Explaining Initiative And Incentive

1996

Published in:

Technocracy Digest, 4th quarter 1996, No. 322

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE!

One of the specifications in Technocracy's design of a new social structure calls for the distribution of the potential abundance of this Continent to all its inhabitants. That, of course, is a major essential.

The successful operation and continuation of our high-energy civilization requires that we must all enjoy complete social and economic security, in the widest sense of the term, with a very high standard of living.

But that objective is not the be-all and end-all of human existence. Standards of living, and degrees of security, are relative terms, depending upon the nature of our environment, the extent of our resources and the efficiency with which we are able to convert them into use forms. No order of society can remain static. It must advance or retrogress in accordance with its environment. It is unlikely that the human race will ever be able to say of any type of society, `this is it; this is the ultimate to which people may aspire.'

Technocracy therefore does not pretend to designate an ultimate form of existence, beyond which we cannot advance or upon which we cannot improve. On the contrary, it includes another specification and requisite in its design which calls for the widest possible leeway for the expression of individual initiative, in order to forestall social and industrial stagnation.

HERE WE ARE NOW -- AT INITIATIVE

Initiative is inherent in normal people, but often remains latent today because it is largely stifled under the pressure of the effort to achieve some slight measure of economic security in the financial world -- the Price System. A society which will endure and flourish must encourage the full expression of that normal urge which today is either submerged, or is developed along lines that are socially undesirable, and upon objectives that are detrimental to the general welfare.

In an economy founded upon the distribution of abundance to all citizens, the chiselling type of initiative, which is characteristic and mandatory under the incentives of the Price System, would be regarded as a disease and would entitle its victims to treatment in a mental institution.

HERE IS INCENTIVE -- THE NOBLE KIND

We should bear in mind that our present complex civilization, especially as it exists on this Continent, has been made possible by the initiative of a comparative handful of people whose incentive has been the search of the answer to the age-old question, `How?' Their achievements are reflected in every phase of our complicated modern civilization. `Never did so many owe so much to so few.'

The dominating incentive behind technological progress is, and always has been, curiosity. When we read of the lives and works of past and present scientists, we realize that they were motivated by an overwhelming and devouring curiosity.

WEALTH, NOT NECESSARILY THE DOMINATING INCENTIVE

They were not necessarily high-minded individuals. Some of them were almost objectionable in their personal habits, and most of them displayed the weaknesses of ordinary people. Some of them carried on their investigations while seriously handicapped by lack of funds, in the face of ridicule, indifference, jealousy, and even some form of persecution. Others were not hampered by any want of the material things and comforts of life. In either case, it is apparent that the acquisition of wealth was not the dominating incentive in their life work.

People have sacrificed their time, their health, and even their lives in devotion to some form of research, such as the isolation of a microbe, responsible for some particular disease, and the serum for its eradication. Pasteur gave the last 38 years of his life to the study of bacteriology, particularly as applied to the cure and prevention of animal diseases, such as anthrax, rabies, and cholera. Walter Reed devoted his short life of 50 years to the successful eradication of yellow fever, and a grateful country granted his widow an annual pension of $1,500.

In any form of Price System operation, many people are forced to spend the greater part of their time and energy in scraping up their daily needs. The problem of ensuring themselves some slight degree of security demands most of their attention. Little time and opportunity is available for the display of initiative in the fields of science, art, or recreation. Most of their spare hours are spent in some form of escapism, such as the various thrills of the television programs -- their soap operas, movies, sports -- by which they seek to forget the worries that have plagued them during the day, and the problems which will most likely face them tomorrow.

Most people are too uninterested, bewildered, and exhausted to give much thought to the welfare of their neighbors, their country, or mankind in general. They remain content to delegate to others, who may be, and often are, less competent than themselves, the task of solving our social, economic, and international difficulties, instead of recognizing their own responsibility.

Even those who are, to a greater or lesser extent, removed from the sordid struggle for existence, are, for the most part, too conditioned by the rules of the game through which they have reached their preferred position. They are too occupied in consolidating and insuring the continuation of their happy circumstance; too engrossed in doing all they can to perpetuate the established order of things, to devote any time or thought to the basic factors which prescribe poverty, drudgery, and despair to millions of their fellow men, women, and children, and which will eventually undermine the very foundations of their own security.

When the inexorable pressure of events forces people to strike off the shackles of price and politics, we shall see the inauguration of a new era in the lives of citizens.

The wonderful advances we have made during the last 50 years, will be as nothing compared with the progress we may anticipate in the next 50 years. An adequate system of education, available to all, will provide the opportunity of expression to the `mute inglorious Miltons' in every field of human endeavor. Our teachers and educationalists, given a free hand, will institute methods of instruction which will develop the natural aptitudes latent in normal children.

The medical profession will fulfill its high calling by engendering emulation among its members, directed towards the prevention of disease and the cure for those few diseases which, so far, have defied their efforts. There is little doubt that if the best brains of the medical profession were detailed to cancer research and were unhampered by lack of funds and equipment, they would, within a reasonable time, come through with a cure or preventive for that dreaded scourge. What competition there would be, for the honor of that accomplishment, and what a monument would be raised in recognition of those who had a part in it!

Those of us who are engaged in the every day tasks involved in Continental operation will be encouraged by the thrill of achievement in our particular field of work. We will develop real initiative in seeking new and more efficient ways in carrying out our share of the performance necessary for the smooth functioning of the social mechanism.

Normal people cherish, above all else, the respect and admiration of their fellows; life gives us no satisfaction comparable to that of accomplishment. Once we are free from the mean and sordid restrictions of Price System interference, we may expect to witness extraordinary advances in every phase of human activity. One would need to be bold indeed to predict people's ultimate goal.