The God of the Machine - Tranche 42
Chapter XIX, Excerpt 3 of 3
Credit and Depressions
All the inventions of man have individualism as their end, because they spring from the individual function of intelligence, which is the creative and productive source. So far as co-operative action is useful toward the development of the individual, capitalism is fully able to carry out by voluntary association the vast and complex operations of which collectivism is utterly incapable. No collectivist society can even permit cooperation; it relies upon compulsion; hence it remains static.
In 1932, the popular decision was for government economy, sound money, and reduction of political power, though the country was suffering from a depression. It was the non-productive rich who first went on the dole. Had they not done so, no measure could have been passed for Federal poor relief. The line was drawn in a striking manner, between the producer and the non-producer, with Henry Ford and Senator Couzens. Ford was in production; he was against government intervention.
Ultimately, the current of energy was forced into the political channel. In both America and Europe, misdirected energy was projected upward; but Europe did not build skyscrapers. What went up was military airplanes. None of this was unpredictable, nor wholly unforeseen. Ninety years ago, Herbert Spencer perceived the trend; he said: “We are being rebarbarized.” When a dictatorship gains power, it is by various groups conceding power. Men enslave themselves, forging the chain link by link.
Credit and Depressions
All the inventions of man have individualism as their end, because they spring from the individual function of intelligence, which is the creative and productive source. So far as co-operative action is useful toward the development of the individual, capitalism is fully able to carry out by voluntary association the vast and complex operations of which collectivism is utterly incapable. No collectivist society can even permit cooperation; it relies upon compulsion; hence it remains static.
In 1932, the popular decision was for government economy, sound money, and reduction of political power, though the country was suffering from a depression. It was the non-productive rich who first went on the dole. Had they not done so, no measure could have been passed for Federal poor relief. The line was drawn in a striking manner, between the producer and the non-producer, with Henry Ford and Senator Couzens. Ford was in production; he was against government intervention.
Ultimately, the current of energy was forced into the political channel. In both America and Europe, misdirected energy was projected upward; but Europe did not build skyscrapers. What went up was military airplanes. None of this was unpredictable, nor wholly unforeseen. Ninety years ago, Herbert Spencer perceived the trend; he said: “We are being rebarbarized.” When a dictatorship gains power, it is by various groups conceding power. Men enslave themselves, forging the chain link by link.
