Technocracy

While doing a bit of research for another post, I was surprised to learn there was an actual technocracy movement in the US. While it never amounted to much, some of the key tenants are deeply embedded in today’s political culture.

Like similar movements in revolutionary France and later in the Soviet Union, there was a desire to destroy the Judeo-Christian week. Sabbath rest is antithetical to a productivity obsessed consumerist society.

And that’s why values and true democracy are so important. We need to be able to say that, no we won’t automatically do something because it’s more productive or “rational”. Productivity and everything surrounding it how to be subservient to our values.

What I’ve noticed is that arguments for a less productivity-consumption society are still usually made within the paradigm of technocracy. A four-day work week means that workers are more well rested and thus more productive overall. Long parental leave leads to a net productivity boost in the long term. Not being glued to your phone means you can be a better employee. None of this is wrong, but it’s still missing the point.

A related bit from the book Stolen Focus that recently read:

In a society dominated by the values of consumer capitalism, “Sleep is a big problem,” he told me. “If you’re asleep, you’re not spending money, so you’re not consuming anything. You’re not producing any products.” He explained that during the last recession in 2008…they talked about global output going down by so many percent, and consumption going down. But if everybody were to spend [an] extra hour sleeping [as they did in the past], they wouldn’t be on Amazon. They wouldn’t be buying things. If we went back to sleeping a healthy amount it would be an earthquake for our economic system, because our economic system has become dependent on sleep-depriving people. The attentional failures are just roadkill. That’s just the cost of doing business. I only really understood how significant this point was towards the end of writing this book.

So yeah, I don’t want to sleep more because it will make me more productive and focused. I want to sleep a healthy amount because I’m a human being.