Response to ``Potential Tiananmen Squares Abound in America'' by Norman Cousins

Jack Bergel

1990

Published in:

The Northwest Technocrat, 2nd quarter 1990, No. 319

Article Potential Tiananmen Squares Abound in America by Norman Cousins from Christian Science Monitor and Rocky Mountain News. No Permission to reprint on the Internet.

Response from Jack Bergel:

"Your latest article, Rocky Mountain News, 9/27/89, POTENTIAL TIANENMEN SQUARES ABOUND IN AMERICA, outlines our social danger very well. Has America awakened to this and our other severe social economic problems? No -- apathy, indifference and ignorance still prevail.

"This part of our planet Earth has the potential to become the finest example for human contentment and prosperity in recorded history. The area of North America has the capacity, through its science and technology, to provide every citizen with a high standard of living without the social problems that threaten our survival today. Because of this fact, which is verifiable, that your personal survey revealed about the hungry in breadlines, waiting for hours for food, shows the sad inability of the political process within the Price System monetary structure to resolve problems of hunger and poverty. Or any other.

"There is a good reason for the above social obscenity. We have some people in the intellectual segment of society, sincere and well meaning, who would continue to try to reform the system, when all the facts show that is exactly what we have been doing for many years and our problems are worse than ever and heading in the direction of catastrophe. This, you pointed out in the article referred to. We have evolved long past the era of reform in our social structure. A major social/economic reconstruction is our only chance to avoid the widespread street violence you foresee. There is much use of the phrase, 'American system,' in referring to the Price System we live in. Actually, it was an import from Europe, a hangover from medieval days before the advent of modern science and technology. Monetary values with its concomitant debt structure and exchange values cannot exist side by side with a complex technological operation. They are totally diametrically opposed and is the primary reason attempts to reform are a waste of time and exceedingly dangerous to all life. We really do need a North American system in fact as well as in name. It must be compatible with the dynamic equilibrium (ever changing balance) of the technology that has now taken over the North American continent, but controlled by those who do not understand its function. Any progression of this kind, once started, must continue to evolve, or die.

"Because of the above facts, we can no longer live with the illusion that major change can be postponed indefinitely as it could be in the Old World we on this continent have left forever. We no longer have this kind of luxury, for advances in technology will no longer allow the time gap between new discoveries and economic application. There are countless examples to make this point evident.

"Penicillin remained on a laboratory shelf for some 15 to 20 years before it was accepted and used for its life saving qualities, until it was superseded by a later remedy. Today, with a world of disease like cancer and aids with its growing menace, we dare not repeat the penicillin time lag or we flirt with a medical and social disaster.

"It took over 450 years for the church to acknowledge the error in the persecution of Galileo for the scientific discovery that the earth revolved around the sun and not the other way around. Recently, Pope Pius, in Pisa, Italy, said Galileo was right and the church was wrong.

"These two examples out of the many hundreds available show the time lag between scientific discovery and acceptance. In between these two time factors, those pressing for examination of discoveries and social use, were and are now, in modern times, ignored, vilified and otherwise treated shabbily. Up to this time in history this lag of time has caused suffering, misery and deaths -- but has not, up to now, threatened human survival. Prior to the advent of technology, slow moving events allowed procrastination, ignorances and indifference to prevail for the most part. This is no longer the case,

"To face modern social/economic events that require change, we cannot hide behind a time lag that no longer can be played with. there is no lengthy time in which we can divert the facts with myths, opinions and futile reforms for a system that is dying as a result of its own built-in self-destruct factors -- helped along by those who do not understand the requirements involved in technological change. Events of a physical nature are now moving at speeds never before experienced by us. There is a widespread modern myth that we must wait for an improvement in morals before there can be an improvement in the social affairs of people here. Ignored is the ability to apply science to the social structure while human nature remains as it has been from the beginning of time. Human behavior, however, will change in accordance with the changes made that are not in conflict with human nature. In dealing with social change it is necessary to understand the difference between nature and human behavior.

"On a scale figured by scientist Carl Sagan, we have been on earth about one minute, taking into account the over four billion years of earth's existence and looking at that as one month. In that time we have squandered much of the carbon, oxygen and hydrogen necessary for the continuation of life. We are destroying the forests, the vital grasslands, the water sources that are potable, the air we breathe, the food we eat; and our industries poison us with sulphur dioxide that comes at us as acid rain. We are losing our ozone shield that protects from radiation, while we add billions of people to share in the coming suffering and misery. As one author stated, 'Folks -- we are blowing it.'

"So, Technocrats ask -- when do the intellectuals break out of the social manacles that keep them confined within the framework of Price System dilly-dallying with symptoms of the problem and not take a look at the basic facts available. There is not much time left and we had better use what there is.

"The people of North America are waiting for the leadership that can face and deal with physical reality. Your help, Mr. Cousins, and others of your courage and intelligence is badly needed."