Southeastern Massachusetts University - Scrimshaw Yearbook (North Dartmouth, MA)

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period of time. It has been generally argued, most explicitly in W. W. Rostow's Stages of Economic Growth, that the way thepoor countriescanattain thrsgoalrs to heed the lessons of history, to pass through the Western stages of growth, although hopefully at a faster pace. It is surely time we recognized the inapplicability of this policy. The rate of economic growth of most poorcountries now depends prirmrily on their being able to export enough goods to pay for their needed unports. It rs clear that the poor countries will not be able to increase exports at an adequate rate to pay for the required growth in imports and that they will not be able to attain any reasonable tate of growth. Thevast majority of the poor countries have no prospect of achieving a reasonable standard s of living so long as the present socioeconomic system continues. There are a few optimists who persist in arguing that Western man can benefit rsnmediately from the decrease rh toil promised by the computer. An analysis of conclusion suggests that those reaching it have not yet ,understood that it is typically those people whose life and educational experience ensure that they have the least adequate preparation for imaginative and constructive activities wholwill receive the largest in time not allocated to the carrying lout of conventional jobs. This group .- is composed of two main categoriesrthose with . totally inadequate' .educations ftheupoverty-cycle group j 'and those whose education and training has been slanted almost entirely ' toward conformity in order top enable them to perform tasks which will nolonget' be needed by the socioeconomic system. e Those analysts who simply 'the threat to our socioeconomy represented by the large number of mdividuals who are already mamfestmg psychopathologic symptoms as a response to loss of their roles in the system 'also generally ignore the deep-seated threat which the machines pose to ernsting individual fundamental values and motivations. This threat is not manifest in economic statistics nor even rs: sociological monographs discussing the world view of the poor, but it is already affectmgall members of society, both employed and lunemployed. It is all-pervasive as advertising, and, like it, is constantly exerting pressures upon the individual, whether he be consdous of them or not. Some comments by Jack Weinberg, a psychiatrist, illuminate this issue: Complicated machines which .perform in intricate inviaisra' .patterns v are frightening. are -beyond the- commontmansn understanding and he cannot identify 4 with them. il-le experiences. hostmty ,toward such' ia machine, as he does toward most he fails to understand. Furthermore, automation has done something that rs unthinkable to a manwho valueshrs own self and that which he produces. In a sense, it has removeduhim from the product jwhichjhe creates....Work - 'no matter how odious an implication it may have to a .person - rsan enourmously prizedand meaningful experience to man. It rs not all punishment for his transgressions, as implied biblically butlit isalso a blessing,not only for common sense economic reasons...but,also because of its varied and unifying psychological implications. . in practice report increasingly I that their patients are concemed because they feel that they function in an inferior way compared to machines: that their limbs are not acting as efficient 'l'hey also report fantasies, such as dreams in which the patient is being backed into a comer by a computer. The popular arts. - cartoons, 'comedy-routines, and folk-songs - ind'9i5iIlUly reflect these , V 1 . 1 V

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development, the percentage of income received by the poorest 2096 of the population has fallen from 4.996 to 4.796. Continuation of present trends will lead to a new type of organzhation of the socio economic system, within which incomes and non-work time will vary in inverse proportion. Starting at the bottom of the scale, there be a large number of totally unemployed workers subsisting inadequately on resources derived from government schemes merely designed to ensure survival, the greatest proportion of the population will work considerably shorter ,hours than at present and receive wages and salaries which will provide for necessities and even some conveniences, but will not encourage them to develop a meaningful pattern of activity, and a small number of people with the highest levels of education and training will work excessively long hours for high salaries, The effects of the drive toward unlimited productive power will, of course, not only be internal but will also affect the prospects of the poor countries. It is now clear that the gap between the rich and the poor countries is continuing to widen and that there is no possible way to reverse this -trend until we change the existing socioeconomic system. It is shocking to realize that we have now reached the point where the annual per capita increase in income in the United States is equal to the total income per capita in some of the poor countries. .The reasons for this disparity are illustrated by the following quotations. First, from the United Nations Development Decade report: Taken as a group, the rate of progress of the under-developed countries measured by income per capita has been painfully slow, more of the order of 1 percent per annum than 2 percent. Most indications of social progress show similar slow and spotty improvement. And from a statement discussing the situation in India by B. R. Shenly, director of the School of Social Sciences at Gujerat University: Per capita consumption of food grains averaged 15.8 ounces per day in 1958, below the usual jail ration of 16 ounces, the army ration of 19 ounces and the current economic plan's target of 18 ounces. Since then, the average has fluctuated downward. Between 1955 and 1960, the annual per capita use of cloth fell from 14.7 metres to 13.9 metres. The expressed policy of the Westem powers is to aid the poor countries to catch up to the rich within an acceptable

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efzzq., ,, we f li i 'rs ia- Q ff 5212L5?,gfwi'i'5i'1g?j::'1J7f'1.':j.'gr':f,iF,2irfifif- f.9j2 . ' 25' 5' psidzrz-f':f- a -' f . , . 4 ' ' A 1:-f.v'f1' ' .si af 1' , '?T'aH5fEY 'fsgs5,i - , 5yia1Qf:rwfadYan. 5 .1 v-: f- a ' M- ,-. -' -w- rm- khftwf' 11:3-fsff1.. .'.'-411'-e. u. N - ' Q V , P P ?Q5.'45',.'i'A'2?' 1 ' . as , 1 5gP'7I'1.'. .. .' ff , v 3 rwefa, ,r ' ,,,qga,:.3-ke.gsm-izalfsfmls'ffsgvfaff-.fvfs1is-faf.g af ,,f 'ing 1 x , P iii 1- 64, 5fPf,41Lg,v.7fgm-fafsfCrm-'fs -ff.,:- 'I .1-1 .fl - -1 --s. , .mf we 'efiljf-1'3egwL'F'.,.. -.11',5i rf-'--. 2-1-fi.-..v.f . . f- m ga. Pf' 'Hvlfli POB'-'Yf Q, WJHQQPUOH .ij IA- il v Vior Wvfklv mfr'-'S' of H anxiety, -fdepremon.. Psvehvsemafiv Vsymptons -suicidek..l..We facethe ffactthatagreat majority of our people notgemotionally and l psychologically time. ,l.A This results in :unhealthy f f adaptations which find fexpression: in. a wwide' range of sociopathologic and psychopathologic states. Among, the social symptoms of 'tluls ,maladaptionto free time are: low civilian unrest subversiveness and rebellion. j ,We are all ' aware of the manifest acceleration of past which. bears our Martinfs -statement: let me very briefly recall a few of them: Thecrime rate is presently rising about ten percent a year as compared to a population increase of less than two per cent a year. 1 A . Drug addiction grows not 'only in the ghettoes but in the well-to-do- suburbs, and young 4 people are especially vulnerable to the activities of those who seek new recruits to the army of addicts. America, as a society, tolerates over forty thousand deaths in automobile accidents a year despite the fact that techniques -of accident-reduction are available for use. It ,is true that these societally disfunctional trends began long before the computer appeared on the scene, bu-t it is also true that our attempts to reverse these trends will be frustrated if we continue to regard the ability of the computer to act with maximum efficiency in the carrying out of an immediate task as more important than all of our fundamental values put together. Whether increasing violence and social disorder can fairly be laid at' the door ' of the computer is, however, peripheral to the possibility of the development of a police state. The only question is whether we will become convinced that our pre dominant need is for greater control over the individual and the means we will use to achieve it. We have so far failed to perceive that the types of control made possible by the inherent ,organizational drive of the computer within a cybernitics system have no common measure with our 'past experience in organization: 'I'hat the ...lm 1