UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION. 19, Avenue Kléber, Paris 16e. TENSIONS AND TECHNOLOGY

Transcription

1 F UIIES C PARIS, 13 May 1949 UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION 19, Avenue Kléber, Paris 16e. TENSIONS AND TECHNOLOGY Script of a talk by Professor Line professor of Psychology in the University of Toronto (duration: 12 minutes) A meeting of Professors and Experts in industrial and international relations was held recently in Unesco House. They came from six different countries from France, Britain and the United States, from Canada, China and Switzerland - to discuss aspects of modern technology and the tensions affecting it. NOTE: This talk was recorded at Unesco House. The record will be sent free of charge on request. Please apply for Record No. 68 B.

2 IM LIPR/18- page 2 13 May 19L.9 LEAD IN (not recorded) Here is Professor Line, Professor of Psychology in the University of Toronto, one of the Experts examining the effect of tensions in modern industry. We have asked him to give you some idea, in practical terms, of the work of this Conference and its influence on industrial trends today. t t

3 El 1,PR/18 page 3 13 May 1949 In a stable world, whether mediaeval or feudal, where lna&s destiny seemed clear, where the worker's place in society-, in his own community, was largely determined by birth and tradition, social science could afford to be dormant; or, as it emerged, to content itself with a description of what life and living were like; or even, perhaps, to pick up some of the inevitable pieces by welfare programmes and individual therapy-, of one sort or another. But in our world of today a world wherein maw of the supposedly- eternal verities have been shattered by science this is no longer the case. The sociologist, the anthropologist, the political scientist, the psychologist, educationalist, the physician 000 all the social scientists must take a hand unless man himself is to be thwarted - perhaps extinguished by the monster he has himself created. For technology especially after Hiroshima with all its great promise of ultimately- removing the curse of Adam can also threaten to destroy- civilization, or even man himself. No-one denies the all-pervading influence of technology in our world today, nor its great potential in raising man's standards of living. It is sometimes not very evident that industrial management, labour unions, scientists of all kinds, and citizens generally- have realized the significance of this modern fact its significance for great good, or for even greater evil. I very much hope that Unesco's efforts to challenge all parties and peoples labour, management and particularly- the Social Sciences will be bold, strong and fruitful. Now you may well ask what the influences of industrial technology on man and his ways of living are? Some are very obvious indeed. As Western

4 Li 12R/18 page 1 13 May l9l.9 civilization has moved more and more towards democratic govermuent, government of the people by the people for the people, where each citizen has some right and responsibility in managing his own and his group's affairs, where power, duty and responsibility are increasingly distributed throughout the state or nation, industrial organization has not kept pace with all this. The modern factory worker, though democrat at heart and in his private and community life, frequently finds an outmoded authoritarianism pervading his working scene sometimes even in the councils of his Trades Union. The personal conflicts and tensions thereby engendered may lead him, in confusion, to become quite evasive as to his own basic needs. He hardly knows what he does want; and may be ripe for the demagogue, the false leader, the fifth column. His community structure is no longer clearly participant he lives in cities devoid of community character, in homes provided by standardized economy. His womenfolk work - often in factories too in order to add to the family income, with perhaps not a little sacrifice of home life and the warmth of parenthood. The personal life of the worker in the world today, the sense of personal significance, is all too often threatened by blind technological progress. His craft has become de-skilled, he is a small cog in a huge production machine. His contribution may seem to him to lack importance, it may lack the stimulation of completion, the interest of his own inventiveness or creativeness. He no longer sees who uses what he is making; nor does his family share his labours or his sense of pride in craftsmanship and social purpose. If economic depression comes, he may be laid off - discarded. The spectre of the early 1930's dug deep into his soul.

5 MPfl/18 - page 5 13 May 1949 Frequently, he reacts to this by regression, by withdrawal from the struggle, by sickness, absenteeism, alcohol. Happily, the worker reacts also by aggression which is much more healthful provided he is aggressive in the work situation itself. He seeks a group with which he can experience some shared responsibility, his Union for example. Here, at least, he has (or seeks) some measure of democratic partnership. But too frequently, neither management nor labour leader recognizes the extent to which the work situation has degenerated under technological forces. Wages become higher, the worker demands greater leisure, greater freedom from work, and industry again exploits leisure time by things like soporifics from Hollywood, Can you wonder then that tensions arise within the worker himself, between himself and his fellow workers and supervisors, between groups,, Often these tensions project themselves outside the work situation to scapegoats, such as racial minorities, national groups and so on. Or, again this fundamental unease makes for stress and tension in intimate family life and in the wider, world community. It has been said wars begin in the minds of men, and from almost every possible angle, industry needs to take serious stock of this fact if only in the interests of man's continued existence. Vhat can and must be done? First, a great deal of serious study. Man has accepted, and demonstrated the great value of science in understanding how steel behaves, how wheat behaves, how germs behave. He has not yet accepted - but must be speedily convinced as to the even greater value of science in understanding how people behave. If the Social Sciences allow technology to go forward blind to ll but material considerations,

6 LI LflF?/l8 page 6 13 May 19L.9 there can be no health in us. Second - a special set of responsibilities in Education. You know, Education still tries to transmit the established things to the younger generation such as that two and two are four, or that the square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides. But we are living in an age where things just aren't established. A few years ago 9910 of the energy of production came from man; today 9Wo comes from tlo machines. As industry develops and matures, the occupational demands are in the administrative, clerical, service or white collar jobs. What is education doing about all this? The farmer's son becomes a machinist; his son becomes a bank clerk or schoolteacher. Modern education must surely be quite different from what it was when crafts were matters of the clan, handed down from father to son, in apparently endless apostolic succession. But is it really? Or again take engineers for example, men trained in machine design what is education doing to equip them to understand the design of human needs? Engineers will be in charge of more than steel and concrete. They will administer our factory-communities. And they will need more than a slide-rule for that. Or still further what about the realistic training of those technical experts who will take technology into non-industrialized cultures? Into Central Africa for instance, where we are even now taking on the jungle to plant peanuts. You may find that an instruction to take this wheelbarra: over yonder is responded to by carrying it shoulder high, or that machines are devilish contrivances to be reared; or that the idea of invisible germs

7 MPIV18 page 7 13 May 1949 is a silly notion, whereas the idea of infection,of catching a disease like measles is completely accepted. Third: the training of industrial management, including Labour Organizations, in making industrial life an educational opportunity. When policy decisions are made in the work situation, surely the men affected by those policies should have some voice in them? Or where that is impossible, at least some understanding of the reasons and circumstances demanding the policy in question? People are people the world over. Whether Karl Marx' term "Capital" is the god of national policy, or whether dialectical materialism dominates the ideology, whether we subscribe to democratic socialism, private enterprise or communism. Western socialism developed under the aegis of economics, as did capitalism, and communism It is high time that industrialism with all its power - became liberalised by the infusion of social science in the broadest and deepest sense.