Page 18 RAIN November/December 1985 ACCESS: Society Previews and Premises: An Interview with the Author of The Third Wave and Future Shock, by Alvin Toffler, 1984,230 pp., $7.50 from: South End Press 302 Columbus Avenue Boston, MA 02116 It is a rare and refreshing sight these days to see people v/ithfundamental disagreements talking together. South End Press is a small left-wing publishing house in the Boston area. Alvin Toffler, whose previous books have sold millions of copies, “claims that he is on neither the left or the right of the contemporary political sprectrum," “gives allegiance to no existing political parties or movement [and] insists that the left-right axis of politics is increasingly obsolete in the high-technology nations, and that the main schisms that disrupt society occur along different fault lines." “Is he right?" ask the members of South End Press. Kudos to them for at least asking. Toffler, who regards “much of what passes for the left today as hopelessly anachronistic," was interviewed by an editor who believes firmly “in the importance of left politics and struggle." (For the political innocent, this combination of beliefs usually results in less-than-civil exchanges.) The result is certainly provocative. Why take the risk? Toffler apparently agreed to the project because it gave him an opportunity to express himself concerning questions that arise from the left but are seldom asked of him by the mainstream press in the West, on such sticky subjects as ownership, political authority, racism, sexism, and, in his opinion, the weakness of Marxism, all issues that South End Press feels are given shallow treatment by most of the American press. Reading Previews and Premises increased my respect both for Toffler and for South End Press. Neither side “won," nor was that the intent. Sometimes disagreements were not pushed as far as they could go, but that's okay. The cross-fertilization of views is invigorating. Now that we've seen that Maxists and futurists can sit down and talk peacefully, maybe we can get some other folks to try it. —Mark Roseland Mark Roseland, a former RAIN editor, is now codirector of the Matrix Institute in Applegate, Oregon. Paths to Paradise: On the Liberation from Work, by Andre Gorz, 1985,120 pp., $8 from: South End Press 302 Columbus Avenue Boston, MA 02116 I enjoy reading Andre Gorz because he provides me with insights into the larger dynamics of society that I find nowhere else. Although he comes out of the French Marxist intellectual tradition, he manages to use the tools of Marxist analysis to transcend Marxism, incorporating ideas and pieces of social reality ignored by most Marxists. Gorz pushes the frontiers of social thought by combining Marxist political economy with strong ecological sensibilities, decentralist models, and a futurist orientation. This mix of perspectives yields insights not found in any one of them, and paints a distinctive picture of the causes of our current malaise, the forces shaping the future, and the potentials for creating a better world. Gorz is probably best known in this country for his book Ecology as Politics (South End Press, 1980), which attempted a post-socialist critique of capitalism based on “limits to growth" and other ecological arguments. In Paths to Paradise Gorz tackles the microelectronic revolution and its implications for the future of all industrial societies. Gorz criticizes industrialism, in both its capitalist and socialist manifestations, as inevitably leading to ecological destruction, exploitation of labor, and the domination of citizens by the state. Its megatechnologies are “a one-way street" —nuclear power, for example, can only lead to hypercentraUzation. However, microelectronics is a “crossroads," neither excluding nor imposing a particular form of development. Gorz claims that the job-destroying capabilities of computers and robotics will fundamentally alter our economic system, most notably by eliminating the traditional relationship between work and wages. “Wages can no longer depend on the amount of work performed, nor the right to an income on having a job." This will necessitate some kind of guaranteed sqcial income, but what Idnd remains in question. It could lead to an authoritarian society where everyone is effectively paid to engage in obligatory consumption (Gorz cites the necessity to “produce consumers" for continued growth). Or it could lead to “a liberated society in which the production of necessities occupies only a small part of everyone's time and where waged work ceases to be the main activity." Gorz proposes that production be divided into three spheres: one socially determined, another autonomous, and a third a kind of hybrid. The first would consist of all goods necessary for subsistence that are most efficiently produced on a large scale. Gorz argues that the ideals of self-management are meaningless in such large enterprises anyway, so the aim should be to minimize this sphere of activity through promoting maximum efficiency. Here, the means of production would be socialized and the workload would be distributed throughout society so that eveyone would work in this sphere part of the time (according to Gorz, 20,000 hours in a lifetime, roughly equivalent to 20 years of halftime work) in exchange for a “social income." Beyond that, people would have “free time" to organize themselves to produce non- essentials or engage in any other activity they choose. Gorz also posits a third sphere of small-scale free enterprise that would be a kind of intermediate zone between social necessity and individual autonomy. The language and the concepts throughout the text are perhaps difficult for someone unaccustomed to reading this kind of material. However, many insights can be gained along the way, even if you don't agree with Gorz' conclusions and proposals. Many of the ideas are simply not found in the writings of social critics in this country. So if you are concerned about the future of society. Paths to Paradise offers challenging and stimulating material. —FLS
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