information brief 54 CD version
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A Chance, Not A Choice
Too often people investigating this plan for the first time assume that they are being confronted with a social idea that they may choose to accept or reject on the basis of how well it pleases them -- as though they were being asked to switch from one brand of merchandise to another brand purportedly a little better then the one they already use. They feel that they have a choice of the kind of social system that they shall live in; they then tend to evaluate this plan on how well it appeals to their subjective desires.
As in the case of most assumptions, this one is in error. Energy accounting is not being "sold" in competition with other alternatives. When people attempt to sell an idea, it implies that they seek to personally benefit from that sale, that there is something in it for them. A second erroneous assumption is that Technocrats are promulgating their program in the hope that they will someday take over society and rule according to their "Technocratic" blueprint. These assumptions evidently arise from a long exposure to the vagaries of politics.
Energy accounting is presented on the basis that it is a carefully engineered method of accounting designed for operating the social system of North America, either when the prevailing programs prove unable to function or when enough social enlightenment develops among citizens to install it. Technocrats do not seek to take over or to operate the technological design they specify for this Continent. They have an abhorrence’s of the profligate waste and extreme corruption that are characteristics features of Price System operations. But, as every Technocrat knows, what really counts is the strategic analysis and the social design that will give citizens of North America the means to achieve survival.
Scientists have analyzed the physical changes occurring on this Continent and have plotted their future course, not from the standpoint of personal desires, but in accordance with the direction in which events are headed. Technocrats are fully aware that irreversible changes are taking place. They know that the future of North American society is not being decided by whims, desires, and hopes of individuals, the machinations of power elite groups, but by the force of events. They know that the Old Order of scarcity, toil and insecurity is coming to an end. They know that the next stage will be either chaos, with wide spread man made destruction, out of which will emerge a low order of political control (if, indeed any human life survives) or a New Order based on an intelligent stewardship of physical things and a vastly more efficient operation of our technological society.
The developing trends are not a matter which individuals can decide for themselves, or prevent. And, in any event, North Americans cannot escape the consequences of the developing trends. The only practical and sensible decision of the individual is that of adapting to change, not fighting it or ignoring it. The caretakers of this plan are not creating change or even the course of change, rather, it is preparing for the nest most probable state of society on the North American Continent. That state of society is being "dictated" by the rate at which energy is being converted and by the machines it powers.
Science and technology are, by nature, progressive (as contrasted to politics, economics and theology which, by nature, are stagnant). Science and technology cannot be suppressed without endangering the survival of the human species. But, there are certain reactionaries who despise progress so much that they would rather see humanity destroyed than see social change.
Within the scarcity condition of the Price System, there may be a choice between communism and fascism, between liberalism and conservatism; but in an area of high-energy technological production there is only one "Choice" -- Functional Control. Technology cannot be operated by opinion or desire, only by know-how and skill. But, by contrast your act of voting in any kind of political system will assure you of one thing; you will be having an incompetent managing the affairs of your country -- a politician.
Goods and services, when they are sufficient to provide an adequate standard of living for all, cannot be dispensed by means of exchange values. A system of measurement of consumption is essential to an efficient operation of an economy -- to prevent overproduction and waste.
When the work of an area
is done by wholly automatic machines (or by those requiring a minimum of human
attention), the idea of one's earning a living through a job of work becomes
ridiculous. When all citizens are guaranteed equal access to all goods and
services they can consume by right of citizenship, there can be no masters and
servants. A whole new social concept is required to fit the conditions that are
developing on this Continent.
We still have no
Continental-wide transportation system. We still have no large-scale plan for
collecting the produce of farms, mines, forests and fisheries. We still have no
equitable, coordinated system for distributing
The pressure of
population and the depletion of strategic natural resources make essential
efficient, total planning.
So,
the problem facing the individual citizen of
Learn about ENERGY ACCOUNTING
"the production and distribution of commodities is
entirely unorganized so that everybody must live in fear of being eliminated
from the economic cycle,"
Albert Einstein
From his message to posterity, sealed in the Time Capsule at
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