by Leo Marx
This
book is considered a classic. The subtitle is “technology and the Pastoral
Ideal in America.” This book is about the images that guided America in its
early days and the resistance of the literary writers to the mechanistic
philosophy and industrial expansion that took place in the 1800’s. When I finished reading, I felt sad.
Certain
ideas stand out from my reading of the book.
One idea is the feeling of intrusion of the machines on the landscapes
of new England and America
on the part of what could be called the first literary generation. Writers such as Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne,
Melville, and Clemens.
The
other idea is the almost religious belief of machines and progress in the view of exponents of
industrialism and technology. The latter
writers regarded technological progress as “evidence that man is gaining access
to the divine plan, a kind of gradual revelation…” The author quotes Timothy Walker, who
declares “an unfaltering belief in the permanent and continued improvement of
the human race” which is the result of mechanical invention. Mr. Walker was responding to an essay by
Thomas Carlyle.
Thomas
Carlyle was an English writer who was in a group in England (the romantics) who were
beginning to see the ramifications of the machine age. His essay was saying that the mechanistic
spirit was talking away man’s inner freedom.
Some of his phrases: “a mighty change in our manner of existence”; By
arguing on the force of circumstances, we have argued away all force from
ourselves…” here he was really talking
about the death of the soul and its replacement by the machine. He anticipates Marx, Freud, Fromm and other
observers that could see the meaning of what was happening. The modern word is alienation.
These
themes were used in major works of Melville (Moby Dick) and Clemens
(Huckleberry Finn). The conflict
between the pastoral ideal (in the agrarian vision of Jefferson)
and the growing mechanization and industrialism.
What
Thoreau, Melville and Clemens saw in their times (increasing mechanization and
dehumanization) has gone unabated into our times and has picked up so much
momentum that it now threatens life on planet earth. We have to ask ourselves, how do we stop the
machine? Leo Marx helps here. In Manas, dated January 20,, 1971,Marx is quoted from an article
in Science for November 27,
1970. I quote him:
“The
focus of our literary pastoralism, accordingly, is upon a contrast between two
environments representing virtually all
aspects of man’s relationship ton nature.
In place of the aggressive thrust of 19th century capitalism,
the pastoral interlude exemplifies a far more restrained, accommodating kind of
behavior. The chief goal is not, as
Alexander Hamilton argued it was, to enhance the nation’s corporate wealth and
power; rather is the Jeffersonian “pursuit of happiness." In economical terms, then pastoralism entails
a distinction between a commitment to unending growth and a concept of material
sufficiency. The aim of the pastoral
economy is enough-enough production and consumption to insure a decent quality
of life.”
This
idea of enough- is a major quality of the meta-industrual vision. “plain living and high thinking.” As more
individuals discover that the “good life” is not necessarily a “a life of
superfluous good” then the wisdom of the ages will strike a chord in many of
us and we can see that our future hopes
lie in what E.F. Schumacher calls the “middle way” of Buddhist economics. This is the way to liberation. He writes:
“while
the materialist is mainly interested in goods, the Buddhist is mainly
interested in liberation...it is not wealth that stands in the way of liberation
but the attachment to wealth…since consumption is merely a means to human
well-being, the aim should be to obtain the maximum of well-being with the
minimum of consumption. “
It
is good to see that this tradition has always been a part of our heritage ad is
gaining mote adherents each passing day.
Charles Leiden
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