COGS IN OUR OWN MACHINE

The scenario you paint in "My computer - my friend" is scary in that it is the sort of thing happening because of a lack of thought, not because of thought. The principle is that societies are dynamic, and develop because of that dynamic nature in ways that cannot be predicted, and cannot and should not be controlled. What is wrong with this picture? I suppose that all of us feel at times that some control should be exercised, and indeed control is exercised, we have laws which we are required to obey (I'm talking globally here, not about South Africa, where laws are required to enforce themselves by some mystical means. There is an entire story behind this belief too.).

What is the limit on these rules? Are the limits set by the same social processes that they are there to control? Can that model work under all circumstances? What would happen if, as I suspect, every system, or model of civil development and interaction has within itself structural weaknesses, which perhaps should be controlled by an outside and impartial force? What would happen if this were denied by the rules which had been developed within the system? If the controls were demonised to the extent that any attempt at control was seen as heresy?

If the "feedback" loop became bent, so that only positive feedback was accepted, and this does happen in many examples, political corruption is one of the very pertinent examples. The Nazis and Apartheid are perhaps two others. Once the vital feedback is ignored or discouraged because it does not fit into the current model, there is a problem.

Where am I headed? Well, technology is possibly headed for this very situation. How much of the technology around us is now developed for the sake of the technology around us? Why are we less happy today by most objective (human) measures than we were twenty years ago? here I am talking about stress and stress related illnesses, signs that all is not well in the relationship between humans and the society they are developing.

How could this happen? After all, we are developing this society, this is democracy at its best, so how can it not be what we want? Perhaps the problems are related to those that seem to bedevil democracy in the political arena; perhaps society's development is being led by those ith the influence. No, not some evil conspiracy, just the economic nterests of those who need to develop new products or die. In other words, the major driving force in our society's development has perhaps become removed from human needs to corporate needs. They are the organisms which need to adapt fastest in order to survive and thrive, in a scary way, they are the dominant life force on the planet, and humans are becoming less and less so. We have created monsters, and our wills, desires and needs have become of secondary importance. We are perhaps only cogs in our own machine.

But democracy is foolproof isn't it? Is anything foolproof? History tells us that nothing is. So where are the controls for democracy? Democracy discourages control. The very nature of democracy is that it is a free system, which develops to satisfy the dominant forces within society at any given time. The evolution of democracy is meant to be along the lines of what society wants and feels is important. Yup, so why do we have lobbyists and special interest groups? They are tolerated as being part of the democratic process, but are they not anti-democratic? How can they be democratic if they can wield influence that you or I cannot wield? Ha, do I spot a distortion in the fabric of democracy? Could this distortion be part of the problem? If these lobbyists could influence politicians

(Again, I am NOT suggesting any grand conspiracies here, just self-interest), could society's development not, conceivably be steered down roads that are in the interests of rather less than the majority of the electorate? Probably, the question is; is this indeed the case? I'm afraid that to me there is little doubt. A cursory examination of the banana war between the USA and Europe would tend to lead one to believe that certain sums of money given to the democrats may have influenced certain actions that followed. I believe the correct word for this is bribery, but in the current democratic model it is just a donation. Now if I could donate 1.5 million Dollars to the democrats, would I be able to influence decisions? Of course not, or of course?

Perhaps here is where the apparent distance between the direction in which society is moving and the wishes of the average man spring from.

Perhaps, but I cannot see how to restore the balance. After all, surely if influence is already being bought, those doing the buying will continue to pay to ensure that they can continue to buy influence. Scary isn't it?

Stuart King

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