Apathy Has Brought Us To The Brink

Staff

1996

Published in:

Technocracy Digest, 2nd quarter 1996, No. 320

For Many Years Technocracy has warned the people of North America that the arrogant disregard for basic social and physical trends by the front men for the North American Price System, would jeopardize the security and welfare of North America.

We are in the midst of a great technological revolution which is forcing a complete change of our social system. Handled properly, this could be the emancipation of all the people on this Continent, and could also influence the social structures of the rest of the world. However, the mismanagement of this science and technology -- which we have been witnessing as these scientific achievements have advanced -- will end only in disaster. So -- we have to decide which course we want to follow. The only way we can do that is to join together and install a completely different social system. Technocracy suggests a Technological Social Design which is synchronized to handle this new technology.

About 75 years ago, Howard Scott, Director-in-Chief of Technocracy Inc., was interviewed by Charles H. Wood, Associate Editor of The New York World, on the subject of the social effects and importance of technology on this Continent. During that interview, on February 26, 1921, Mr. Scott outlined the key to the unique social problem before North America. The Technical Alliance, of which Mr. Scott was the Director, was composed of leading technical personnel of North America, and had, by 1921, developed a clear technological perspective of social and physical trends in this civilization. Mr. Scott's technological views of social affairs astonished Mr. Wood; for example, that North America's problem was really an engineering problem, not a political or financial one. Such astonishment was not justified by the facts that were available even 75 years ago; it was the measure of how far ahead of social thought Technocracy has always been in its view of social affairs. Time and events have vindicated Technocracy's position and original statements.

Technocracy Inc., since its inception as a Field Organization, formed to carry on the research-educational program that was begun in the winter of 1918-19, has continued to convey an accurate picture of developing trends affecting this Continent. More than that, Technocracy Inc. has given the people of North America the organizing vehicle to do something about their problem.

The central problem before North America is the conflict between science (and the requirement of scientific social operation) and the obsolete methods of the Price System. At an incalculable cost, which is only now becoming apparent, politics and business and wars have kept the Price System afloat for the past 60 years -- years in which a new social system should have been born and flourishing. The measures which have been taken, in the framework of the Price System, to prevent the arrival of a technological social control in North America, constitute the worst example in recorded history of calculated sabotage against a social area. At no time in history has so much been at stake for so many people.

A succession of arms programs and wars, which have proved useless, and were declared so by Technocracy before we became involved in them, gave temporary relief from the Depression. These moves to preserve the Price System have kept people fat, dumb, and happy for the past many years. And though many of them knew better, today they are not above pleading ignorance. At any rate, all of us now are reaping the fruits of Price System sabotage and the social emergency that has been created.

Lack of Objective

Now that some of the arrogance has been knocked out of us by current events on the international scene, some people are giving pause to look at our social circumstances a little more objectively than in recent years. Outstanding, is the total lack of a national objective of any kind. There is no social unity, and little national pride except in our bigness and in certain philosophic words, phrases and ideas that no longer apply in this Age of Science. These things aren't reason enough in a world that is moving as fast as this one. The cult of individualism, which we think we believe in, but which in fact we can't even practice, dominates the social attitude required to survive and progress upward and forward in this scientific era.

We are finding that it was most unfortunate to allow reactionary minorities to intimidate and belittle those individuals who could appreciate and work with science; and to make science almost a dirty word to citizens of this Continent, especially to the youngsters. It is too bad that the social consciousness of the average youth has been influenced by a moronic level of education.

And among the older generations, it can't seem to be so smart any more to have `sold out' to the Price System in an attempt to amass a few pieces of shoddy goods and an inferior dwelling, most of which aren't paid for now and probably won't ever be paid for in full. All of those hours in a semi-stupor before the television set don't seem to have been wisely spent, either. The past critical years have been marked by a succession of mistakes -- individual and national. They add up to an extremely high social price for this Continent. It's pretty hard to pin the responsibility for the sabotage of this civilization on any particular group of individuals. Too many people have welcomed it, and participated in it.

A Scientific Interest

We, of North America, are about as disorganized for any social objective as we can be and, furthermore, we are without any evident desire to get organized. Technocracy, for years, has been addressing, with telling effect, only a minority of the citizens of this Continent. We are just beginning to emerge from a period of years when it didn't make the slightest difference to more than ninety-five percent of the population how correct an analysis one might present; people weren't interested. Nevertheless, Technocracy Inc. has built and maintained, under the most difficult conditions for its type of thought, a nucleus of personnel to whom nothing that is occurring on the North American scene is a surprise. What some people are now becoming alarmed about is `old stuff' to Technocracy and Technocrats.

Arrogant Disregard

Collectively, North Americans have looked upon their great land area, which they have regarded as their birth-right, only as a wonderful opportunity to exploit for their personal benefit. This idea has been hammered into them by the educational system, politics, business, and numberless other sources, from the time they were first able to read and understand words. For a time this Continent was able to tolerate such a social attitude, despite the damage that it inflicted upon natural resources. A loose political control favored and rewarded the most adept chiselers. Graced with a great wealth of natural resources and an accommodating climate for the white man, North America has fostered the growth of a mighty industrial civilization, which grew at a tremendous rate with the application of technology by technically trained personnel. The rate of growth soon rendered obsolete, the social attitude and the Price System of the Continent.

But that occurrence has not stopped us from continuing to use the old system. Therein lies the crucial conflict. It is a battle to the death for one or the other. No one can say with absolute certainty what the final outcome will be. We do know that we live by science and technology: therefore, the decision of each North American had better be in favor of these social forces. Our utter failure, as a people, to recognize the problem, and to act, is pushing us into much worse social consequences to come, unless there is a widespread revival of social consciousness.

Since the North American Continent is without a governing mechanism that is capable of supplying the leadership and direction required to guide us out of the present mess, the question arises:

What can anyone else do about it?

At some point in time in the future, probably all too soon, the mass of people on this Continent is going to be jolted into action by the pressure of events. When this mass movement begins, it had better be directed by an organization that knows the score. As conditions become more intolerable, a social ferment will develop, producing the mass movement which will be largely devoid of intelligent understanding.

While Technocracy Inc. is not designed to be a governing mechanism, Technocracy, the method, is so designed. Many people do not understand this distinction. Technocrats are willing to help in installing this new system, but it must be done in an orderly fashion, and enough people would have to understand this, otherwise there would be absolute chaos. People would have to demand a complete social change. Technocracy's Technological Social Design would be the blueprint followed. Once this Design was installed, the organization of Technocracy Inc. would dissolve; it's job done.

When we consider that 75 years of engineering and scientific research* have gone into Technocracy, we begin to understand why it is qualified to discuss comprehensively, and with the correct insight, problems before North America. What we are attempting to make clear is that we North Americans have a course of action to take to solve our problems. Technocracy is born of science; it is being presented in an organized way; and its Organization has the leadership to see us through social change on this Continent. What more do we want?

* Literature on this research is available by writing to this magazine.

-- Staff