This-essay is a7310103.htm which is available at the web-site www.essayz.com. See more notes at the bottom. Previous-Essay <== This-Essay ==> Following-Essay By-Months By-Years By-Words Webs of Like-&-Un-Like ESSAYS <==> Like-&-UN-Like This-One ========================================================== %LESS IS BETTER 731010 The technocratic society is the natural consequence of the myth that more is better. Children learn that the accumulation of and use of techniques and things--- constitute the technique which will cause human fulfillment. Children learn that the degree of fulfillment is proportional to the amount accumulated and the rate of production; i.e., consumption. The gross national product; i.e., gross national consumption or gross national waste, is the measure of our corporate fulfillment. Children learn that what is done this year is not fulfillment unless it is bigger, flashier, more, better, more consumptive, or greater. Children learn that unless 'It' can be measured and declared to be "more than last year" 'It' is not fulfillment. We could be helpful if we meditate upon the question: Who teaches the young? Consider the role of businessmen's advertising programs. Consider our compulsive desire to measure everything from engine displacements to sexual fulfillment and spiritual transcendence. Consider the foci of governmental involvement. Absolutely nothing can grow geometrically forever. Not population, or knowledge, or understanding, or inflation, or energy consumption, or wastes, or death rates. Growth is a "good" which is self defeating in the final analysis. Those who worship growth as a god are idolaters who cease to live through their worship---and are soon overcome by the accumulation brought about through growth, or by the deprivation brought about by the depletion of resources. They do not know how to deal with finitude. They presume limit-less possibilities. Energy is involved in absolutely all processes. There is not even one process which involves no energy. Thus the "energy crisis" points to all processes. It is for humanity a question of setting priorities, of making value judgements within a value structure. The "energy crisis" was raised to the level of human mutual awareness through the natural consequences of the "more is better" myth of western society. The solution to the "energy crisis" is not to be found in techniques. Fulfillment will be found only through the death of the "more is better" myth---and the birth of a myth which is capable of being helpful to those who most fully embody it. Those who are the victims of a myth via collusion, cannot escape its enslavement---unless as they accept the assistance of those who are not enslaved by it. (c) 1999 by Paul A. Smith in GO: essayz.com "Search for Integrity and Honesty" (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy) ==========================================================
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