Society's Blind Alleys

L.W. Nicholson

1990

Published in:

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

For mankind, emergence from the dark ages has been a long, slow and painful, process. Humans have made much progress in recent history, but, unfortunately, still have a long way to go before they can be satisfied with their accomplishments, especially in the way society is run. Throughout history mankind has gone down one blind alley after another, and it is only after fairly recent breakthroughs in human thought that this progression has generated enough speed to make any one century significantly different from the one just past. A major breakthrough occurred when mankind learned to carefully examine the physical world in a factual manner without the interference of superstition, or beliefs and opinions based on superstition. This ability resulted in the world of science we see about us today.

Science is a storehouse of facts, and, additionally, science is a method for determining the most probable by the use of factual observation. One scientific breakthrough after another has accelerated the progression of mankind, and each resulted in another liberation of humans from the bondage of superstition. This liberation has been fought every step of the way by the conservative elements of society who see any change as a threat to their ideals and to their positions of leadership. As a result, even many scientists, especially those who have specialized in narrow fields of science, have allowed themselves to be intimidated into becoming tools to be used, not for the benefit of society as a whole, but for the benefit of the few who can best afford their services. This is another blind alley which leads to nowhere.

Our continuing emergence from the dark ages has been the result of the scientific method applied with intelligence to human activities. However this method hasn't been evenly applied to all activities. Far more progress has been possible in some areas than in others. For example: For more than a half-century the technological ability to produce plenty for all North Americans has been available, while, at the same time, our methods of distribution have remained essentially the same throughout recorded history. This lack of balance between production and distribution has resulted in widespread poverty in the midst of plenty. Like idiots we destroy food to keep prices up, ignoring 20 million Americans who are not properly fed. This and many other problems can be corrected only when the scientific method is applied, with intelligence, to the problems of distribution -- the same type of intelligent method that has been applied to the problems of production.

The changes from a hand tool society to a highly technical society antiquates the methods of distribution mankind has used throughout history. It changes the basic purpose of the distribution process from one of deciding who shall get how much of what and when, to a process of supplying the needs of each member of society. When enough can be produced to satisfy the needs of all, then there is no reasonable reason why all should not have plenty. For many unreasonable reasons this economy of scarcity, this buy and sell system, has not been allowed to change to an economy of plenty to match our technological ability to produce. And abundance cannot be bought and sold for a price any more than the air we breathe can be bought and sold, and for the same reasons. Further, there is no point in withholding from the poor unless one feels a need to be rich by comparison. Another blind alley.

It is unlikely that people ever thought they lived in a dark age. It is more likely that, at any given point in time, the majority opinion was that the present was an age of enlightenment. It is not unusual for human thought and human action to be in quite different directions. Consider the behavior of "modern" society in the good old U.S. of A. We have the richest country in the world, and we have given billions to "help" other countries -- while, at the same time, we have 35 million Americans living in poverty. We have sufficient nuclear weapons to destroy the world several times over, enough to make the earth uninhabitable for any living creature, and yet we continue to make more of these weapons by the thousands. We have built over a hundred nuclear power plants at the same time that we have known that we have no safe place for the permanent disposal of high level nuclear waste. We have a total debt of over $9 trillion, and it continues to increase at almost $1 trillion per year. And year after year we continue to select a political leadership who are not solving our own problems at home while they insist on providing direction for the rest of the world. How can we say we have completed our emergence from the dark ages?

The increasing imbalance between production and distribution has become a blind alley from which the only escape is to design an entirely new method of distribution, one which is as modern and as efficient as an automatic factory -- one which does not require the waste of non-replaceable natural resources and the resulting pollution of the physical environment. This is not some "do-good" idea for a utopian society; it is a physical necessity for the survival of the human species.

The choice seems to be nothing less than one between chaos or survival for mankind. Why should a choice to survive be so difficult? Simply because the vast changes required to reverse the present economic and environmental degradation will be very expensive, it will cost a very large sum of money, perhaps more than the defense program has cost in the past decade. And it may be much less financially profitable. Many people, some in high places, will not be mentally prepared to accept the idea that such great expenditures can be necessary.

It is highly improbable that enough money can be found to pay off the present debt plus interest. And it is even less likely that the trillions necessary for near future needs can be made available. Let's face it money is obsolete!

The love of money has become so important in the affairs of people that many will kill for it; they will lie, cheat, steal and sell drugs to children. Some will promote wars, charge the highest possible prices to increase profits, and some will charge the highest interest rates from everyone including their own government.

On a positive note: Men are drafted to fight and die in wars, but who ever heard of money being drafted? During World War II, Technocracy proposed the total conscription of men, materiel and money for duration of the crisis. But the operators of the Price System had a "good thing" going; so it wasn't done.

It would seem that North America has reached an impasse, stuck in a blind alley which has no exit. And, indeed, this is the case if the citizens of this Continent are unable to extricate themselves from the dictates of this Price System method of social control before its collapse is complete. If one must question this process of collapse then consider the many events now occurring and all at the same time. We have an increasing debt which can never be paid, thus destroying confidence in the money; we have increasing crime and a serious drug problem. Then there is AIDS, poverty, homelessness, scandals in high places, fraud on Wall Street and at the Pentagon, the Savings and Loan crisis, the foreign trade deficit, the deteriorating infrastructure and many others which one can add to by reading the daily press. This system, the Price System, is the system which has caused, or allowed the development of all these problems. Let us demonstrate the courage to face up to the fact that anyone who values their own survival would be foolish to depend on such a system.

Our own survival demands that the citizens of North America realize that the belief in a political democracy does not excuse, or justify an economic dictatorship. A buy low and sell high system is a blind alley. It is based on values which are determined by scarcity, and it was handed down from the dark ages. There is no way it can be made to distribute the plenty the technology of this Continent can produce. An abundance can't be bought or sold. A Price System can no longer operate effectively for the benefit of the citizens of this Continent, therefore a non-price system is necessary. There is no other way to eliminate poverty, the drug business, the debt and environmental degradation.

After a transition period, a non-price system will also eliminate much of the human labor that now is required for the production of products designed to wear out and break. Waste to maintain scarcity will be unnecessary, and we can abandon money and use a unit of measurement as a method of distribution and as a means of balancing production and consumption. Simple? Of course, since the problems of production have been solved why should distribution be so complicated?

Sometime in the future, if there is one, we can look back and laugh at our own blindness. Future generations can read their history and marvel at the stupidity of their ancestors. How could we have failed to understand the simple fact that we pay taxes to pay for maintaining a scarcity so that we can do without the plenty we can produce? And we go to great trouble to keep in operation an economy of scarcity. However, the future hasn't arrived yet, and in order to get there we must find our way through a very dangerous period. It is no laughing matter; people have never gone through a major social change as a result of intelligent action; they have always failed to understand why change is necessary and their "leaders" have been terrorized at the thought that major changes might require a more intelligent leadership. It is nothing new for the leaders of society to refuse to admit that change is necessary. And never before has a change so great occurred in the way we humans live, in the way we do our work, and the resulting change in human concepts required for living in a time and place where the human energy required for operating the means of production has declined from 98 to 2 percent. Never before has a nation of people been able to cut working hours in half while producing 20 times as much.

For over 50 years, over a half-century, a design for the distribution of plenty to all citizens of this Continent has been available. All North Americans should have been informed about this design many years ago. Why haven't they? Don't wait for the chief beneficiaries of this Price System to inform you concerning anything which is unprofitable to themselves. If we are not willing to make the effort to solve this problem, or if the plenty which will be available is not a sufficient incentive, then, please be reminded that the survival of our civilization is at stake -- it is that urgent!