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<v Speaker 1>Section six of Technocracy by William Henry Smith. This LibriVox

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<v Speaker 1>recording is in the public domain, recorded by the Progressing

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<v Speaker 1>America project Technocracy Section six working explosively versus Working efficiently,

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<v Speaker 1>reprinted from Industrial Management, May nineteen seventeen. Between working efficiently

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<v Speaker 1>and working ineffectively, there can be no question as to

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<v Speaker 1>which is more desirable, nor would I raise any such issue.

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<v Speaker 1>Working explosively is not an argument for inefficiency. Quite the contrary.

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<v Speaker 1>The article, as I intended it, and as I think

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<v Speaker 1>it indicates to the thoughtful reader, is merely a stop, look,

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<v Speaker 1>listen signal, a hand raised, a suggestion to pause, pause,

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<v Speaker 1>a moment to consider whether we are intelligently directing our

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<v Speaker 1>efforts towards the end for which we seek, the goal

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<v Speaker 1>for which we strive, the reward for which we all struggle.

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<v Speaker 1>My own experience with life ranges through the whole gamut,

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<v Speaker 1>from the coarsest forms of manual labor up to original

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<v Speaker 1>constructive mental work, both as employed and employer, at the

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<v Speaker 1>grind of working efficiently and the joy of working explosively.

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<v Speaker 1>I have associated on terms of equality with hoboes, with laborers,

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<v Speaker 1>with mechanics, and with captains of industry and finance, and

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<v Speaker 1>far from being a socialist, I am individualistic to the

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<v Speaker 1>nth degree. Thus my stop, look, listen, warning is based

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<v Speaker 1>on facts and upon experience, not upon the fancies of

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<v Speaker 1>an overwrought imagination. Importance of worker based upon this varied experience,

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<v Speaker 1>The question I wish to raise involves the relative importance

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<v Speaker 1>of the worker or his work, human worth or the

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<v Speaker 1>products of human toil. Efficiency is no new invention. It

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<v Speaker 1>is as old as intelligence itself. None realize efficiency so

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<v Speaker 1>completely as the creative genius our darwins faradays Edisons and Fords,

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<v Speaker 1>and none so completely practice and exemplify working explosively. Genius itself,

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<v Speaker 1>we are told, is the capability for taking infinite pains.

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<v Speaker 1>The art of efficiency proposes to substitute the shortcut of

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<v Speaker 1>imitating efficient mechanical tricks for the toilsome process of becoming

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<v Speaker 1>a mechanic. The explosive worker is a strenuous worker whose

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<v Speaker 1>intense preoccupation is with accomplishing perfectly that predetermined end in

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<v Speaker 1>which his interest is centered. He works with intelligent personal intention,

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<v Speaker 1>driven by the explosive energy of his purpose. If he

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<v Speaker 1>is driving rivets, he is driving them so that they

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<v Speaker 1>will accomplish the objective intended. Working explosively is human purpose

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<v Speaker 1>expressing itself through inanimate material. It is not the function

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<v Speaker 1>of an unhurried, efficient human machine. Striking so many well

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<v Speaker 1>directed blows in a definite time means personal energy. Working

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<v Speaker 1>explosively means personal energy strenuously applied to the accomplishment of

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<v Speaker 1>a personally desired result. Working explosively is not a matter

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<v Speaker 1>of habit, instinct, or routine. It involves the concentration of

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<v Speaker 1>all the faculties upon the work at hand to the

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<v Speaker 1>end of producing the result desired. It is subconscious impulse

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<v Speaker 1>raised to conscious effort of accomplishment. The efficiency expert joyously

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<v Speaker 1>fills his godlike function as he shuffles numbered human hands

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<v Speaker 1>and re arranges his human pegs into round or square holes,

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<v Speaker 1>so that hands and pegs shall contribute most efficiently to production.

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<v Speaker 1>But soulless pegs in automaton hands which will passively stay put,

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<v Speaker 1>are somewhat different factors from men and women with personal

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<v Speaker 1>likes and dislikes and smoldering passions which must explode either

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<v Speaker 1>in work or war. Hence industrial unrest and warfare. The

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<v Speaker 1>art of efficiency is merely a new name for an

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<v Speaker 1>old and very dangerous form or misdirection of effort. The

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<v Speaker 1>essential question is not how many more billion dollars worth

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<v Speaker 1>of product can be made or saved, but how many

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<v Speaker 1>more million human beings can express themselves in the direction

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<v Speaker 1>of personal accomplishment. And in my view, this latter course

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<v Speaker 1>is the more logical and the more likely one to

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<v Speaker 1>produce the former results indirectly through the interest of the

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<v Speaker 1>worker than directly through the efficient control of his action

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<v Speaker 1>outside worker. Working efficiently assumes control outside of the worker,

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<v Speaker 1>directing his actions and efforts toward a purpose in the

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<v Speaker 1>mind of the controller. Working explosively assumes control inside of

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<v Speaker 1>the worker, directing his action and energy towards an interesting outcome.

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<v Speaker 1>In a broad sense, one is autocracy and the other democracy.

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<v Speaker 1>Imperfectly but significantly. Germany and the United States represent these

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<v Speaker 1>two opposite ideals of human activity. The one represents efficient working,

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<v Speaker 1>the other accrude and embryonic form of working. Explosively one

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<v Speaker 1>makes for mechan banistic efficiency, the other for human liberty.

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<v Speaker 1>Hopefulness is a personal quality. It cannot exist in connection

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<v Speaker 1>with work in the outcome of which the worker is

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<v Speaker 1>not interested, and hopefulness is a fundamental factor in working explosively.

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<v Speaker 1>Working explosively and working efficiently express only imperfectly the underlying idea.

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<v Speaker 1>In each, in essence, they imply two opposite ideals. In

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<v Speaker 1>the former, emphasis is placed upon the worker, In the latter,

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<v Speaker 1>emphasis is placed upon the work. To my way of thinking,

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<v Speaker 1>the two points of view are essentially antithetical. Of course,

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<v Speaker 1>the only way of bringing about the welfare of humankind

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<v Speaker 1>is on the basis of right and justice. But who

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<v Speaker 1>shall determine these momentous spasies, you or I the efficiency expert,

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<v Speaker 1>or the pegs which he rearranges into round or square holes,

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<v Speaker 1>the employer or the employed. Conflict exists. To close and

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<v Speaker 1>pretend that there is no conflict between employer and employed

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<v Speaker 1>is futility itself. To say that the interest of these

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<v Speaker 1>is mutual, when the employer has all of the joy

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<v Speaker 1>of working explosively and the employed all the grind of

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<v Speaker 1>working efficiently, is equally futile. I gurd neither against employer

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<v Speaker 1>nor employed. My proposition is from the joy of the work,

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<v Speaker 1>working explosively, come better men, more worthy citizens, and greater commonweal.

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<v Speaker 1>I hold that a human being, human personality is of

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<v Speaker 1>infinitely more consequence than the product of the hands and brain.

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<v Speaker 1>That a true ultimate efficiency implies the liberation of man,

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<v Speaker 1>rather than the efficient control of his actions. That the

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<v Speaker 1>ultimate well being of all implies not the intelligent control

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<v Speaker 1>of passively efficient human elements, but the liberation of men

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<v Speaker 1>and women to purposeful joy of working explosively. Fernwald Berkeley,

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<v Speaker 1>March nineteen seventeen. Is the efficient control of men more

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<v Speaker 1>desirable than freedom? End of Technocracy? Section six. End of

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<v Speaker 1>Technocracy by William Henry Smith