Stella Block 1995 Published in: The Northwest Technocrat, 2nd quarter 1995, No. 339
Fifty years ago Howard Scott stated that American business was exporting the tools of social change (Technology) all over the world. Jeremy Rifkin’s book The End of Work just published, is an excellent description of what fifty years of Price System “freedom” has left in the wake of the free-for-all quest for profits.
CHQ recommends this book to anyone who is interested to learn what has happened while the public was preoccupied with sports, TV trivia, political wrangling and other such diversions while the “big boys” did their serious work of looting, raping and generally cutting up the world for their own benefit.
Bribery, blackmail, coercion and intimidation were honed to a fine art. Governments were suborned; officials were bought and sold; no holds barred in the quest to make the world safe for free enterprise. They succeeded only too well. The book, The End of Work is a graphic example and expose of the aftermath of a “success” in the Price System. Mr. Rifkin does not put it quite as badly as we have but he has described the results very well. The technology installed all over the world, although not as complete as here in the U.S., still is enough to upset and shatter age-old traditions and the way of life everywhere — wherever there were resources to exploit. Mr. Rifkin mentions Technocracy in several chapters; his extensive bibliography includes references to Technocracy Literature. Needless to say he does not treat Technocracy very kindly, but then that is to be expected. The march of events is proving Technocracy all too correct, so it is to be expected that some “sour grapes” will sprout.
Rifkin is not the only one who has suddenly become aware of “something” being terribly wrong with the way the world is drifting. Many newspapers and periodicals carry articles and stories of the same theme, but Technocracy is the only Organization that has called it for what it is — Social Change — and has presented the only viable solution.