Technocratic Movement

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The Technocracy Monad or Technocracy Monad - is the official symbol of Technocracy, Inc. and is supposed to represent a balance similar to Yin and Yang , in the case of the Technocracy of production and consumption.

The Technocratic Movement is a social movement that began in the United States during the 1920s and 1930s . Instead of politicians, technicians and experts as the leadership class (cf. technocracy ) should ensure sufficient welfare based on scientific methods and the widespread use of technology . Technocrats gained their greatest popularity during the early Great Depression in the USA in the early 1930s. The American Howard Scott started the Technical Alliancein the winter of 1918-1919 and established Technocracy Incorporated in the mid-1930s , the latter organization continuing to the present (2010).

The writings of Edward Bellamy are among the forerunners . Publications such as Henry Laurence Gantt's "The New Machine" and Thorstein Veblen's "Soviet of Technicians" were important foundations . The reference to the Soviet was no accident. The planned economy approaches in the early Soviet Union were initially viewed positively by the technocrats, similar to leading European industrialists such as Ernest Mercier and Walther Rathenau .

Under Howard Scott, the movement as “Technocracy Inc.” at times became a serious political force that propagated a “ third way ” between capitalism and socialism. The idea was expressed that engineers would best manage the common good and that an imminent economic and social collapse could only be overcome by the rule of a technical elite. This is to be seen in the context of a fundamental crisis of capitalism and democracy as well as a zeitgeist shaped by futurism . A central solution was to replace the money economy with an economy based on energy certificates. In early 1933, however, the American technocratic movement was largely ridiculed by Scott's unsuccessful speech, which was broadcast nationwide on radio, in the USA and lost its previous broad impact.

Today the movement consists mainly of Technocracy Incorporated , whose members meet for round tables and publish a magazine that appears quarterly. The technocratic movement also had some after-effects in the area of ​​culture and media, such as science fiction . Some splinter parties refer directly or indirectly to the ideas and habits of the technocratic movement, such as the LaRouche movement . In addition, some aspects of emissions trading, such as personal carbon trading , are related to historical proposals by the technocrats.

history

Early technocratic organizations formed after the First World War . These included Henry Gantt's “The New Machine ” and Veblen's “ Soviet of Technicians ”. These organizations disappeared after a short time, but had considerable influence. The American Howard Scott started the Technical Alliance in the winter of 1918-1919.

William H. Smyth was the first to use the word “ technocracy ” in 1919 to describe a government made up of engineers and researchers. In the 1920s it was used to describe the works of Thorstein Veblen. In Europe, engineering fantasies such as the Atlantropa project were referred to by the term. The background was the experience of mass organization and technical planning during the World War. These were converted into civil projects in the 1920s. The emergence of scientific management and systematic project control made it possible to implement major technical and social projects, such as the Hoover Dam .

The Technical Alliance as such, which mainly consisted of scientists and engineers began an energy Opinion of the North American continent shortly after the beginning of the 20th century. Many of their results provided the scientific background for the theoretical development of a new type of social structure. Thorstein Veblen, author of “ Theory of the Leisure Class ”, was a member of the Technical Alliance. Veblen's work “Engineers and the Price System” became particularly well known and predicted a collapse of the price system not because of the interest-bearing, as in the European free economy theory , but because of a lack of technological control.

In 1932 Scott founded the Committee on Technocracy with a pioneer in engineering, Walter Rautenstrauch (1880-1951) from Columbia University . This was the peak of public attention and impact. The committee was dissolved again in 1933, the reason for controversy between Scott and Rautenstrauch. It had also become evident that Scotts had greatly exaggerated his own scientific merits. Ultimately, the technocrats failed to position themselves as an attractive alternative to democratic institutions and capitalism. In 1933, after a disastrous radio speech by Scott, the technocratic movement largely disappeared as a political force. The New Deal took up some of the technocratic approaches.

After the dissolution of the Technical Alliance, Howard Scott became the founder and head of a new organization, Technocracy Incorporated , which seeks to implement the alliance's findings and thus introduce a new kind of society. It was registered in New York in 1933 as a non-profit, apolitical, non-religious organization. Led by Scott, the then director or "chief engineer", she pursued her goals in 1934 to inform the population about the ideas of the alliance through a series of lectures in North America. She received support especially during the years of the Great Depression . The document preceding the technocratic movement is the " Technocracy Study Course ". Technocracy Incorporated was also known for its red and gray colored uniforms and correspondingly painted vehicles and was sometimes laughed at. In the Second World War this led to suspicions of conspiracy and prohibitions, as in Canada until 1943.

The organization has published several magazines throughout its history, including The Technocrat , The Northwest Technocrat, and Technocracy Digest . The movement publishes the " North American Technocrat ". One of the better-known members was M. King Hubbert , a geophysicist best known for the theory of global maximum oil production .

The US Technocracy Movement's business office was originally in New York. During its history the location changed several times. It is currently located in Ferndale , Washington .

Technocracy Incorporated publications

  • Technocracy Study Course [Technocracy, Inc.] (1934)
  • Technocracy Handbook [Technocracy, Inc.], (1939)
  • The Sellout of the Ages , Howard Scott, (1941)
  • Our Country, Right or Wrong , (1946)
  • Continentalism: The Mandate of Survival , (1947)

literature

Books from the early history of the technocratic movement:

  • Harold Loeb: Life in a Technocracy. What it Might Be Like (The Viking Press, 1933)
  • Allen Raymond: What is Technocracy? (McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., LTD., 1933)

Representations of the Technocratic Movement:

  • Henry Elsner: The Technocrats, Prophets of Automation (Syracuse University Press, 1967)
  • Armin Mohler : The way of the “technocracy” from America to France in: Hans Barion (Hrsg.): Epirrhosis. Festgabe for Carl Schmitt , Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1968, part volume 2, pp. 579-596.
  • William E. Akin: Technocracy and the American Dream: The Technocrat Movement , 1900-1941 (University of California Press, 1977) ISBN 0-520-03110-5
  • Stefan Willeke : The technocracy movement in Germany between the world wars . In: Technikgeschichte, Vol. 62 (1995), H. 3, pp. 221-246.

Web links

All links refer to pages in English.

swell

  1. ^ Henry Elsner, Jr .: The Technocrats: Prophets of Automation . Syracuse University, 1967.
  2. ↑ Patrick Wood: Carbon Currency: A New Beginning for Technocracy? (English) , Canada Free Press. January 26, 2010. Retrieved January 28, 2010. 
  3. ↑ Olle Gunnarsson: Författarskaper utmanar (Swedish) , Västerbotten-Kuriren. February 18, 2008, p. 22. 
  4. ^ William E. Aikin (1977). Technocracy and the American Dream: The Technocracy Movement 1900-1941 , University of California Press, p. 150.
  5. ↑ a b David Adair (1967). The Technocrats 1919-1967: A Case Study of Conflict and Change in a Social Movement
  6. ^ Frank Fischer (1990). Technocracy and the Politics of Expertise , Sage Publications, p. 86.