RAIN Journal o·f Appropriate Technology ' DECEMBER 1976 VOL. Ill, NO.3 ONE DOLLAR INSIDE: AMORY LOVINS on over-electriflcation p.4 E. F. SCHUMACHER on technology and political change p.S GRAPHICS p.12
Page 2 RAIN December 1976 RAIN access BUILDING Stone Masonry, Ken Kern, Steve Magers, Lou Penfield, $6 from: Owner-Builder Publications Box 550 Oakhurst, CA 93644 First of a new series of guides for beginning builders being prepared by Kern's press. Beautifully illustrated with clear photographs, this volume covers the basics of stability; choosing, fitting and shaping stone; laid, faced and formed stonework; and details of steps, arches, fireplaces, scaffolding and other operations. At the same time, it gives a sense of the beauty of different kinds of stonework and how to think ahead to how what you're doing will turn out. A beginner's, not a stonemason's, guide, but good for that purpose. Private Water Systems, $2.50 from: Midwest Plan Service 207 Davidson Hall Iowa State University Ames, lA 50011 If you're going to do your own water system, this is the guide to get. Detailed information on determining how much water you need, pros and cons of different water sources, choosing pumps and equipment, planning and calculating a water system, and various water treatment techniques. Handbook for Building Homes ofEarth, free from: Office of International Affairs Department of Housing and Urban Development Washington, DC 20410 A real bargain, even if you had to pay· for it. Goes on your bookshelf right next to Middleton's Build Your House of Earth. Simple, clear, how-to information for building earth homes-soil testing, site preparation, details of adobe, pressed block, rammed earth, earth roofs and floors, and surface coatings. Excellent illustrations. Better how-to than Middleton's book but fewer design examples and case studies of problems. It's a strange route that highway engineer's soil mechanics takes back into knowledgeable building of earth homes! More details on oil-stabilized earth floors and some other techniques can be found in the earlier Earth for Homes, 1955, from the same office. Don't Go Buy Appearances, George Hoffman, $2.95 from: Woodward Books Box 773 Corte Madera, CA 94925 A manual for checking out and evaluating a house before purchase. A lot of good specific advice on how to find out if the.furnace boiler is about rusted out, wha-t the electrical capacity of the house is, whether the leaky faucet is a major or minor problem and how to tell quality and what it means in your pocketbook over 40 years. More i'mportantly, how to figure if fixing the problems are major or minor undertakings. Velux Roof Windows Velux-America Inc. 80 Cummings Park Woburn, MA 01801 Roof windows are a good approach to pulling a lot of sun heat and light into a building, renovating and using attics in old houses for more efficient space use and not having to build complex and expensive dormers into a roof. Get the information from these folks-showing a lot of varied applications, how to flash to prevent leaks and how to deal with the new problems of sloping windows! Whether you use their products or make your own, it's a good idea. If they would come out with a sliding insulating shutter similar to their decorative one, I'd give them our four-dandelion award. Plane Iron Adjusting ~f!W·-~ Double Plane Iron Assy .---1 Regulator Tension Adjusting Knob Woodcraft Catalog, 50¢ from: Woodcraft Supply Corp. 313 Montvale Ave. Woburn, MA 01801 A connoisseur's guide to woodworking tools-if you think you need Cadillacs. You'll have to pay for it. Sometimes, though, you want to find out if the tool or the person makes the difference. From here you can get and try out Swiss carving tools, Japanese saws, shipbuilder's adze, bark spuds, broad axes, German/French/English/American drawknives-you name it. Next time you will make it yourself. The catalog is a learning experience in itself. Minnesota Woodworkers Supply Co. Industrial Blvd. Rogers, MN 55374 Woodcraft supplies tools, Minnesota Woodworkers supplies all sorts of hardto-find specialty hardware-plans, upholstery supplies, lamp parts, furniture trim, carvings, hinges and locks, veneers and inlays. -Tom Bender
December 1976 RAIN Page 3 RAIN is a monthly information access journal and reference serv,ice for people developing more satisfying patterns that .increase local self-reliance and press less heavily on our limited resources. We try to give access to: * Solid technical support for evaluating a~d implementing new ideas. * Ecological and philosophical perceptions that can help create more satisfying options for living, working and playing. *Up-to-date information on people, events and publications. LEARNING Applesauce, $5/yr. from: National Alternative Schools Program School of Education University of Massachusetts Amherst, MA 01002 A nice newsprint format self-described as "a blend of ideas and happenings in alternative education." The latest issue included a mammoth resource listing complied by Miriam Wasserman and Linda Hutchinson of the Education Exploration Center in Minneapolis. The next issue will focus on vocational education and some curriculum developed by an alternative school for working ·class women. They are also working'on a '76-'77 directory of alternative schools which, judging from their '7 5-'76 direc- ' tory, should be worth waiting f~. (LdeM) The Wheelwright's Shop, George Sturt, 1923, $6.95 from: Cambridge University Press 32 E. 57th Street New York, NY 10022 An autobiographical account of operating a wheelwright shop in England in the late 1800s, but of greater value as a guide to the value of apprentice learning and learning by doing. The book gives a strong sense of how interdependent the designs of things become and how much greater valued are-the skills Of workers when there isn't so much wealth that everything can be overdone. So many things we do seem rude and awkward that it's good to get a sense of'how things become more mellow and well-fitting when enough time has passed to work off the rough edges apd find more complete solutions to problems. (TB) ' Innovative Graduate Programs Directory, 2nd Edition, April1976, cost unknown, available from: Learning Resources Center Empire State College Saratoga Springs, NY 12866 In 1970-71 I published an alternate community weekly newspaper in Miami, Florida. We maintained a post office box and got on many unusual mailing lists. After the paper ceased publication, we kept the post office box and continued to receive mail. In 1974, while working as a researcher and community liaison on a public tv show for older people, I received an announcement in the post office box proclaiming a new master's degree program called Community Information Specialist. My god, I thought, that's what I am-I never · 'knew what to c~ll myself. And off I went. Now there's an easier way to find a graduate program attuned to the times. This Directory. It's not all-inclusive, and the descriptions are in.complete (mostly from the college catalog), but it's a gooel place to.start. The uniqueness of the programs included (in over 200 subject areas ranging from adult education to water resources.manage- . ment) are either graduate credit being given in a new field or external degrees in traditional fields. While·there have been guides to alternate schools and colleges, this is the first listing of experimental graduate programs, most of them on the master's degree level. The directory is arranged alphabetically by name of college or university, with a subject index referring you to the·school with a program in that field. (RE) Master of Science in Biomedical Communications College ofMedicine University of Cincinnati 231 Bethesda Ave. Cincinnati, ·OH 45267 513/872-5652 Joe Bakan A new program begun in fall of 1976 training communications specialists in health care education and delivery systems to assist in the interaction between health professionals and patients. Study areas include: health care environment and delivery systems, media, learning theory and instruction~! methods, applied behavioral science and communications and behavioral measurement, statistics and research design. (RE) Master of Science in Ecosystem Management Farallones Institute/Antioch College West 1516 Fifth St. Berkeley, CA 94710 415 I 5 24-115 0 Helga Olkowski This is as close as anything comes to being a graduate education program in appropriate technology. It is conducted by Farallones and accredited through Antioch College. .~ "Developed to create a professional · level manager-planner who has an un- " derstanding of basic principles in biology and ecology, who has skills in methods of manipulating the plant-animalhuman interface, .and who can operate with knowledge of social needs and economic realities. The focus is on the ecosystem because this concept ties together organisms, their needs and their life-supporting environments. The term management is used to imply the use of intelligent methods to affect changes in ecosystems but not to dominate or control. Planning concerns both design--and administrative functions. A . strong base in systems theory is included so as to maximize the use of integrated ideas from many disciplines in design and program development." The program is looking for students who are "capable of independent study, who have .at least an elementary knowledge of biology, who are committed to using scientific methods of investigation and who are interested in ecological problems and motivated by a desire to affect social change through developing and implementing environmentally sound solutions.". (RE) I Cricket Monthly, $10/9 issues, from: Walnut Lane Boulder, CO 80301 A good children's magazine with stories, i few poems, project suggestions and creative writing and drawing contests. Because selections are designed for 512-year-olds, Cricket would be good to have in a school library or a family with more than one child in this age bracket. (Lauri deMoll)
Page 4 RAIN December 1976 THE SECON·D LAW OF TMERMODVNAMICSnSAYS CUTTING BUTTER WITH A NUCLEAR-ELECTRIC B~HAINSAW DOESN'T AND HAS MAKE SENSE IS ~ GOT To·,STOP We keep telling you that Amory Lovins is someone all of you out there ought to begin paying attention to. I first perked up my ears to him and got deep into his work at the '7 5 "Limits · to Growth" conference in Houston, Texas. Ther~ we were, in the heart of the fossil-fueled dinosaur, the deep-carpeted (petroleum-based), plush-seated, Woodlands resort and meeting center ... and Amory was listening intently to Harry Bovay, board chairman of Bovay Engineers1 engineer emeritus and fellow p>anelist, as Harry condescendingly explained why nuclear electricity was the only way to go. But the match was a bit unfair, for Harry was unwittingly supplying Amory with all the facts and figures he needed to produce a withering . return volley. Quick as a flash, Amory drew his pocket calculator, took aim at the dinosaur, and shot it with his own data. A standing-room-only crowd watched Harry's head roll; figuratively, and turn beet-red, literally, and burst into cheers. For it was a modern David versus Goliath, an·d we enjoyed it immensely. · ·; • Amory's papers are well-referenced, as you would expect. Beyond that, the references themselves are often minor gems of logic and human concern that others should follow up on. But what many'Lovins-watchers relish most is the way Amory gently arrays the truth in unavoi9able simplicity. He lets his opponent's claims reveal themselves in their full absurdity ... "Relax," he says, "Ready Killer-Watt has no clothes." "Scale, Centralization, and Electrification itt Energy Systems," Amory's latest effort at energy common sense, was delivered at the .October 20-21, 1976, Future·Strategies for Energy Development symposium held at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. If you've read his earlier works which we told you about in the Oct. '76 RAIN (p. 18), "I;:nergy Strategy: The Road Not Taken," in the mid-Nov. '76 {Vol. 6, No. 20) Not Man Apart or the Oct. '76 Foreign Affairs, and "Exploring Energy-Efficient Futures for Canada," in the June '76 Conserver Society Notes, the·n you're ready for the more technical and full-ofnumbers Oak Ridge paper. It will prove very useful to citizen energy organizations, nuclear plant siting intervenors and antiutility rate hike groups. And it's just plain fun to read. We've selected excerpts from the Oak Ridge paper that might be considered Amory's responses to the Bonneville Power Administration's latest "non-policy trial balloon." BPA may contract in advance to buy power from private utilities who are unable to get loans and sell stock as cheaply or easily as before. With such·secure, federally-.back~d contracts in hand, private power companies can easily get low interest loans for continuing construction of large-scale electrical power plants. This is what Lovins calls the "hard path" of high energy, primary-supply-oriented, high technology, centralized, increasingly electrified, and r.eliant chiefly on depletable coal and uranium resources. If existing centralized systems do not now make economic and engineering.sense, why were they built? There are at least·four rational explanations..First, because objective conditions have chariged drastically' and an indu.stry not noted for quick and imaginative responses ' has been slow to adapt. Second, because centralized energy systems · have been built by institutions in no position to ask whether those systems are the best ·way to perform particular end-use functions-an omission reinforced by our failure to price fuels at long-run marginal • · cost. Third, ,.at times we have ~een pow~rful institutions deliberately .' seeking to reinforce their power by constricting consl,lmer choice, as in the classic monopoly tactics of the early electric utilities or the fight . : against public power and (abroad) private wind machines. Fourth, the' long economic shadow cast by large sunk costs has often led us to seek .. to reinforce past mistakes threu'gh·f?ubsidies, bailouts, $100-billion .., slush funds, etc., thus further .restricting consumer choice, rather than; writing off (or gradually retiring through attrition) ill-conceived infrastructure. Energy decisions are always implemented gradually and incrementally; major shifts take decades. A chief element of strategy, inherent in the soft path, is thus to avoid incremental commitments· , .. of resources to major infrastruc!ure that locks us into particular supply patterns for more decades thereafter.. We are already stuck with gigantic infrastructure that constrains our choices, and nobody is suggesting we wipe the slate clean.: The question is rather what we do at the margin. · What made sense on the up-side of the Hubbert blip, when real costs gf ele,ctricity (both averag~ and marginal) were steadily falling, may neeq to be reversed on the dow·n-side of the bljp and when real costs are ·, rapidly rising with no en~ _in sight. The illogi~ of the ERDA p~sition is this: if we are running out of oitand gas but do not like coal, it is said, we need nuclear power; but if we are not going to have nuclear power, we need other systems that would do what nuclear stations would have done-namdy, deliver GW blocks of electricity. But we should instead be seeking systems that will do what we would have done with the oil and gas if we had had them in the first place. It is the function that interests us, not substituting for reactors. By not structuring the problem in this way, ERDA has so far failed to grasp the immense short- and medium-term opportunities for deploying available technologies for end-use efficiency, cogeneration, fluidized-bed boiler backfits, organic conversion, and extensive solar space heating. The longer this delay, the worse will be our shortages of clean heat and fluid fuels. I hope that the discussion arising from this Symposium will increase ERDA's awareness of the existence of coherent non-electrified ,views of our energy future. In a soft energy path, the technological measure to be achieved can be readily separated from the policy instrument used to encourage it. The former-cogeneration, bioconversion, insulation-is neutral, the latter politically charged. It is the latter only that is likely to irritate us if ill-conceived. But I believe the policy tool can be chosen, accord-
ing to practical and ideological convenience, from such an enormous armamentarium that the choice can fully respect pluralism and volun~ tarism. ~ * . ~ I do not see how the same pluralism can possibly extend to a hard, coarse-grained energy path. The scale and the technical difficulty of its enterprises are so vast that corresponding concentrations of social resources must be efficiently mobilized without substantive regard to diverse opinions and circumstances. Only large corporations, encouraged by large government agencies, using large sums of private and public money to employ large numbers of workers on large areas of land, can possibly get the job done. It is not a task for householders, small businesses, block associations or town meetings. Soft technologies are thus inherently, structurally less coercive and more participatory than hard technologies. In a nuclear society, nobody can opt out of nuclear risk. .In an electrified society, everyone's lifestyle is shaped by the economic impetatives of the energy system, and, from the viewpoint of the consumer, diversity becomes a vanishing luxury. Like purchasers of model T Fords, the consumer can have anything he wants so long as it's e)ectrified. But in a soft path, each ' person can choose his own risk-benefit balance and his own energy ·systems to match his own degree of caution and involvement. People who do not care to partake of the advantag.:s of district heating will be free to reject them-and, if the system if thoughtfully designed, to change their minds later. People who want to drive big cars or inhabit uninsulated houses will be free to 'do so-and to pay the social costs. People can choose to live in city centers, remote countryside, or in between, without being told their lifestyle is uneconomic. People can choose to minimize their "consumer humiliation"-their forced dependence on systems they cim!'lot understand, contro!•. diagno~e1 . repair, or modify-or can co.ntmue to ?epend on trad1t1~mal u~ll1t1es, for large grids are already With· u~ and m so~e de~ee Will pe;s1st for ~ long time. In a soft path, then, dissent and d1vers1ty are not JUSt a futile gesture but a basis for political action' and a spur t<;> private. enterprise. But the monolithic nature, gargantuan scale, exactmg requirements, and homogenizing infrastructure of hard technologies does.not offer such pluralism. Only our largest conglomerations of resources, shielded by the poweres of the state from tq_e vagaries of the economic and political marketplace, can perform ~ch demanding tasks. ·n .... · Centralized energy systems are also inequitable in principle because they separate the energy output from its side-effects, allocating them to different people at opposite ends of the transmission lines, pipelines, or rail lines. The export of these side-effects from Los Angeles and New York to Navajo country, Appalachia, 1 Wyoming, and the Brooks Range (not to mention Venezuela, the Caribbean, Kuwait, and British Columbia) makes the former more habitable and the latter more resentful. That resentment is finding political expression. As the weakest groups in society, such as the native peoples, come to appear to stronger groups as miners' canaries whose fate f9retells their own, sympathy for the recipients of the exported side-effects grows. December 1976 RAIN Page 5 Throughout the world, cent:rc.Lgovernment is trying to promote expansionist energy policies by preempting regulatory auth'ority, and in the proceS's is ·eliciting a strong Sta,te (or Provincial) and local response. Washington, Ottawa, Bonn, Pads, and Auckland are coming to be viewed locally as the common enemy. Unholy alliances form. Perhaps Montana might mutter to Mass'achusetts, "We won't oil your beac~es if you won't strip our coal." As Congress-made of State people With no Federal constituency-increasingly molds interregional conflict into a cemmon States'-rights front, dec~sions gravitate by default to the lower political levels at which consensu,s is still .P?~sible: At those. levels, further insults to local autonom)l by remote utlht1es, ml compames, banks, and Federal agencies are 'intolerable. Thus people in. Washi~gton sit drawing reactors and coalplexes on maps, but the exerc1se has mcreasingly an air of unreality because it is overtaken by political events at the grassroots. The greater the Federal preemption (as in offshore oil leasing), the greater the homeostatic State'response. The more the Federal authorities treat centrifugal politics as a public-relations problem, the more likely it becomes that they will not ~:mly fail to g~t. their facilities sited, but will also in the process destroy the•r own legltlmacy. To some extent this has already occurred, and I have no doubt that States will soon gain a veto power, at least, over nuclear facilitie~ in their jurisdiction (as current Federal legislation proposes). On th1s issue, as in other spheres, the traditional linear right-left political spectrum seems to become cyclic as differently grounded distastes for big government merge 'across gaps of rhetoric. The res~rgency of indivi-dual, decentralized ·citizen effort in politics, as in private life and career, seems to me an important political universal in most industrial nations today. Big Brother does not like losinghis grip. Only last year, for example, some Federal officials were speculating that they might have to s~~k central regulation of domestic solar technologies, lest mass defections from utility grids damage utility cash-flows and the State and municipal budgets dependent on utility tax revenues. Since utilities are perceived as having too much power and utility regulators too little sensitivity already, a surer recipe for grassroots revolt would be hard to imagine. I think perceptions of the value of dependence on utilities are shifting rapidly as the ehterprise reaches such a size that'it starts to ·intrude on life in many traditionally "sa:fe" areas, as in Ontario., 0r as its vulnerability becomes painfully manifest, as in England, or as general political consciousness rises in step with utility bills. The disillusionment and resentment I see in many industrial countries is akin, perhaps, -to that of a citizen of a poor country who is realizing that an energy technology predicted to bring him self-reliance, pride, and the development of his village has actually brought him dependence, a cargo-cult mentality, and the enri~hment of urban elites. I believe the recent shift.of institutional and individual investment away from utilities reflects not only concern with debt structure and interest coverage but also, more fundamentally, with gradual withdrawal of legitimacy by a fickle public that has already done the same to oil majors; I- .· .. believe further that the grounds of this shift among a previously tolerant, even supportiye public are structural, arise essentially from ~uspicion of centrism, and would not be reversed by nationalization or rechartering that ignored scale. It is perhaps encouraging, then, that the concept of a soft energy path brings a broad convergence which, even as it coincides with many pre-existing strands of social change, cuts across traditional lines of political conflict. It offers a potential argument for every constituency: civil rights for liberals, States' rights for conserv~tives, availability of capital for businesspeople, environmental protection for conservationists, old values for the old, new values for the young, exciting technologies for the secular, spiritual rebirth for the religious. As we realiz~. that when_we have come to the edge of an abyss,.the only progressive move we can make is to step backwards, we begin to see that we can instead turn around and then step forwards, and that the turning around-the transition to a future unlike anything we have ever known-will be supremely interesting, an unprecedented central project for our,species. Faust, having made a bad bargain by not reading the fine print and so brought disaster on. the innocent bystanders (Gretchen's family), was eventually redeemed and accepted in heaven because he' changed his career, rec:levoting his talents to bringing soft technologies to the rural villagc:rs. That choice of "the road less travelled by" made all the difference to him; and so it can to us. For underlying the stru~tural differences between the soft and hard paths is a difference of perceptions about mankind and his works. Some people, impressed and fascinated-by the glittering achievements of technology, say that if we will only have faith in human ingenuity (theirs) we shall witness the Second Coming of Prometheus (if we have yet recovered from the First), bringing us undreamed-of tyrannies and perils; and that ~ven if we had a clean and unlimited energy source, we would lack the' 'discipline to use it wisely. Such people are really saying, firstly, that energy
Page 6 RAIN December 1976 is not enough to solve the ancient problems of the human spirit, and secondly, that the technologists who claim they can satisfy the condition that "No acts of God can be permitted" are guilty of hubris, the human sin of divine arrog;mce. In choosing our energy path we have today an opportunity-perhaps our last-to foster in our society a greater humility, one that springs from an appreciation of the essential frailty of the human design. Amory says it so well. Another one of his major arguments, seconded by Barry Commoner in his The Poverty of Power (Knopf, 1976),.is that we must now begin to match the thermodynamic quality of end-use energy needed with the renewable energy sources that most readily supply that level of energy quality. Lovins, Commoner and many more ·Americans daily are realizing that trying to heat one's home, office or industrial plant to 68°F. with electricity generated by burning uranium at 10,000°F. in a nuclear fission reactor is the thermodynamic equivalent of trying to cut butter with a chainsaw. If we, the people, through BPA, supply cheap money to power compa,nies with our government's (i.e. the public's) credit rating, the power plants should belong to us, the public. Despite their thermodynamic silliness, we ought to at least own the chainsaws we'll now be paying for on both ends! You shouldn't have to wait that long, but if you must, the third volume of'Amory Lovins' energy trilogy, Soft Energy Paths: Toward a Durable Peace, will be available in January 1977 from Friends of the Earth, 529 Commercial Street, San Francisco, CA 94111. I{you can't wait, write to Bob Potter, Oak Ridge Associated Universties, P.O. Box 117, Oak Ridge, Amory will be in Austin, Texas on December 14-16, at the hearings by the President's Council on Environmental Quality on_the ERDA National Energy Plan. RAIN seconds David Brower's nomination of a Nobel Peace Prize for Amory Lovins and hopes anyone who talks with him will buy him·a battery for his calculator as a token of their appreciation. -Lee Johnson TN37830,andukhimhowmuchacopyofAmory's63~agi. ·-~·--~~-~~~~-~~~ . • u ~~~~- Oak Ridge address will cost you. AGRICULTURE Agriculture in the City, 1976, 74 pp., $2.75 from: Community Environmental Council 109 E. De La Guerra Santa Barbara, CA 93101 This book is a, cross between a how-to urban gardening manua1 and a description of the innovative El Mirasol gardening project that CEC had going until the land was sold. Both aspects are interesting and useful, although the image of all that sun in Santa Barbara makes my Oregon garden feel soggy. Now is the time to plan for community gardens if you don't already have one going and this book can give you some exciting ideas for what's possible in the middle of the city: bees, chickens, huge compost piles, classes and enough surplus veggies to generate some extra ' cash for the project. (LdeM) Farming, $2.00 from: Alternative Agriculture Resources Project Department of Applied Behavioral Science Universicy of California Davis, CA 95616 This is the first volume of a comprehensive Sourcebook for a Socially ~nd Ecologically Accountable Agriculture that has been in preparation for several years by Isao Fujimoto and,his cohorts at Davis. Contains good resources on · plant diseases, biological control of insects, farm equipment, soils and other aspects of farming. Other sections of the series will be on cooperatives, land, energy and appropriate technology, nutrition and networking. Judging by this first section, the series should be excellent. (TB) Country Women: A Handbook for the New Farmer, by Jeanne Tetrault and Sherry Thomas, 1976, 381 pp., $6.95 from: · Anchor Press/Doubleday 245 Park Ave. New York, NY 10017 Oooie! This is a beautiful book. It is a good, solid collection of how-to material for homesteading-finding.land, building, fencing, planting, harvesting, preserving, raising animals. The photographs leave little doubt that women can do even the heaviest labor when they want to. Yet the book is warm with, their experiences and graced with gentle drawings that give the heartening sense of women nurturing the land rather than the heroics that others go through to conquer it. It is put together by some of the same women who do a very fine magazine by the same name: Country Women, Box 51, Albina, CA 95410. Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to inquire about price. (LdeM) ) California and Northwest Organic Journal ' P.O. Box 540-H Halcyon, CA 93420 $4.20/year for six issues. Sing~e issue 75¢. This is the journal of the California Organic Growers (membership $20/yr.) -a group certifying food products "grown without the use of herbicides, poisonous sprays or chemical fertilizers and processed without additiyes and preservatives." (That's a good definition of "organic" if you've been looking for one.) The "Northwest" in their title is small and feels like an afterthought, but the ads, how-to articles and bits of shared wisdom look to be useful for small California growers. (LdeM)
In the past ten years or so, it has become increasingly obvious to many Americans that our system of justice isn't quite as fair as it should be. Partly as an outgrowth of earlier civil rights, civil liberties and legal aid group move-· r:nents, the new concept of ptfblic interest law includes those lawyers an,d law·firms who provide free (or unusually cheap) legal services to folks who have not been able to find representation before. Now the poor, racial and ethnic minorities, the handicapped and children, as well as interests such as environmentalism and consumer affairs, can be heard in court. For an excellent review of the development of the public interest l-awmovement, descriptions of how and for whom specific groups work, how they ,are now financed and what their. prospects are, see: Balancing the_Scales of justice; Financing Public Interest Law in America, .1976 (write for price and availability) to: The Council for Public Interest Law 1250 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington, DC 20036 If you feel you could use the services of such a law firm, the Council is theplace to write. Two of the larger public interest law firms handle cases for a number of these previously neglected groups and individuals. They deal with health problems of the poor, occupational health and safety, foreign affairs decisionmaking, consumer affairs, protection of the environment, access to the media and minority rights. Public Advocates, Inc. 433 Turk St. San Francisco, CA 94101 415/441-8850 Public Advocates, Inc. has served as general or special counsel for such diverse groups as the National Organization for Women, Consumers Cooperative of Berkeley, Inc., The Officers for Justice and the Childcare Swit~hboard. Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) . 1751 N St., N.W. Washington, DC 20036 '202/872-0670 In 1971 this two-year-old qrganization formed a division known as the International Project, which focuses on consumer and environmental issues within the foreign affairs decision-making process (e.g. trade regulations and maritime _pollution). In 1972, in conjunction with the ACLU and the American Orthopsychiatric Association, they formed a Mental Health Law Project. Theit Women's Rights Project came about in 1973, and in 1975 they joined forces with the Media Access Project. Some other public interest law groups which are listed below usually specialize in serving specific interests. The Institute for Public Interest Representation - · Georgetown University Law Center 700 New Jersey Ave., N.W. 1Washington, DC 20001 202/624-8390 In addition to conducting research, students here work closely with various federal and municipal agencies. They petition before the agencies for rulemaking, comment on rules they propose, intervene in their adjudicative proceedings, and bring suit against them on behalf of clients who are seeking access to government records under the Freedom of Information Act. Women's Law Fund, Inc. 620 Keith Building 1621 Euclid Ave. Cleveland, OH 44115 216/621-3443 The Women's Law Fund supervises law students from the Sex Discrimination and Employment Clinic at the Cleveland State University Law School and, through litigation and education, is working on the elimination of sex dis- ' crimination in employment, housing, education and government benefits. League of Women Voters Education Fund Litigation Dept. 1730 M St., N.W. Washington, DC 20036 202/659-2686 The D(!partment principally handles cases involving local and state leagues in litigation about voting rights, campaign finance, open meetings/open records and equal opportunity. They also sometimes handle non-league cases of "precedent-setting value." December 1976 RAIN Page 7 LAW Legal Action Center of the City of New York 271 Madison Ave. New York, NY 10016 21~/679-6502 This group works principally within the crimi~al justice system, with special emphasis on rehabilitating ex-convicts and drug abusers. They provide legal services for them, educate their prospectiv~ employers and initiate major litigation "designed to establish new legal doctrine regarding the employment rights." Education Law Center Inc. Suite·800, 605 Broad St. Newark, NJ 07102 201/624-1815 and 2100 Lewis Tower Bldg. 225 S. 15th St. Philadelphia, PA 19102 2151i32-6655 The Educ;1tion Law Center specializes in issues relating to public elementary and secondary schools in the New Jer.sey anq Philadelphia areas. They are concerned about parental access to pupil records, the adequacy, availability and quality of schoolfacilities, programs and personnel, and sexual and racial discrimination within the public schools.,They bring suit when necessary, give legal counsel to "education consumers," and draft and comment on legislation and legally-oriented regulations. - Center for Law in the Public Interest 10203 Santa Monica Blvd., s'th Fir. I,.os Angeles,_CA 90067 213/879-5588 The folks at this center focus their attention on environmental and quality of . life issues in the state of California. In addition to bringing "important and preceden,t-setting" cases to court, they negotiate with the government and private industries and monitor state and federal regulatory agencies to assure that new and existing environmental regulations are properly implemented. Oregon Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts at the Northwestern School of Law Lewis and Clark College 10015 S.W. Terwilliger Blvd. Portland, OR 97219 503/244-1181 The school provides legal service to .artists having problems with contracts, taxes, copyrights, obscenity or theft, and sponsors a yearly conference iri Law and the VIsual Arts. -Lauri deMoll
Page 8 RAIN December 1976 (Courtesy E. F. Schumacher: and Satish Kumar, editor, Resurgence. U.S. subscriptions are $10 surface mail, $15 airmail, from Resurgence, Pentre Ifan. Felindre, Crymych, Dyfed, Wales, U.K.) / ( Few people deny that technological change has political con- , sequences ; yet equally few people seem to realise that the · present 'system,' in the widest sense, is the product of technology a.nd cannot be significantly changed unless technology is changed. The question may be asked: What is it.that has proquced mode·rn technology? Various answers can be given. We may go back to the Renaissance, or _even further, to the arising of Nominalism, and point to certain changes in Western man's attitude to religion, science, Nature, and society, which then apparently released the intellectual energies for modern technological development. Marx and Engels gave a more direct explanation: the rising power of the bourgeoisie, that is, 'the class_ of modern capitalist, owners of the means of social production, and employers of wage labour.' The bourgeoisie, wherever it has got the upper hand, has put an end to all feudal, patriarchal, idyllic relations. It has pitilessly torn asunder the motley feudal ties that bound man to his 'natural superiors,' and has left no other bond between man and man than naked self-interest, than callous 'cash payment'... It compels all nations, on pain of extinction, to adopt the bourgeois mode of production. · Th'e bourgeoisie has subjected the country to the rule of the towns. It has created enormous cities . .. has agglomerated population, centralised means of production, and has concentrated property in a few hands. If the bourgeoisie did all this,·what enabled it to do so? The answer cannot be in doubt; the creation of modern technologies. ~Once a pr~cess of technological development has been set i,n motion it proceed~ largely by its own momentum irrespective of the intentions of its originators. It demands an appropriate 'system,' for inappropriate systems spell inefficiency and failure. Whoever created modern technology, for whatever purpose, this technology or, to use the Marxian term, these modes of production, now demand a system that suits them, that is appropriate to them. Society in crisis As o.ur modern society is unquestionably in crisis, there must be something that does not fit. . (a) If overall performance is poor despite brilliant technology, maybe the 'system' does not fit. (b) Or maybe the technology itself does not fit present-day realitid,.including human nature. 1 Which of the two is it? This is a very crucial question. The assumption most generally met is that the technology is all right--o·i tan be put right at a moment's notice'- but that the 'system' is.so faulty it cannot cope: Modern bourgeois society with its relations of production, of exchange and offroperty, a society that has conjured up such gigantic means o production and of exchange is like the sorcerer who is no longer able to cont~ol the powers of the nether world whom he has called up by his spells ... The conditions of bourgeois society are too narrow to comprise the wealth created by them. And how does the bourgeoisie get over these crises? On the one hand by the enforced destruction of a mass of productive forces; on the other by the conq'!lest of new markets and by the more thorough exploitation pf the old ones. That is to say, by paving the way for more extensive and more destructive crises, and by diminishing the means by which crises are prevented." (Marx and Engels: Manifesto ofthe Communist Party, 1848). The culprit is the Capitalist System, the Profit System, the Market System, or, alternatively, nationalisation, bureaucracy, democracy, planning or the incompetence of the bosses. In short: we have a splendid train but a bad track or a rotten driver or a lot of stupid, unruly passengers. Maybe all this is quite true, except that we do not have such a splendid train a;t all. Maybe what is most wrong is that which ~as been and continues to be ~he strongest formative force-the technology itself. If our technology has been created mainly by the capitalist system, is it not probable tha.t it bears the marks of its origin, a technology for the few at the expense of the masses, a ,technology of exploitation, a technology that is class-oriented, undemocratic, inhuman, and also unecological and non-conservationist? Uncritical docility .· . I never cease to be astonished at the docility with which people-even those who call themselves Socialists or Marxists -accept technology, uncritically, as if technology .were a part of Natural Law. As an ex.ample of this''docility' we may take the Prime Minister of Iran who is reported to have said in a recent interview (To the Point International; January 12, 1976): . There are many aspects of the West that we particularly wish to avoid in the industrialisation of Iran. We seek the West's technology only, not its ideology. What we wish to avoid is an ideological transplant. The implicit assumption is that you can have a technological transplant without getting at the same time an ideological transplant; that technology is ideologically neutral; that you can a<;quire the hardware without the software that lies be- ~ind it, has made the hardware possible, and keeps it moving. Is this not a bit like saying: I want to import eggs for hatching, but I don't want chicks from them but mice or kangaroos? I do not 'wis~ to overstate th~ case; there is nothing absolutely clear-cut m this world, and, no doubt, many different tunes can be played on the same piano, but whatever is played, it will be piano music. I agree with the general meaning of Marx's rhetorical question:-"Does it require deep intui,tion to comprehend that man's ideas, views. and conceptions-in a
December 1976 RAIN Page 9' AND . ·'f···· word, man's consciousness-changes (he does not say: is totally determined) with every change in the conditions of his material existence, in his social relations and in his social life?" It is a great error to overlook or to underestimate the effects of the 'modes of production' upon people's lives, not just their 'standard of living': ' -how they produce; what they produce; -where they work; where they live; whom they rneet; -how they relax or 'recreate' tnemselves; what they eat, breathe and see; -and therefore what they thinR;1their freedom or their dependence. Adam Smith was under no illusion about the effects of the 'mode of production' on the wor~er: ' The understandings of the greater part of men are necessarily ' formed by their ordinary employments. The man whose whole life is spent in performing a few simple operations ... has no occasion to exert his understanding.... He naturally loses, therefore, the habit of such ~xertion and generally becomes as stupid and ignorant as it is possible for a human creature to become.... But in every improved and civilized society this is the state into which the labouring poor, that is, the great body of the people, must necessarily fall, unless government takes some pains to prevent it." Marx, who quotes Adam Smith, adds the comment that People say to me:.before you can make headway with your 'Intermediate Technology' you must first change the system, do away with capitalism and the profit motive, dissolve the multinationals, abolish all bureaucracies, and reform education. All I can reply is: !'know of no better·way of changing the 'system' than by putting into the world a new type of technology-technologies by which small people can make themselves productive and relatively independent. During the ~ighteenth and nineteenth centuries technology just grew like Topsy. Incre~singly, however, it became the outgrowth of Science. Today', its primary derivation is from Science; in fact, it appears that Science is today mainly valued for its technological fruits. Starting, then, with Science, the question may be raised: what determines the course of Science? There is always more that could be studied than can be studied; so there is need for choice, and how is it made? By the interests of scientists.? Yes, unquestionably.· By the interests of big business and government? Surely yes. By the interests of 'the people'? On the whole, no! The people have fairly simple requirements to meet for which hardly any additional science is needed. (It could be that an entirely different kind of science would really benefit the people; but that is another matter.) Somt; crippling of body and mind is inseparable even from division of labour in society as a whole. Since, however, manufacture carries this ... much further and also, by its peculiar division,· attacks the individual at the very roots of his life, it is the first to ---=-- afford the materials for, and give start to, industrial pathology. -.,.::::;::::::::;~~:iZ"."~~~~ And he quotes his contemporary, D. Urquhart, who says: "the subdivision of labour is the assassination of' a people." Better society needs a different technology People still say: it is not the technology; it is the 'system.' Maybe a particular 'system' gave birth to this technology; but now it stares us in the face that the system we have is the . product, the inevitable product, of the technology. As I compare the societies which appear to have different 'systems,' the evidence seems to be overwhelming that where they employ the same technology they act very much the same and become more alike every day. Mindless work in office or factory is equally mindless under any system. I suggest therefore that those who want to promote a better society, achieve a better system, must not confine their activities to attempts to change rhe 'superstructure'-laws, rules, agreements, taxes, welfare, education, health services, etc. The expenditure incurred in trying to buy a better society can be like pouring money into a bottomless pit. If there is n.o change in the base-which is technology-there is unlikely to be any real change in the superstructure. Cautionary example of USA Moving on from Science to Technology, there is again far more that could be done than can be done. The choice is endless. Who decides or what decides? Scientific findings can be used for, 'incarnated in,' countless different 'shapes' of technology, but new technologies are developed only when people of power and wealth back the development. In other words, the new technologies will be in the image of the system that brings them forth, and they will reinforce the system. If the system is ruled by giant enterprises-Whether privately or publicly owned-the new technologies will tend to be 'gigantic'
Page 10 RAIN December 197~ in one way or another, designed for 'massive breakthroughs,' at massive cost, demanding ex-treme specialisation, promising a massive impact- no matter how violent-"we shall know how to cope with the consequences." The slogan is: "a breakthrough a day keeps the crisis at bay." We hear of 'white hot technological revolution,' the Nuclear Age, the Agent of Automation, the Space Age, fantastic feats of engineering, supersonic triumphs, all that; but many of the most basic needs of great masses of people, such as housing, cannot be taken care of. The most telling example, of course, is the most advanced society of the modern world, the United States. Average income per head is over twjce that of Britain or Western Europe, and yet there is more degrading poverty in the States than you can ever see in E~rope; 5.6 percent of the world population 'using something like 35 percent of the w_orld's output of raw materials- and not a happy place: great wealth in some places but utter misery, degradation, hopelessness, strife, criminality, ~scapism, sickness of body and mind almost ~verywhere; it is hard to get away from it. How is it possible-in a country that has more resources, more science and technology than anybody ·ever had in human history? People are quest'ioning everything, every part_of the superstructure-big business, big government, big academia; and very gradually, hesitantly, at long last they are beginning to question the basis of it all-technology. Tecqnology Ass~ssment .Groups have 'sprung up in various places; they 'assess' technological developments mainly in the light of three questions; . \ "What does ·it do' in terms of resource usage?" "What does it do to the'Environment?" "What is its socio-political relevance?" E. F. Schumacher is coming to town! Below is a list ofplaces where he 'will speak or be part of a regional gathering. Each of the events here will be open to the public. Call or write the contact people listed beside each date for information, exact tfme, price,etc.Also contact them ifyqu might be willing to Thurs., Feb. 10, 2-8 pin Albany, NY Fri., Feb. 11 Evening Speech City Center, NYC Thurs. & Fri., Feb. 17, 18 Small Is Beautiful Conf. Davis, CA Mon., Feb. 21, evening Tues., Feb. 22, all. day Denver,' CO Sun., Feb. 27 Southwest (Temp.e or Phoenix) Thurs., Mar. 3 Berkeley, CA Sat., Mar. 5 Sart Francisco "Urban Poor and . Minorities m Relation to AT" Sun., Mar.,6 San Francisco Rick Cohen Institute for Man & Science Rensselaerville, NY 12147 518/797-3783 William Irwin Thompson Lindesfarne Assn. 49'West 20th NewYork, NY 10011 Yvonne Hunter University of Calif., Davis Extension Division of Extended Learning Davis, CA 95616 916/752-2820 Chip Presendofer Colorado App. Te.ch. Network 1411 Ogden St. Denver, CO 80218 Information-contact IT in Menlo Park Harry Kreisler Inst. of International Studies University of California Berkeley, CA 94720 415/642-1106 Rev. David Cooling Episcopal Diocese of California Grace Cathedral 1051 Taylor St. San Francisco, CA 94108 415/776-6611 Sermon at Grace Cathedral Concorde did not fare well under the{r scrutiny. They con- ' eluded that it was wasteful of scarce resources, environmentally burdensome and even ·dangerous, and socio-politically irrelevant. It may none the less be described as a marvelous achieve- ,ment of Anglo-French engineering. We'll follow through with a few of the structural effects of modern technology in the next issue (to be continued in the January 1977 RAIN). · r~ ~ co-sponsor and/or help organi.ze the event in your area. Specidl thanks to Intermediate Technology/USA for organizing this tour. For questions about the trip as a whole or to get on a list for 1978, contact them: IT/USA, 556 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo Park, CA 94025, 4151328-1730. Sun., Mar. 6, afternoon San Rafael, CA Theme: Suburban/ middle class, Ecotopia, homesteading, etc. Mon., Mar. 7 Regina, Saskatchewan 1\Jes., Mar. 8 Manhattan, KS. Thurs., Mar. 10 Crete, NB "'The Prairie Project" Fri-Sat.., Mar. 11-12 St. Paul, MN Sun.·Mon., Mar. 13-14 Ann Arbor, MI Sat., Mar. 19 Park Forest South, IL Mon., Mar. 21 Washington, DC Dorothy A. Huges . Marin Mental Health Assn. 1368 Lincoln Ave. , San Rafael, CA 94901 415/456-7693 Dr. M. Evelyn jonescu Canadian Plains Research Center University of Regina Regina, Saskatchewan Bernd Foerster College of Architecture and De_sign Kansas State Uni~ersity Manhattan, KS 66506 913/532-5951 Philip Heckman Doane College Crete, NB 683 33 402/826-2161. Lance Holthusen Science Museum of Minnesota 30 East lOth St. Paul, MN 55101 612/221-6303 Diane Catman UAC Office University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48104 Bethe-Hagens & Jim Laukes Acorn ; Goverpor's State University Park Forest South, IL 60466 312/534-5·000 P_ossible gathering of AT people with senators and representatives, etc. Interested? Call IT }
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