Turkish news:

TURKISH GOVERNMENT HAS NO PLANS TO REVERT TO WINTER TIME

The Turkish government has no plans to move back to winter time despite widespread discontent with the amount of darkness in the morning, particularly in western Turkey, said Deputy Prime Minister and cabinet spokesperson Numan Kurtulmuş.

Asked whether the clocks would again go back for winter this year amid rising criticism to the current implementation, he said: “We have no such plan…The clocks will not be taken one hour back.”

Turkey first adopted summer time, also known as daylight saving time, in 1940, and applied it uninterruptedly after the 1970s, following the example of Europe, until this year. Today the system is used across the 28-nation European Union.

The clocks did not, however, go back an hour for winter this year at the end of October, putting Turkey three hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), ostensibly in a bid to make energy savings of up to 1 billion Turkish Liras.

The change in the decades-long practice triggered strong criticism, as the sun does not rise until almost 8:30 a.m. in western provinces like Istanbul, while many businesses need to work extra hours so as to do business with Western partners.

Moreover, Turkey’s electricity consumption surged sharply in November due to the country’s move to ditch the winter time system, despite a slight slowdown in the economy and moderate weather conditions, a sector association said Dec. 21.

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You will have noticed by now a few key points, reader.

First off, there are not 28 “nations” in the European Union. That’s like saying the United States has 50 countries. Let’s change that to read 28 member states.

Moving on, this issue of “electricity savings.” As you read, these highly anticipated savings did not materialize. Rather, the country saw a sharp rise.

Duh (?)

I mean, if my lovely wife – along with millions of other Turks – wakes up at a quarter to eight and it’s dark as hell outside, would you blame her for turning on a few lights? (Not to mention the rise in central heating use, a colleage, reading over my shoulder, suggests, since the sun is not up to let in a bit of au natural) .

The part about longer working hours – well, yes. If you are working at an international company, waiting for a phone call at 6 p.m., this hour can mean a world of difference, on both sides.

Finally, as to this whole bit about how Turkey has followed the European system – more or less – for decades … now that’s where things begin to take shape. This, friends, is a classic example of how politics can often overshadow, or downright contradict, the rules of common sense.

Translation: We’re pissed off at Europe. We’re tired of waiting, ever the bridesmaid, at Europe’s backdoor, like an embarrassing relative. So instead – to prove our sovereignty, for our self-respect, we’re going to turn our backs on this time-change nonsense, all this ‘by-the-clock imperialism.’

Never mind that, when you stop and consider it – depending of course, your location on this globe, that at certain spots, if you care to wake up and have sunshine coming through the window at a reasonable hour, you might need to adjust the dial on your watch –

No, we’re not having any of that: Let there be darkness! In the name of independence, in the name of freedom, in the name of Turkish time, let there be darkness.

So there it is. Politics, pride, gamesmanship, so often seems to blind us to even the simplest of things, like sunlight coming in through the window.

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Others may read this and say: ah but this mini-controversy is actually a harbinger of things to come. This is the way the world is going, James. The winds, for so long blowing in a Westerly direction, are now shifting to the East. Sooner rather than later, my friend, we’re all going to be following Beijing (or Shanghai, or Singapore, Somewhere east of Greenwich anyway) time. So we might as well get used to it.

Who knows? Maybe the longitudinal basis of standard time will someday be redrawn … why not “Istanbul Standard Time?” Makes sense, in a way? Some would argue that Istanbul, with its proximity to Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Russia and Asia, would make a more appropriate center.

Maybe. Who knows?

The politics of time is not my department.

What I do know is, wherever one decides to draw the line, whoever regulates the clocks according to the sun, should leave the blinds open, and look out the window every now and then.