Daniel Coffin has to tell George Stein what the proletariat is!
Coffin explains:
"'Not everybody on High America succeeded in becoming an independent farmer, a technical expert, or an entrepreneur. There are also those who, however worthy, have no special talents.'" (p. 131)
Let us pause for a moment. Do "technical experts" include teachers, doctors and nurses? And maybe some others that I cannot think of right now that would also be necessary on Rustum? I am trying to identify those who have "special talents." So who does not? Coffin continues:
"'Laborers, clerks, servants, routine maintenance men, et cetera. Those who have jobs, whatever jobs they happen to get, rather than careers.'" (ibid.)
The unskilled and semiskilled - who are employed by farmers or entrepreneurs. OK, so far.
Coffin continues:
"'Those whose jobs are automated out from under them when employees acquire the means to build machinery - unless they accept low wages and sink to the bottom of the social pyramid.'" (ibid.)
(Should "employees" read "employers"?)
Does Coffin think that, if everyone had "special talents," then everyone would succeed in becoming a farmer, expert or entrepreneur and that no one would become a labourer, clerk, servant or maintenance worker? Surely it is instead the case that only a minority are able to succeed and that they are able to do this only because they are members of a society where it is possible for them to employ others as labourers etc?
Coffin patronizes those labourers etc. First, he says, "...however worthy...," then he goes further:
"'Mind you, I'm not scoffing at the people I'm talking about. Mostly they're perfectly decent, conscientious human beings. They were absolutely vital in the early days.'" (ibid.)
Absolutely vital. Yes, not everyone could have "succeeded" even if everyone had had "special talents." I would have been one of those "human beings," probably seeking employment as a clerk while hoping that social advances would open up possibilities of higher education or at least of public libraries.
Coffin continues:
"'If something isn't done, Rustum will repeat Earth's miserable history..." (p. 132)
We have discussed this before. I quoted Coffin's litany of that miserable history in The Future Of Rustum. He regards the majority of the human race as a problem instead of as a potential future. We can have not only "demagogues" (ibid.) but also new leaders. Why should upheavals "'...only lead to tyranny'"? (ibid.) We are discussing humanity which is ourselves. Can we not trust ourselves to solve the problems that we ourselves have created?
2 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Unsurprising that George Stein did not know what a proletariat was--and why should he have been? Up till then the colony on Rustum was too small and everyone had been too busy to think about such things.
Technical experts have to mean many different kinds of technicians, in which I would skilled tradesmen like plumbers, masons, carpenters, electricians, accountants, lawyers, physicians, and not just laboratory technicians.
I checked page 131 of my copy of NEW AMERICA, it too had "employees" rather than "employers," which better fits the context. Obviously, that was a misprint.
Daniel Coffin was right many people are simply not going to have any particular talents or skills. An observable fact.
I do not think Daniel Coffin believed that if everyone had special talents they would all be farmers, entrepreneurs, tradesmen/technicians, etc. Because the vast majority of human beings don't have the talents or inclinations for such things. Nor do I agree he was being "patronizing" about such people.
Humans being what we are, flawed, imperfect, strife prone, etc., I fully expect Rustum to eventually have the problems Coffin feared would come. Social strains, stresses, conflicts would come--to be manipulated by power hungry demagogues striving to become tyrants.
No, I do not trust even myself, never mind mankind in general when it comes to politics and power. The best Rustum can hope for as it becomes a fully colonized planet in future centuries is a NTTB limited state which creaks along tolerably well. I believe in realism, not Utopian impossibilities.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
If everyone had special talents, they would still not all succeed because they do not all have special talents?
I believe in the demonstrated ability of human beings to change their environment and themselves, not in Utopian impossibilities. There is nothing impossible about realizing that an economic system is outmoded and replacing it with a more appropriate one.
Coffin envisages the maintenance of a system in which on the one hand it is necessary that most people are employed by someone else if they are to survive and on the other hand it is impossible that they are employed by anyone else! A massive contradiction that would indeed spawn conflicts of all kinds, not least xenophobia against the new immigrants from Earth.
But increased technological resources make possible a different kind of economy in which everyone is neither an employer nor an employee but an equal shareholder. We have changed society from hunting and gathering to a high tech global economy and can change it even further.
Please don't identify your view with "realism." We can do all do that and it establishes nothing.
Paul.
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