Who Do We Blame?: Technology or People?

     It is easy to blame technology for the woes which betide modern society; but since it is humans natural inclination to advance themselves and satiate their natural curiosity, it is inevitable that we cannot remain in the dark ages forever.
     Technology is not intrinsically evil. I myself would not live past my 50's if it were not for the technology which had allowed doctors to detect and remove a tumour which had resided in my inner ear. One cannot label the technologically advanced doctors and medics who save lives with technology as fascists because they use their technology to extend peoples lives? What is intrinsically evil is the concept that people make money out of the invention and use of these medical technologies. I know there are people who quite logically point out that there would be no medical innovation if there was no prospect of reward in store for those invent it. What I find sick and evil is that a few chosen elites make sickeningly huge amounts of tax free dollars/yen/euros for years after the invention of these products long after the inventor has claimed their reward!
     Does society need to use money as a reward for bettering it? Why not use rewards to direct people's inventiveness towards good innovations while giving no rewards to those who only invent evil innovations? For example: a man who invents a machine which detects tumours more quickly and with less harm to the patient is rewarded with a new car, a vacation house, and free annual vacations every year. Now imagine the other man, who invents a computer program which replaces the jobs of thousands of  people who are handed redundancy notices after fascist corporations purchase the product. Imagine if this man is given nothing for his labour; absolutely nothing. He would feel no inclination to create further soul destroying computer programs. To take it further: imagine this man knew there would be no reward for his labour because he lived in a society with no money and no rewards for technology that eliminates jobs. He would not bother to use his intelligence for evil purposes and instead would use it to help his fellow citizens.
     People have told me constantly that the Pandora's box has already been opened; that we can not turn back the hands of time - but I say we can. We must have a revolution that takes away a fascist system that the Nazis would be proud of and reject the totalitarian Stalinist concept that is just a form of fascist socialism. We need to go further than Marx could ever have imagined: we need to eliminate money from the economic model that operates within society. We need to eliminate the toys in the playground of the rich and concentrate instead on feeding the poor. We need to eliminate those who are driven by hatred and greed, and instead foster the natural inclination within all of us towards generosity and love. Charles Dickens caught a glimpse of this aspect of nature through  the mists of Victorian oppression and greed.
     These qualities within us - generosity and love - are much more fragile than hatred and greed. But hatred and greed are the governing values of today's society. They are like a candle held up against a blowtorch. We must come to an understanding the value of a human soul lies not in how high is their income, but in what that individual can contribute to society. Even if that involves sweeping and hosing down the street they live in, that is enough to allow them to live in a world where food is on the table and a roof is over their head. What is the real value of these small needs to society: food and shelter?
     The world is coming closer to realising that what I write has meaning and make sense. As always, however, the greedy and the haters (the fascists, capitalists, religious leaders etc.) will hijack these basic needs of love and security and claim they have the answers: well they don't. The people do!

Fascism Is The Natural Development of Capitalism - George Orwell

There is a lot of talk lately about the so-called 99% who represent those who have no real money, as opposed to the 1% who hold the majority of the world's wealth. What is it that allows the 1% to hold onto their wealth? It is our ability to acquiesce to the belief that having the ability to purchase an i-phone, or a cheap pair of foreign made trainers means that we live in a free society. To the elite, freedom for us means the freedom to be poor and to make them wealthier. Why don't we rebel? Why is their not revolution? Why are we not tearing down the system and slitting their throats on the street. Why?...because we are all decent human beings who value life above even freedom. They (the elites) have no qualms about relegating their workers to abject poverty, and injustice, and disease, and suicide. They would be quite happy to step over a frozen dead child to enter a trendy restaurant.
Technology is of course not giving the 99% more freedom, it is giving us less freedom by taking away our usefulness to society, but allowing us to be monitored and controlled by the elite, by brainwashing us into thinking we need these technologies to function. Money will mean nothing to the 99% when none of us have any?
I call on all of the young economics students and business students to design an economic system that does not rely on money to function. One that is egalitarian, but offers rewards to those who work the hardest. One that guarantees every human being has home, and food, and the freedom to enjoy themselves on weekends. One that educates the masses. So far, technology has destroyed the vocabulary of most young people to grunts and texts. Let us go back in time where respect is instilled in all of our communications with each other. Above all, let us harshly punish the rich, and greedy, and all of those who as human beings would take advantage of another human being.
To all of you who have had your lives destroyed by unemployment, or had you jobs exported elsewhere for cheaper labour, or have lost your savings to speculating capitalist fascist pigs - rise up and destroy that 1%!!!
LOVE and RESPECT to ALL MY COMRADES!

The Star Trek Solution

We can all remember the scenes from the old Star Trek series: Kirk gets hungry  - Kirk wanders over to a square looking oven like device embedded in the wall - Kirk pushes a button - there is a hum, and a complete meal magically pops out of the wall. What is relevant is that there is no economic transaction taking place; there is no card inserted for payment - no means to identify who has purchased the meal. Back on mother Earth the cities are pristine and funcional. Everyone seems housed and seems to own some means of transportation. Poverty and desperation seem to be missing.
Is all this just a utopian vision from a comic reading science fiction addicted geek? Or is this vision of the future a natural transition from a capitalist based economy to a more egalitarian society? The problem with this vision is that if we all the people walking around and pushing buttons as if they are actually doing something. The reality of technological advancement is that those people will not be needed to push those buttons. The main purpose of technology - it's raison d'etre is eliminate the need for the humans in the first place. Instead of having 10 people on the bridge of the Enterprise only 3 would be needed. What do you do with the extra 7 people? That is the most important question that is confronting capitalism and the advancement of technology:
What do you do with the extra people?
The problem of the current global economic meltdown lies not at the feet of the elites, but the natural finish to the evolution of capitalism. Capitalism is not about creating jobs; its sole purpose is the creation of wealth. Capitalism has reached its epoch - it is nearing perfection: enormous wealth is being created without the need for human labour, and that wealth is being channelled into the hands of fewer and fewer elites. The elites are not being malicious, they are merely celebrating the perfection of capitalism.
This makes capitalism a concept that is no longer viable in a technologically advanced society. Money itself has to be re-invented as a concept. We can no longer accept the notion of labour for money and labour for profit. Some other rewards must be devised for those who are most useful to society, and a new sense of community must be devised for a smaller and more connected world.
I welcome your comments.

Welcome to My Blog

I was inspired to start this blog by one remark uttered by a work mate. The remark was meant by him to be consoling - to be diversionary, if somewhat condescending. It was uttered by an older, childless, secure and somewhat unimaginative civil servant who was secure in his future. When his world passes away that shall be it for him. He has no concern for children or grandchildren. His main concern will be how to spend his generous government pension. We were discussing the floundering world economy, and debating the best way forward. I asserted that it was not capitalism! He dismissed this as nonsense: technology will find a way to create more jobs. Technology! How can he be serious! Technology is destroying this world, and has been destroying it since the since the Industrial Revolution of the 1850s. The main drive of technological innovation has been geared towards the advancement of capitalism. From the barrel makes of the 1860s to the factory worker of the 1990s technology has been voraciously destroying the need for human labour at an unprecedented scale. The traditional concept of capitalism has become moot. It works like this:
1. Technology finds a way to eliminate the need of a simple mechanical function performed by a human
2. Technology finds a way to eliminate the need for more complicated mechanical labours previously performed by humans
3. Technology finds a way to replace inventors of devices which eliminate the need for human labour
4. All manufacturing, inventing, services and possible forms of human labour are completely replaced by technology
This is the end game.
No human is working. Only elite capitalists are collecting the monetary benefits of the work of technology.
Money means nothing to the majority of humans since there is no employment available for humans to earn money.
Nothing is real. All of humanity has become lazy, uncommunicative, and hopeless. Any sense of community is lost - we are all reduced to becoming commodities to be exploited by technology. Love, anger, hatred, compassion can only be conveyed through technology. No one meets - language is lost. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are partly responsible - though their children will be blissfully unaware of the hell at the end of their long driveways.
I would write this message on papyrus - but the skill to make it by hand has long been lost - And no one would read it anyway.
Solutions anyone?
Mr. Lollard.