New Methods Required

L.W. Nicholson

1991

Published in:

The Northwest Technocrat, 1st quarter 1991, No. 322

Everyone likes a new idea if it proves to be significantly more efficient than previous methods. However, if the new idea is not quite simple, or if it is not profitable, a considerable amount of proving may be required for it to be accepted. There was a time when everyone thought the world was flat and the sun revolved around it. Any expression of a contradictory belief was intolerable. In the beginning of this century the driver of an automobile was considered a crackpot, or at best with amused tolerance. It is an extremely rare phenomenon to find an individual who has the intelligence required to withhold judgement concerning a new idea until facts about its practicability have been obtained. And it is even more rare that an individual may be found who can withhold judgement and is also willing to make some effort to investigate the facts involved. The mental requirements are beyond the capability of many, and the intelligence required, the courage necessary to differ from popular prejudice is seldon found outside the field of science, and not often even there.

As technological change has occurred, slowly at first, then with ever-increasing speed, changes came so fast that, in spite of the traditional reluctance to accept change, humans have become more accustomed to it and therefore demonstrate less resistance to it except where major prejudice is present. The increasing acceptance of change is fortunate indeed since this trend is preparing mankind for the far greater changes to come. If one considers the changes in the means whereby we have lived during the past 100 years and the increasing speed with which those means have been presented, he should realize that fifty years hence life may be far different from anything known before. And, if we are to survive, we must adapt ourselves to those changes.

Consider the present increase in population. With oil, iron, lead, tin and many other non-recurring resources already approaching exhaustion, what will the living standard be with ten billion people in need of those resources? If we lack the intelligence to limit population growth, nature will do it for us in a much more unpleasant manner.

Consider the ecological disaster ahead if we continue our present direction. Landfills that leach poisons, incinerators that allow the worst poisons to disperse, ozone depletion, acid rain and a host of other environmental depredations result from the chase after the fast buck.

Consider the difficulty of using the political method in attempts to solve the highly complex technical problems of today. Can anyone really believe this method can solve the problems existing 50 years down the road? A much more efficient method of social operations will be required if the human species is to survive.

Consider the economic system. It is a system of trade and commerce based on commodity valuation which is determined by scarcity and financed by debt, a system which keeps millions of people living in poverty regardless of how much our technology can produce. It takes lots of persistent disinformation to maintain the ignorance required to keep such a system in operation for even a little while; it is physically impossible to keep it going much longer.

Yes! There will be changes. Some of them will be greater in magnitude and in social significance than any before known in the entire history of man. A demonstration of far more intelligence will be required than ever before. Those who can understand the necessity for change must help those who can't. Those who can overcome their own prejudice, realize their own need to increase their knowledge, and are willing to do something about increasing that knowledge must provide the leadership for tomorrow. They must do so because no one else can.

We are heading into an entirely different kind of world. The technological development of the North American Continent has only begun, and its use for the benefit of only a few cannot be continued. The sheer volume of technologically produced goods and services with so few man-hours of human labor has already antiquated past and present methods of distribution, and North Americans have no choice but to allow themselves, including all the rest of North Americans, the benefit of this production of plenty. It is a simple matter of survival. We can't maintain the scarcity required to keep prices up, we can't afford the wars and debt necessary, and it is doubtful whether the belief that it's one's patriotic duty to die for the system can be maintained.

When one has fought and clawed his way to the top of the social heap, it is doubtful that he can ever allow himself to risk all he has gained, plus the advantage he has over others, to make a mad rush to change anything. He is much more likely to refuse to admit that any other way of doing things is possible. As a result, the leadership of tomorrow will likely not evolve from the leadership of today. The people of this Continent may as well resign themselves to the present conditions that provide the incentive for crime, drugs, ecological deterioration and war, unless they become willing to take the profit out of such activities. The profit cannot be removed within the framework of the present Price System of social operations, whether it leans to the right or to the left. An entirely new method is required. That new method has been researched by Technocracy Inc. and its predecessor, The Technical Alliance, since 1918, a total of 70 years. When you have had enough of this Price System and its war, crime and pollution, with its poverty in the midst of plenty, then try an investigation of Technocracy's blueprint for a society scientifically designed for an age of intelligence.