The Need For Complete Social Change

Ron Miller

1995

Published in:

The Northwest Technocrat, 1st quarter 1995, No. 338

Never before has the human race faced a situation that is anything like what it is now facing. We seem to be on the edge of unparalleled disaster together with the peak of our achievements. On the one hand never have so many people lived so well, while at the same time the future indeed appears dark.

There may be need to summarize; to be clear it seems necessary. The expansion of human population across the planet cannot continue. Food supplies are threatened by a collapse of soil fertility, fresh water, environmental degradation and so forth. Crime is running rampant across the country. The signs of social decay are everywhere. Our economic system is faltering. How have things gotten to this state and what can be done about it?

In the 1930s, the study of economics took a serious turn for the worse. The horrible depression of the thirties had stimulated a great deal of thinking about just what makes an economic system work. Mathematical theories about the fickle financial finaglings of the fiscal system were being developed. In view of the fact that almost all the economists of the day had guessed wrong, anything that would seem to improve the prognostication would be welcome. So, fiscal guesswork became a respectable profession.

Those who operated the Price System at the time were very frightened that they were about to lose their system and the benefits thereby accruing. They lived in fear of any explanation that appeared at variance with the Price System. The facts be damned, just keep the money coming! The Commies were everywhere. The Commies of course consisted of anyone whose point of view did not coincide with the current lords of the manor.

Into this social environment Technocracy Inc. offered, not simply a different explanation, but a completely different approach to the problems. Technocracy proposed a scientific analysis of the operations of the social system -- analyzing the physical operations that made the system run. In other words, rather than trying to figure out how an engine is running by the sound it makes or by looking at the exhaust fumes and watching the vibration it produces, why not try looking at the engine itself! What Technocracy proposed was to measure the energy involved in social operations, because energy is the most fundamental property of any physical operation. The laws of thermodynamics apply to the social system just like anything that has substance.

The screams of outrage from the press both then and now, point to the fact that Technocracy was on to something. When socialism was popular Technocracy was called Fascist. When fascism was popular Technocracy was called Communist. It is none of these. The fact that the Price system press finds it necessary to lie about Technocracy, just about every time it bothers to mention it at all, testifies to just how frightened and ignorant they are.

Technocracy's analysis points out that the Price System is destroying itself and that there really is no choice. This will happen whether Technocracy is here or not. Probably, an example of this is one that is obvious -- in agriculture: in 1830 about seventy percent of the population lived on or derived their living from the land. Today, only about three percent survive this way. Technology has replaced them. Today, as the pace of technology quickens, we see jobs disappearing by the thousands. The unskilled jobs are doomed, and even professional people with good degrees are becoming homeless!

Rather than see this situation as a hopeless catastrophe, Technocracy realized that this requires a complete change of the social system. And -- instead of being terrified of this; we should see that we are being presented with the greatest opportunity the human race has ever had! It is we who have been given the possibility of moving the human race onto a whole new plane of social existence!

Two major conclusions are inescapable. If a society has the ability to produce enough for everyone, price disappears. Agriculture is a perfect example of this. When so much is produced that the price a farmer gets for his product falls below the cost of producing it, he will go out of business. That is the reason so few farmers are still in business. The other conclusion is that machines are excellent producers, but they don't consume much. It is not necessary to directly replace a man with a machine. What is needed is to increase the productivity of the machine; with this increased productivity you need fewer people. This can only lead to one result, the destruction of the Price System.

Technocracy realized that the people of North America would probably not be willing to voluntarily starve to death in the middle of the world's greatest super market. If you can't operate a Price System, the simplest thing is to find a way to do without it; rather than to continue to try operating in an impossible situation.

Technocracy proposed operating the social system using energy as a basis for governing operations. In such a system there can be no distinctions between individuals in computing consuming privileges; because to do so is to reestablish a Price System. What people really want is an income, not a job!

It doesn't take much reflection to realize that once a Price System, is abandoned, nearly all of the trappings that constitute the present governing system would become pointless. A government of sorts is needed, but would constitute only a small fraction of what exists today. Quite obviously the most important requirement would be to maintain the technology that keeps us all alive. So Technocracy has proposed a structure for doing just that. The only purpose of such a government would be to provide the population with what they want when and where they want it.

Comment: Technocracy Inc. was formed as only an educational organization to help make the transition as smooth as possible. The organization attempts to do this by informing as many people as possible about the course of events as well as warning about what will occur if we permit our technology to be destroyed. Technocracy Inc. itself has no assumption of power theory. That is, the organization has no plans to take over or form any government. Once a functional form of government is established as proposed by Technocracy Inc. consisting of the top most capable people organized into functional sequences, the organization disbands.