Technology has the reputation of creating multitudes of labor and time saving devices and procedures providing the individual with more leisure time; a reputation derived from fallacious thinking that has become very effective in eliciting the support and cooperation of society to promote technological development that in turn serves as a vehicle for its own enslavement.
Just as a perpetual motion device cannot be developed because of the loss of energy caused by friction, labor saving devices cannot succeed because of the labor and time involved in their maintenance and construction.
Farming serves as one of many examples. At one time man foraged for the fruits and vegetables that grew naturally. After he started to farm he had to manufacture the implements necessary for farming, clear the land, and till the soil. Even using a horse to pull the plow required extensive labor in caring for the horse. The amount of time invested in farming exceeded the time formerly spent foraging for food. The cost of modern equipment such as tractors, columbines, bailers, and spreaders combined with the use of expensive herbicides and pesticides, along with the cost of bringing the produce to market far outweighs any savings in labor over foraging.
The automobile provides a more familiar example of the labor output necessary to obtain the labor saving benefits it supposedly offers. When the annual cost of depreciation, maintenance, repair, insurance, tolls, licenses, and garaging, is added up and converted to gross income necessary to pay for the operation of the car, the figure in hours worked could amount to one or two months of the labor of an individual. In addition to that figure the amount of time spent driving to and from work in order to earn the money to pay for the car needs to be added to determine the total labor investment necessary to own and operate a car. For most people, having a car is not a labor saving device but a necessity that gives them the opportunity to earn money to pay for that necessity.
Refrigerators, ovens, micro-waves, washers, dryers, telephones, and a host of electronic devices all offer supposed labor and time saving benefits, yet, with the use of each of these devices people have less and less leisure time. They suffer increasingly from angst due to the time and economic constraints of their lifestyles.
Some who read this will say that I am skirting the issues of the time and labor savings of technology by over-generalizing and not addressing the obvious benefits of labor saving by technology such as the robotization of telephone systems. Tens of thousands of telephone operators, secretaries, receptionists, and general office workers have been eliminated by using robots to answer telephones. How can there be any doubt that the robotization of telephone systems has resulted in billions of dollars in reduced wages due to the elimination of labor?
Has the automation of telephone answering systems given us more or less individual time in making phone inquiries and contacts? As we dial these robotized systems we have to listen to a menu, hopefully make the right choices, and then find after making our choices “all representatives are busy helping other customers but will be with you in a short time,” and after ten minutes of listening to this we hang up and then have to go through the whole ritual again when we try again later. We have never spent as much time trying to get information over the phone as we do now. Technology has not saved us time; it has destroyed the personal touch and served as one of many vehicles that dehumanize societal interaction while constricting our freedom.
Ultimate efficiency could only be found in the primitive state that existed before mechanical development. The Sun shone, the rains came, the rivers flowed, the flora and fauna grew, and humankind had everything it needed. People were relaxed, happy, sharing, contented and also had plenty of leisure time.
Technology is a sophisticated extension of gross materialism and functions as a means of enslaving humankind. You can only be free by learning to live outside of its seductive clutches.
E.G.
