Modern World : Chapter 20 Part 1 (Marta and Gallanol In The Modern Age)

21/10/99
    Calban’s boss wanted to make the job faster, so computer programs were linked and numbers leapt from analysis to accounting working papers at the press of buttons. There would still be a lot of sorting of these figures to do and there was the headache of checking on the first couple of accounts that the computer had done its job correctly. When it was all finished the boss made two of the juniors redundant. There wasn’t much of a time improvement; it didn’t seem so to him, but what pleasure there was was taken out of the job. His boss might want the increased efficiency, but to him it made the job worse, more unpleasant. The consequent boredom would sap his motivation, slow him down. If he had been sharp enough it might have driven him away from the Company House. But he knew it was the same everywhere. There was no respite from the dullness and waste of every living day of life, and moving jobs was a hassle. If he gambled wrongly and found himself out of work for a while his credit balance would be much denuded. Before the government would pay any small supplement an out of work person would have to expend most of his or her savings. Of course unemployment did not exist officially. It was merely the period in between jobs; between the end of one contract and the start of another.
19/8/99
     Calban felt himself to be ebbing out a useless life in a dull office, full of people who pretended, and machines, which couldn’t feel, and were therefore efficient. The managers liked efficiency. Therefore computers were good and the more people they could replace with them the better because that made the office more efficient. Efficiency was badly needed by the managers. Their positions depended on it.
20/8/99
    He mused over the ideas Janus and Vera and the others had been placing in his head. He was sorting them out for himself and putting them into the picture of his own life. Those centuries of persecution when the fair minded, the caring and the loving were tolerated only insofar as they could be made to do the bidding of the ruthless, greedy and competitive. They were swept aside in the lust for power and survival and power by those who considered themselves stronger and more intelligent. Stronger they might have been because they set themselves the target of strength, believed in it, and sought after it. But their intelligence was far more in doubt. Was it intelligent to plunge societies into warfare and struggle. Even the ruthless leaders, or all but a few, realised, after many centuries of it the pointlessness of such activities. They began to realise that there were better ways of achieving such domination or wealth as they desired. And so over many centuries the ruthless and determined set themselves to achieve domination and strength over others in other ways. I describe these people as if they were of one class and having the same aims, but there were many types of them, all having different ambitions and methods. Some appeared to others as being reasonable and trustworthy, good leaders, and indeed in a sense they were capable and trustworthy, for they kept the alternative leaders or managers at bay. Some of them were overtly greedy and these were more obvious targets of criticism. Often they were less successful in their efforts than the ones who were more generous. The people I am referring to are not always in high positions although many of them, by their very nature, become important. they seek promotions so they tend to rise, overtaking those who are not motivated in the same ways or who may not be willing to use the same methods as they. And so we have a society dominated by such people. They are large in number. There are many amongst the human race, male and female, who have the desire to rise and the singlemindedness or patience to do it. They are willing to control themselves sufficiently to do it.
    But they are not all at high levels; they are all over and everywhere. Supermarket shelf stackers, car mechanics, typists and computer operators, petty managers of all sorts. Everywhere there were people who wanted to get ahead, to learn the rules of life and of their careers as soon as  possible and to rise up the ladder above others. Many would fail and be dealt unfair hands in the competitive twists of enterprise; A position missed because an outside candidate got in there first; An unfortunate failure at an exam; or a setback due to a clash of personality. A business takeover or merger and consequent rationalisation might produce victims from among the competitive as well as among the unmotivated. But from disaster the seeds of success were often sown.
    The faceless enterprises of business, the companies and the investment fund shareholders, and the ones with a face, the owner managers and the self employed liked the motivated people and the hardworking ones. They are the ones who make the profits; they are the most employable, even if these are the instruments who put pressures on other workers.
     Some of the competitive are bullies, some wish to see their fellow workers suffer, but many of them perhaps actually believe in what they are doing. They want to get ahead for obvious reasons, to feed their families, to become comfortable and wealthy, to enjoy status. They are sometimes people with a strong sense of responsibility and a desire to organise. If their imagination is somewhat limited this may not be their fault. They may not feel the things that other more sensitive people feel. They may be able to get ahead precisely because they have that tunnel vision, and they are little aware of all those other distractions around them.
      Thus they get into positions of power because many of us, he thought, the others, more well rounded or caring people perhaps, maybe more artistic and creative, or more imaginative in our understanding of what we and our people desire or need, are trampled or jostled aside, and because they are not competing so hard.
      Calban sat staring into space. For a quarter of an hour he barely moved. The office was quiet, apart from the click of computer keys. The other workers were hidden behind their computer screens. Some of them appeared to be enthralled by their work and hardly looked up, while others stared blankly at their machines, much as Calban was staring blankly into space. Space was not real space, but a wall opposite, in this instance. Inside things were going on in his head, although an onlooker would not have known it if he had observed him. It would be reasonable to assume that things were also going on in the heads of the people who stared blankly into their computer screens, but Calban, being generally so isolated from his colleagues would not have understood what made them tick anyway, so he could not guess. They probably would have had little inkling of what went on inside his head either. There were few who knew much about him. The workers who probably had the least going on inside their heads were the ones who appeared to be enthralled by their work.
       It is quite inefficient for most workers to work long hours. They start to mentally fall asleep unless properly stimulated at all times. During the working day moods will vary over time, but towards the end of the day they become generally inefficient. In some cases it would be better to let them go home early and return refreshed the next day – or perhaps even on a short evening shift. Surely the management time study people would realise this, but it was obviously the case that they still made more money out of enslavement and ruining workers sense of stimulation. Neo Creaddic society intended to brake the cycle of depression and return human beings to their rightful state in the world system, in harmony with nature, with each other and with their own minds. But we are not all the same. Many enjoy their chosen field immensely. To many of these the work may seem perfectly natural. Take it away from them and they may be unhappy and listless, feeling they have no purpose in life.