Let's Talk About Solutions

John Darvill

1990

Published in:

The Northwest Technocrat, 4th quarter 1990, No. 321

This article was adapted from a public lecture:

If you have attitudes similar to those held by most people, you probably know as much as you care to know about the mess this country, this continent or, indeed, the world is in. In that case, then solutions are what you like to hear about. But, if you don't understand the problem in the first place, then no matter how you try to bring about a solution, the problem remains. And if the cause of that problem remains intact, attempts to solve it will fail. We are attacking the problems confronting our society today with many groups only attacking symptoms. There are people who want to conserve our trees; there are people who want to conserve our farmland; there are people who are concerned about animal's rights, about crime, about war, about the fact that we are rapidly running out of fish-stock, farmland, soil erosion -- and all of of those people are well-intentioned; all of them are very sincere in their efforts to overcome the problems that they are concerned about, but they are only attacking symptoms, the symptoms of a basic problem which is the Price System.

A Price System is any social system that affects the distribution of goods and services by means of commodity evaluation, that is, that employs any form of debt token or money. The cause of very nearly all the social problems confronting us today is the Price System, an obsolescent social system out of step with technology, a system that is no longer capable of taking care of the needs of the people now residing in this particular land area.

People are preoccupied with symptoms because of profit; and realistically speaking, preserving our problems is more profitable than intelligent management. The lumber industry for example has far more power, far more clout in this system, than the people who are vociferously acting against the indiscriminate cutting of the forest that is occurring on a large scale. Ardent conservationists talk in terms of cutting back on a major scale, but when the effect on the economy is pointed out, they back down very quickly, because they are thinking in Price System terms and are primarily concerned with maintaining a monetary system; economic considerations take priority over everything we do. Our concern for the forests, our concern about over-fishing, our concern about pollution, our concern about water depletion, about soil erosion, all of these concerns are basically economic in nature, and when we talk about solutions or in any way think of applying solutions we always come to this one stumbling block "money." We don't think from a point-of-view of a long-term civilization and how our acts will affect future generations; we think about the here and now, the economic consequences of what we may or may not do to overcome social problems today.

Now let us briefly look back at what we have accomplished from the Price System point-of-view. We are in the last decade of the twentieth century, and, when this century began, it was hailed as a century of progress. This was going to be the century when man overcame want, when man was to have abundance, when poverty was going to be struck from the earth along with malnutrition and all the things that have plagued man all through his past history. This twentieth century was hailed as the century of progress, and here we are in the 1990s having doubts about the survival of the human species. This century began with great promise. Cars and locomotives were installed and were operating, although many people were concerned about cars and locomotives; they felt that if man moved any faster than a horse could travel, it would upset his metabolism. They were afraid of the consequences of locomotives, but, nevertheless, automobiles and locomotives had become established and people were becoming used to them. Perhaps, had they objected more strongly to the introduction of automobiles, we would be in a better position today, but, nevertheless, progress prevailed.

In 1903, Henry Ford set up his first production line and cars started to roll off the production line in greater numbers. Today, the automotive industry accounts for about one in six of all jobs in the United States and a similar number in Canada. At the present time many thousands of people are being laid-off in the automotive industry because of competition from outside interests. More efficient practices can produce far more cars and use far less manpower. The very efficient mass-transit systems which operated in the United States and to a certain extent in Canada were dismantled and people were forced into private automobiles. Now we face the situation where, due to rapidly diminishing oil supplies, in a very few years we are going to be faced with the problem of how to move people from point A to point B, because the cost of operating automobiles, probably within the next ten years, will become prohibitive. Technocracy anticipated these problems and proposed in the early 1920s the concept of mass-transportation.

In 1903, the Wright brothers flew the first airplane. It lifted off the ground for a few minutes and landed again. A year later they managed to do a complete circle with the same plane. Now, planes that fly at twice the speed of sound are very common. In the short space of 66 years from the time the Wright brothers first lifted their aircraft off the ground -- in 66 years we placed a man on the Moon. If the same scientific principles -- the application of knowledge -- had been applied to our social administration as was applied to the development of aeronautical engineering, we would most certainly not be in the position we are in today. In 66 years man made tremendous strides in aeronautical engineering by applying the methods of science and technology to the problem. If we had applied those same principles of scientific predictability -- to society -- our social administration today and the way by which we live would be beyond the imaginings of most people. We would have accomplished far more in the fields of social administration than we have done by the hit and miss methods that we have used.

As we moved through this century of progress we came to 1914. By 1914, a family squabble in Europe, a squabble between the Royal families of Europe, the brothers and sisters that made up the crowned heads of Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia had been squabbling for a number of years about dominance. The Kaiser had large fleets of naval vessels; the British asked him to stop and he said he would if the British reduced the size of their naval fleet. One thing led to another, and the First World War was under way with millions of people being slaughtered.

Near the end of that war, in 1918-1919, a group of scientists, engineers and leading economists of the day; Howard Scott was one; Thorstein Veblen, the educator, another; Stuart Chase another; Charles Steinmetz, the electric engineer of General Electric; and others were concerned about what had taken place in the United States as a result of the war. They were concerned about the fact that despite the many men that had been inducted into the armed services, the productive capacity of the United States had increased. They wondered why this had occurred and what its significance was for the future, so, to know scientifically, they undertook what they termed the Energy Survey of the North American Continent. All of the findings that then took place during the fourteen years of research of the Technical Alliance, (which they named their organization) was incorporated into the present membership organization, Technocracy Inc. It is upon their findings that the present design of Technocracy Inc. came into being, and Technocrats have been explaining and trying to throw light on a correct analysis and solution of our social problems for the last 60 years. Some of the solutions which could have been easily applied during the 1920s when they were first introduced by the Technical Alliance could have eliminated problems which we face today. Those problems would never have come into being in the first place.

One of the ideas that they introduced in the early 1920s was the concept of a scientifically designed calendar. They pointed out that, if North America was ever to experience abundance, the only way was by operating industry and service sequences for twenty- four hours a day 365 days a year. Only under such circumstances could North America produce and distribute a true abundance. On this basis they introduced the Technocracy Calendar. It would mean that there would be no severe fluctuations in the load factor in the industrial sequences. The amenities of any given area would be available to everybody at any time, and it would level out the peak load-factors which are inherent in Price System operations today. The rush-hours, the traffic congestion, many of the problems that are common today would not have occurred if the Technocracy calendar had been introduced in the 1920s.

In the 1920s, the United States was still very much a rural community, and Canada was almost completely so. The population was very much less than it is today, and we had an abundance of resources and manpower plus the technology to apply the new scientific techniques. Building a civilization worthy of the intelligence of man was a pleasant prospect.

Another concept that they introduced in the early 1920s was the idea of the Energy Certificate, a central concept in the design for Continental operation. The Energy Certificate is a name meaning a distribution system based upon energy accounting, and the significance of this may not occur to people until they they think about the concepts for a bit. Here is a design for a society within which we, all of us, can enjoy relative abundance as a right of citizenship. How would this be accomplished? We could have begun with the technology available then, the Dewey Decimal system. Today you can pick up many scientific magazines and you will read about Smart Cards. These cards are no bigger than any credit card and all the information necessary about any individual, date of birth, where that person was born, sex, education,medical history, abilities -- everything that is necessary to know about a person can be incorporated now into one small card no bigger than a credit card. This is basically what Technocracy, or rather the Technical Alliance, was talking about in 1923 when they first introduced the concept of energy accounting. When you think of the mish-mash, the horrible mess we are in today involving financial manipulation, it makes you appreciate how much easier things would have been and how much more efficient if, in those early days when our society was much simpler than it is today, intelligent changes had been made. They could have been incorporated very easily. If the monetary system had been abandoned, and the concept of energy accounting had been introduced at that time, all of the problems that are related to money would not have occurred.

The Technical Alliance, also proposed in the early 1920s, the concept of a Continental Hydrology. Today, water tables in the United States and Canada are being depleted at a very rapid rate. What water that does remain is sometimes very badly polluted. Salt water is seeping into many ground-water reservoirs in coastal areas where the table has dropped low enough to allow seawater in. Much of our water is contaminated with pollutants -- pesticides, insecticides and airborne pollutants which may come many thousands of miles from their source are polluting our ground water. Continental Hydrology as proposed by Technocracy is a continental design for flood and erosion control, it would supply water for power, would supply irrigation and transportation and would open up huge areas of the North American Continent for recreational areas. It would modify the climate and allow us to grow food in areas that are now considered arid, and, had it been adopted, it would most certainly not have resulted in the contamination and depletion of our water resources that is a major problem in most areas of the United States and Canada today.

Coupled with Continental Hydrology, the concept of Power for a Continent was also introduced. This would have meant the transmission of up to a million volts DC across this Continent of North America. Power could be brought in from great distances and used without the difficulty of merging competing utilities are considering ``wheeling power'' from time zone to time zone. Continental operation would handle peak loads in the power system, peak loads which occur today in so many areas when everybody switches on their lights and air conditioners at the same times in the day. Many areas today fear brownouts or blackouts, and this is inevitable in a Price System, with the competition for profit interfering with technology.

Also, years ago, Technocracy Inc. outlined the concept of low speed water transportation as part of a Continental Hydrology. Non-perishable goods could be transported at a cost of one-tenth per ton mile -- over any other form of transportation. The energy savings by water trains would be tremendous and is one of many practical ways in which the dependence on the automobile could be overcome.

The social design of Technocracy was not implemented half a century ago and, as a consequence, we have built an entire civilization with wrong-headed thinking. It will take real effort to get ourselves back on track. Had we been embarked on a different course with intelligent direction, we would now have a future that would be a pleasure to contemplate. We would, no doubt, have a population in housing that was built to live in, located with thought given to conservation of the environment. Entire industries would have been placed differently -- with thought given to the personnel whose duty it was to operate them. It would be usual to travel by rail at speeds of 200 miles an hour. Education of the young would not be the "inculcation of the incomprehensible into the ignorant by the incompetent." It would, instead, be the best preparation for living that could be achieved. Health-care would be unhindered instead of in the hands of people who would like to help you, but who must remember their role of predator along with their professional role.

Pointing out what could have been had we been intelligent is useless, except that it still could be -- only now we have problems, and some of the problems are real sticky. And, some of the problems facing the people of this Continent will, without question, multiply and magnify if they are handled by Price System techniques.

But, there is no problem facing us today that cannot be solved; we still have the resources; we have the technology; we have the trained personnel to apply that technology to its maximum efficiency, and there is no practical reason why all of the major social problems and environmental problems confronting us at the present time cannot be overcome, but they cannot or will not be overcome within the framework of a Price System. People have got to make up their minds what it is they want, a healthy economy or a healthy environment, because we can't, by any stretch of the imagination, have both. One is incompatible with the other.

Solutions to our social problems are not unattainable. There is nothing facing us today, collectively and as a civilization, which modern-day technology cannot overcome if that technology is applied as it was designed to be used; if it is applied correctly and for the benefit of people in general. The problems we face today, or most of them, are of a technological nature and will vanish. The material benefit which would result from such an operation would bring the standard of living of every North American far above what we have today, but we have to make up our minds about what we want and what we want for our children. Do we want them to live in a world in which they can breathe clean air and drink unpolluted water, enjoy nutritious food and a healthy environment, or do we want to see how much longer this Price System can be dragged out? Sooner or later, when the resources run out, when the population becomes so great that this planet can no longer sustain the vast numbers, then Mother Nature will take a hand. And, if we don't supply intelligent solutions in the meantime, we certainly won't like the solutions which she will apply to us.