Meaningful Work and Technology
Next to environmental degradation, the disappearance of meaningful work
is the most important problem facing not only Canada but the United States
and indeed the whole world.
A human being needs to be productively and usefully engaged with both hands
and brains. Since the mid-19th century we have been giving jobs to machines.
At the end of the 20th century this trend has reached a fever pitch in killing
not only jobs for hands, but now jobs for brains: with user-friendly software
and modems, these jobs are now migrating to low wage areas and they will
not come back until our wages reach the level of those in Mexico or Asia.
Technology and computers are sweeping through factories and office towers
like job-killing viruses. Transnational corporations and free trade deals
are accelerating this process.
The real problems facing this planet are not economic or technical, they
are philosophical. Our high capital, low labour philosophy is pauperizing
North America with downsizing and rationalizing for "efficiency"
- in the long run this philosophy will be very costly and inefficient because
it will destroy our consumer base, human self-respect and other delicate
psychological structures of society. It is now also destroying our tax base
just at a time when a damaged society needs more support. It is making governments
helpless and irrelevant.
We cannot get out of this dangerous trend with more growth or retraining
for "new" jobs. The planet has taken almost all of the "growth"
it can stand. Most of our problems are a result of rapid growth. We have
overproduction and declining demand along with unemployment and depletion
of resources. As a result of this and overcapitalization, our forests, fisheries
and family farms are in ruins. And our cities are disaster areas. As for
retraining - the costs are astronomical and courses are out of date almost
immediately due to too rapidly evolving technology.
There has been a silly myth that we can keep giving jobs to machines and
new, meaningful jobs will replace the old ones. It is now clear that this
is not true. The "everything is temporary - take nothing for granted"
new economy will continue to produce an inner conviction of insecurity and
uselessness. This is obviously dangerous and expensive in human and financial
terms. There is a steady rise in crime, substance abuse, family violence,
violence among young people, teenage suicide, homelessness, soup kitchens
and food banks. The reason for this dismal picture is directly connected
to a growing lack of meaningful work. Next to the family, it is work and
the relationships established by work that are the true foundations of society.
If the foundations are unsound, how could society be sound? Unless we change
our philosophy, this trend seems tragically unstoppable. First should come
the values, then should come the technology.
The Luddites were a group in England who strongly protested the displacement
of hand work by industrial textile machines. They correctly predicted the
end of a way of life and the destruction of the vitality of their towns
and villages. Although the Luddites' tactics and timing were off, they were
right. This displacement and destruction has now reached a global scale.
The two most frightening words these days are "global economy"
- which basically means leaving the destiny of everyone in the world in
the hands of multinational buccaneers with their free-roving electronics.
Like true pirates, they have no sense of place or permanence. In modern,
high-tech war, a distant enemy can push a button and destroy thousands of
lives. In modern high-tech business, distant company bureaucracy can and
does push a button and destroy the livelihood of thousands. The world seems
to be moving in a direction which will be boring, ugly and dangerous. Is
it a good idea to leave the lives of all the people in the world plus all
the plants and animals in the hands of these buccaneers? Do we want to completely
eliminate self-reliance, loyalty and dedication?
We need some law and order at the international level. Rather than job retraining,
we need philosophy retraining. We should challenge old, destructive orthodoxies
about growth being good, bigger being better, and new being always superior
to traditional. During the 20th
century we have been throwing out the bath
water and the baby, and being proud of it. It is like being in a canoe in
rapids; we have the choice to steer or not to steer, we do not have the
choice to get out of the canoe. The direction in which we are moving with
frightening speed is clearly dangerous and unsustainable.
We should promote such radical ideas as small is beautiful, self-reliance,
lower capital - higher labour input and job-sharing, and aim for a sense
of permanence in our lives, jobs and communities. Maybe there is even a
place for protectionism. As we move into the 21st century we must pick and
choose to create a new orientation of science and technology towards "small
is beautiful" and a human scale. Anyone who thinks we can continue
riding unchecked on this high technology band wagon to a better world is
truly living in an "Alice in Wonderland" world.