----- Original Message -----
From: Johnny Holiday/John A. Taube <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: September 05, 1999 2:12 PM
Subject: THE ECONOMY GREAT BUT SOME SUFFER
THE ECONOMY GREAT BUT SOME SUFFER
[snip]
Technocracy contends that to understand today's society, one must have
an understanding of how our age differs from those of yesterday. Part of
the organization's research: Since the dawn of civilization, mankind has
lived in primitive societies and austerity was an imposed condition that
only a limited few could escape from. Conditions were barbaric with
scarcity of the wherewithal of life as the main controlling factor of
people's actions. Life was rough and cruel. Working from dawn to dusk
and living short lives at backbreaking toil prevailed. Wars were
constant.
Selfishness and greed were omnipresent. Nevertheless, there never was a
lack of self-rightious people preaching and preaching. They might as
well have been preaching to the wind as far as changing human being's
behavior. Why?
Technocracy finds that the environment dictates behavior. In scarcity
conditions, selfishness and greed are the major components of the
prevailing drive for survival. Yes, one strived for one's family to
live. If your neighbor could or couldn't live, that was up for grabs.
There was hardly a year that some war was not being fought somewhere.
**************
Though superficially common sensical, the above premise (that scarcity
engenders selfishness) is not borne out in reality.
Here in Canada the statistics show that the biggest per capita contributions
to charities come from the poorest regions of the country like Newfoundland
and Cape Breton. I imagine it's the same in other nations. In Toronto
panhandlers find the most generous response in poor neighbourhoods.
Victor
