January 1977 · RAIN Page 9 TECH OLOGY.AND POLITICAL CHANGE fellow. The small foot needs a different shoe, not an inferior · one but one of the right size. Modern technology, generally speaking, makes good shoes only for big fellows. It is geared to mass production; it is highly sophisticated and enormously capital-costly. Of course it does not fit anywhere but in or near the biggest: cities or megalopolit'an areas. A technology·that does fit . The simple answer to this problem does not seem to have occurred to many people. It is: let us mobilise at least a small part of our intell.ectual and other resources to create a technology that does fit the smaller places. Incredible amounts of money are being spent in trying to cope with the relentless growth of megalopolitan areas and in trying to infuse new life into 'development areas.' But if you say: "spend a little bit of money on the creation of technologies that[# the given conditions, of development areas," people accuse you of wanting to take tliem back into the Middle Ages. One thing, however, can be asserted with confidence: unless suitable, appropriate technologies for efficient production outside the main conurbations are created, the destructive tendencies of ,'megalopolitanisation' will continue to operate with all that this implies socially, politically, morally, environmentally and resource~wise. Having traced the effect of modern technology upon the nature of work and the pattern of human settlement, let us ·now consider a third example, a highly political one, its effect on human freedom. This is undoubtedly a tricky. subject: What is freedom? Instead of going into long philosophical disquisitions, let us ask the more o~ less rebellious young wh.at they 'are looking for. Their negations are such as these: I don't want to join the rat race. Not be enslaved by machines, bureaucracies, boredom, ugliness. . . I don't want to become a moron, robot, commuter. I don't want to become a fragment of a person. Their affirmations? · I want to do my own thing. I want to live (relatively) simp~y. ., .. I want to deal with people, not masks. i People matter. N,ap;re matters. Beauty matters. Wholeness matters. I want to be able .to ~are. All this I call a longing for freedom. Why has so much freedom been lost? Some people say: "Nothing has been lost; but people are asking for more than before." Whichever way it is: there is a gap between supply and demand of this most precious thing- freedom. Has technology anything to do with this? The size and complexity of organisations certainly has a great deal to do with it. Why is the trend of the last 100 years towards bigger and bigger units? Nobody, except a few monomanic tycoons, likes them. · Why do we have to have them? The invariable answer is: because of technological progress. And why don't our engineers produce technological progress in another direction- - towards smallness -towards simplicity -towards capital-cheapness -towards technological non-violence? If we ask the engineers, the answer it: "Because nobody has ever asked us for it." And if you ask: "Can it be done? " the answer is: "Of course it can be done if there is a demand for it." . Time to stop Not very long ago I visited a famous institution·developing textile machinery. The impression is overwhelming. The latest and best machines, it seemed to me, can do everything I could possibly imagine; in fact, more th~n I could imagine before I saw them. "You can now do everything," I.said to the professor who was taking me around, "why don't you stop, call it a day?" My friendly guide did indeed stop in his tracks: "My goodness!" he said, "what do you mean? Y GU can't stop progress. I have all these clever people around me who can still think of improvements. You don't expect .me to suppress good ideas? What's wrong with progress?" "Only that the price per machine, whic;h is already around the £100,000 mark, will rise to £150,000." "But what's wrong with ·that? "he demanded. "The machine will be SO% dearer but at least 60% better." "Maybe," I replied, "but also that much more exclusive to the rich and powerful. Have you ever reflected on the pol_itical effect of what you are doing?" · Of course, he had never given it a thought. But he was much disturbed; he saw the point at once. "I can't stop," he pleaded. "Of course, you can't stop. But you can do something all
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