IVIV (1) There Will be Computers for This

[alice wellintown]

I agree, however, while technology itself (the tools themselves) is
neutral, the leverage of tools is increasing. That is, a tool, like a
hammer or a sword is an extension of the human hand and affords the
worker a flexibility that machine tools do not. Machines afford even
less flexibility. Information machines even less. So, the skill and
respect (tradition of craft labor ) is compromised thus weakening
workers, empowering owners (kartlels), and manufacturing consumers. As
workers, these consumers, having bought into the manufactured virtues
(Speed and Productivity--the Law of Deminishing Return) are quick to
dismember the Unions and Organized Labor, discredit the tradition of
craft labor. Labor is the only organization that can temper the
excesses of this fundamental element of Late Capitalism. Recognizing
this, a few workers have rejected the virtues of the owners (Speed
Cheap), resisted the introduction of new technologies and built
organizations that repect the tradition of skill and craft. The
counter-cultures in labor are, it seems to me, where Pynchon novels
point. The kids are not Hopeless, but maybe too full of Hope Springs
Eternal. Necessary, but not sufficient. Only Labor can do the job. I'm
not convinced that these novels are about the Students or Hippies.



On 9/17/09, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
> I agree with alice here as much as I understand her reasoning. The problem
> with the mechanized looms is much the same as the problems with computers.
> The way they function in the economy  is not primarily to democratize work
> but to reinforce the owner/ worker class split. and to replace individual
> skill and respect for quality with corporatized mass production. This has to
> do not with the tools themselves , but with whether the design models of
> those tools that become dominant fit within acceptable power arrangements.