Not long ago we were told that technology would soon enable us to have robots doing our housework and we would drastically reduce the cost of education. Well, we don’t have the robots at home yet and the cost of education is skyrocketing. In fact, the cost of education by the institutions with virtual classroom is actually higher than conventional ones. We the People still have to claim the dividends of technology to educate more at lower cost rather than educating less at higher cost. A wise consumer will ask such questions as: why is it that while the cost of electronic gadgets constantly goes down and their quality goes up, the cost of education is always going up? Why don’t we use the power of marvelous technology to at least make the very basic effective education affordable to all?
I am by no means a luddite but I do use technology with discretion. I do believe however, that the net effect of technology has reached the point of diminishing return because of lack of ethics and discretion. As an example, just think of devising missiles followed by antimissile and anti antimissile; or, myriads of computer software and other inventions that are outdated almost as soon as they are made. Think of consumers who buy these just to find what they just purchased is outdated. We could not keep up with such “progress” even if we had nine lives! A wise consumer should have the power to convey a message to the greedy manufacturers to have mercy and upgrade these at intervals of say, 5 years so that the consumer has time to digest and enjoy them for a while instead of constantly attending classes to learn yet a new version that is put out in such haste that is often no better than the last version and saves no time at all. To me, the net effect of these “time saving” gadgets is truly a waste of time and unethical and sheer exploitation that actually deprives us of the blessings of Information Age.
I often wonder whether we are self-destructing by inflicting such wounds upon ourselves. While wondering, I sometimes have a tendency to agree with those who claim that the end is near, or else why would civilized human beings should do this. Then I am sedated by the words of yet another America genius I admire, Ralph Waldo Emerson who said:
“The end of human race is that it will die of civilization.”
Indeed the history of the world is full of individuals and empires who became the victims of their own indiscretions and excesses in the pursuit of money . It is high time that we heed such warning signs from the world as well as true American leaders if we are to avoid a total annihilation. One such true leader at the turn of the twentieth century was Theodore Roosevelt who said:
“To educate a man in mind and not moral is to educate
a menace to our society.”
A great man like Albert Einstein who equated religion with science said:
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind”
We could also be inspired by Mahatma Gandhi who said:
“The world has enough resources for everyone’s need
but not for their greed.”
If we value freedom we should consider ignorance as our number one enemy and fight it accordingly. We must rediscover Thomas Jefferson’s message who said:
“Those who expect to be ignorant and free, expect what
there never was and never will be.”
Or the inspiring words of J.P. Curran who in 1790 in condemning apathy who said:
“The condition upon which God has given us liberty is eternal vigilance.”
History has listed the Middle East, where I come from as the cradle of civilization and it is my conviction that America was the cradle of modern democracy. History tells me that if America does not win the war with ignorance, it could have the same fate as the Middle East.
Public education and media have instilled a short-term memory span in the people who despise any engagement in presentations longer that 30 seconds and consider it waste of time to discuss and debate issues with the exception of sex, violence and sensationalism.
One example of this was the recent close presidential election that made most people weary whereas a few welcomed it and used it as a learning tool into the antiquated election system that is unbecoming of the most technological country in the world. The irony is that we did not even know the government had neglected this but now we can demand its long overdue repair.
We must contemplate on the fact that preservation of America, if it is to maintain its claim to fame status of the Government of the People, depends on independence and integrity of every citizen. We should encourage an enterpreneurial system for small business as opposed to never-ending mergers at the cost of higher unemployment which takes the incentive away from individuals as a result of being a small screw in some large machinery rather than an independent entity. The mergers may sound economical and on the surface reduce the cost to consumers but such savings, in reality and in the long run lead to more unemployment with all its social, economical and psychological adverse effects.
As an example, disappearance of family farms in favor of megafarms and factory farms has resulted in idleness of countless farmers who were among the most honest, independent and most productive citizens in America. It is true that America produces the cheapest food in the world, but an informed citizen would ask, at what cost? And, why couldn’t people pay a little higher price for food as compared to what they pay for weight control and diet foods to trim themselves the major culprit for which is availability and low price foods. Moreover, which would be a safer and more secure food supply in case of calamities, plant diseases or enemy attack on the food source, a hand ful of megafarms in selected areas or more numerous farms in scattered places? Which system would produce more variety of food? This is just one example of our indiscriminate rush to adopt technology without application of wisdom. The mergers have forced the progenies of erstwhile productive farmers into sedentary and vulnerable jobs such as dotcoms and other ephemeral and non-productive or far less productive jobs.
