Sunday 26 February 2012

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!

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