The earth’s about five million years old, at least. Who can afford to live in the past?

The speaker’s comic misstatement about the earth’s age (“about five million years”) undercuts any claim to authority and signals Pinter’s characteristic use of banter to expose evasions. The follow-up—“Who can afford to live in the past?”—sounds like brisk, modern pragmatism, but it also reads as a self-serving refusal to reckon with memory, responsibility, or prior actions. In Pinter’s dramatic world, such lines often function as verbal tactics: a character deflects uncomfortable truths by dismissing history as irrelevant or unaffordable. The joke therefore carries an edge, suggesting that “moving on” can be less wisdom than denial, especially when the past contains guilt, violence, or betrayal.