A Chance, Not A Choice

Information Brief Number 54, Revised 4/96

1963?

Too often people investigating Technocracy for the first time assume that they are being confronted with a social idea that they may choose to accept or reject on the basis of how well it pleases them -- as though they were being asked to switch from one brand of merchandise to another brand purportedly a little better than the one they already use. They feel that they have a choice of the kind of social system they shall live in; they then tend to evaluate Technocracy on how well it appeals to their subjective desires.

As in the case of most assumptions, this one is in error. Technocracy is not being ``sold'' in competition with other alternatives. When people attempt to sell an idea, it implies that they seek to benefit from that sale, that there is something in for them. A second erroneous assumption is that Technocrats are promulgating their program in the hope that they will someday take over the society and rule it according to their Technocratic blueprint. These assumptions evidently arise from a long exposure to the vagaries of politics.

Technocracy is presented on the basis that it is a carefully engineered design for operating the social system of North America, either when the prevailing programs prove unable to function or when enough social enlightenment develops among the citizens to install it. Technocrats do not seek to take over or to operate the technological design they specify for this Continent. They have an abhorrence of the profligate waste and extreme corruption that are characteristic features of Price System operations. But, as every Technocrat knows, what really counts is the strategic analysis and the social design that will give citizens of North America the means to achieve survival.

Technocracy has analyzed the physical changes occurring on this Continent and has plotted their future course, not from the standpoint of personal desires, but in accordance with the direction in which events are headed. Technocrats are fully aware that irreversible changes are taking place. They know that the future of North American society is not being decided by the whims, desires, and hopes of individuals, but by the force of events. They know that the Old Order of scarcity, toil and insecurity is coming to an end. They know that the next stage will be either chaos, with wide-spread man-made destruction, out of which will emerge a low order of political control (if, indeed any human life survives) or a New Order based on an intelligent stewardship of physical things and a vastly more efficient operation of our technological society.

The developing trends are not a matter which individuals can decide for themselves, or prevent. And, in any event, North Americans cannot escape the consequences of the developing trends. The only practical and sensible decision of the individual is that of adapting to change, not fighting it or ignoring it. Technocracy is not creating change or even the course of change; rather, it is preparing for the next most probable state of society on the North American Continent. That state of society is being ``dictated'' by the rate at which energy is being converted and by the machines that it powers.

Science and technology are, by nature, progressive (as contrasted to politics, economics and theology which, by nature, are stagnant). Science and technology cannot be suppressed without endangering the survival of the human species. But, there are certain reactionaries who despise progress so much that they would rather see humanity destroyed than see social change.

Within the scarcity conditions of the Price System, there may be a choice between communism and fascism, between liberalism and conservatism; but, in an area of high-energy technological production there is only one ``choice'' -- Functional Control. Technology cannot be operated by opinion or desire, only by know-how and skill. But, by contrast, your act of voting in any kind of political system; will assure you of one thing; you will be having an incompetent managing the affairs of your country -- a politician!

Goods and services, when they are sufficient to provide an adequate standard of living for all, cannot be dispensed by means of exchange values. A system of measurement of consumption is essential to an efficient operation of an economy -- to prevent overproduction and waste.

When the work of an area is done by wholly automatic machines (or by those requiring a minimum of human attention), the idea of one's earning a living through a job of work becomes ridiculous. When all citizens are guaranteed equal access to all the goods and services they can consume by right of citizenship, there can be no masters and servants. A whole new social concept is required to fit the conditions that are developing on this Continent.

NORTH AMERICA IS TOO COMPLICATED TO BE RUN BY POLITICS!

We still have no coordinated Continent-wide transportation system. We still have no large-scale plan for collecting the produce of farms, mines, forests and fisheries. We still have no equitable, coordinated system for distributing North America's great material abundance. Air, water and soil pollution are still threatening our very existence. Housing still is haphazard, inefficient, high cost.

The pressure of population and the depletion of strategic natural resources make essential efficient, total planning. North America needs objective, efficient scientific adminstration in order to pass on to every citizen the full benefits of our productive capacity.

So, the problem facing the individual citizen of North America is not one of choosing among various political parties for the future. There is no CHOICE about how the society must be operated, but Technocracy's design does offer a CHANCE for North Amercian citizens to have the best quality of life that an energy and resource efficient technological society can provide.