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No Politicians Need Apply

Ed Broderick

1952

Published in:

• Technocracy Digest, Nov 1952
• Technocracy Digest, Nov 1965
• Technocracy Digest, 4th quarter 1996, No. 322

Today, we are surrounded by change in many forms, but, in the main, it is `the change in the rate of doing work' that is affecting our lives, as no generation has been affected in the past. In other words, the machine is doing the work which man has always done in the past. But, in spite of this change, which we have come to accept, and to appreciate, the advantages, the population generally is skeptical, and opposed to anything that tends to divert their actions or thought-patterns from what they have come to regard as `normal' or `usual'.

Technocracy Inc. is pointing out the necessity for a change in the present method of social operation, so it will conform to the new means of physical production -- a change that would bring about a change in people's behaviour patterns and attitudes. Since its inception, the Organization has carried on an educational campaign attempting to inform the citizens of North America that the present method of social operations is heading for the scrap heap, because of its inability to distribute the abundance of goods our technology produces.

In place of the present Price System, a new method of social operations will have to be introduced.

A change is imperative.

In spite of the desirable features manifest in the new method, many people are reluctant to part with the old, as corrupt and inadequate as they admit it to be. And then, finally realizing a change is necessary, they insist it must be gradual, that sudden change is too much for one generation to absorb.

But this change would not be as hard to absorb as they suppose. It would be largely a change of the control mechanism, and removal of the interference -- the interference of politics and price. The functional personnel, those who right today operate our physical production and distribution techniques, such as our electrical production, telephone services, for example, would be capable to understand these complex functions, and govern their actions accordingly.

We are going to use an illustration, in the paragraphs below, of a sudden change which did take place -- where the functional personnel set about, in an organized manner, to effect a new method of operation. It affected a city's population to a considerable extent, in that they had, of necessity, to change their behavior pattern. But they adjusted themselves to it in a short period of time, and soon it was the `normal' way to behave.

As many of the early settlers of this Continent came from England, it was natural that they adopted some of the English methods. One was the habit of driving on the left side of the road. As the automobile came on the scene some districts changed to the right side. There was conflict on the subject until an agreement was reached that the right side of the road would be the correct one on which to drive. But, by this time, the city of Vancouver, B.C., had installed one of the first (if not `the first') street electric railway systems on the Continent. It was designed for the left-hand drive. The intersections, with their maze of switches, operated that way, and the cars travelled on the left-hand track.

When the automobile became more efficient, and better roads were built, tourists from other parts visited the city, but there was constant confusion. Too, citizens of Vancouver began to acquire cars capable of visiting cities in the United States. When there, they were forced to drive on the opposite side of the street to what they had become accustomed. The problem was becoming acute, and although they knew it would eventually have to be solved, it was postponed time after time.

There was danger of chaos if a rapidly expanding metropolis, such as Vancouver, was allowed to become so far out of step with the Continental operation. How to go about the changeover? That was the problem. The politicians could legislate, making it illegal to drive on the left side of the street. They could levy fines for failure to comply, and so attempt to force the public to adopt the new way. But there was a factor which they could not control -- the physical fact that the street electric railway system had miles of track and hundreds of switches, all designed for the left-hand operation. No legislation or financial edict would have the slightest effect on it.

The B.C. Electric Railway Company, whose problem it was, as owners of the system, decided it would have to be solved soon, and it might as well be now. Whom did they turn the problem over to? The directors?.....The auditors?.....The president? No! To the only ones capable of understanding and coping with a physical problem. It was the engineers, who had designed the system in the first place, and who could effect a change where necessary.

Remember, this change could not be a gradual one; it had to be done over the entire system simultaneously. It meant organization; it required a planned operation; it would need personnel who could understand and carry out a stipulated job.

The engineers put their heads together and agreed on a line of procedure. They first decided upon a date, which would at once mark the end of the old method and the beginning of the new. They set midnight, December 31, 1921, as the momentous deadline. All conductors received instructions to take their cars immediately to the barns at that time. The crews were briefed, each man knew what he was to do, and was instructed so he could carry it out efficiently.

Zero hour came ... midnight, December 31, 1921. The populace was celebrating the New Year as the gangs of men moved in to the intersections. The last cars changed their bells and hastily departed for the barns. Busily, the men went to work tearing, heaving, taking apart and putting together again. Through the long night they toiled, while the revellers wended their various ways home to sleep off a night of fun and frolic. Seven o'clock in the morning arrived -- the morning of January 1, 1922. Out of the barns rolled the cars, on the right side of the streets, and many people were late for work, for, through habit, they had waited on the wrong corners.

It is interesting to note that: in the entire procedure -- the change from one method of operation to a new one -- the democratic process had not been used. No vote had been taken; the people as a whole were not consulted. It did not require an order-in- council, nor a speech by the Premier. In fact, a politician on the scene would have only confused and interfered. The citizens who depended on the street cars for transportation soon became adapted to the new method, and eventually, another generation sprang up which had never known the old.

Today, on this Continent, our social operation is just as much in conflict with the physical method of doing things as the city of Vancouver was with the Continental method of transportation prior to 1922. Technology has accelerated events, and speeded up our way of life so much in the intervening years, that it is more than unsatisfactory to continue with the two in conflict -- the present social antiquated system and the new technological methods. In fact, it is highly dangerous, and unless we make a decision soon, physical events will do it for us.

If we are unprepared when that time comes; if we are still fighting change instead of moving with it, we will be engulfed, for technology must be controlled or it will get out of hand. We have been postponing the day of decision year after year, for the changeover should have been attended to over 70 years ago. That was when the old method, the Price System, almost came apart. Since then, it has been with us only because artificial means of stimulation have been applied, such as relief, wars, subsidies, and waste.

As it was necessary to organize, with trained personnel knowing what they were going to do, to effect a change back in 1921 of one small phase of our Continental operation, so today it is imperative that we organize on a Continental basis. We must organize to realign our distributive and productive mechanism so that they will remain in harmony instead of conflict.

North Americans pride themselves on being progressive, with tremendous capabilities, and with the determination to do whatever they set out to do. Fellow North Americans, we have a job to do, and we cannot postpone it much longer. We must change our social control -- from an obsolete Price System method of dividing a scarcity -- to the technological distribution of our abundance. Technocracy invites you to investigate its method!