The God of the Machine - Tranche #12
Chapter V, Excerpt 2 of 2
Society of Status and Society of Contract
As a proposition in physics . . . the property of mass is inertia. In politics, inertia is the veto. The limited size and direct hook-up of the mechanism of the republic made it possible for the tribunes of the people to be invested with the formal veto power. It was possible because the function of mass, which is taken for granted by mechanical engineers, and usually ignored by political theorists, was understood by the Romans. The device to cut the motor when necessary.
When unlimited supplies are voted automatically in unapportioned lump sums, it is obvious the function of the mass, the stabilizing element, is no longer included in government; the connection has broken somewhere. The citizens . . . have no representatives at all. Their presumed delegates represent the spenders of supplies. The final expression of the intrinsic mass-inertia veto . . . consists of men quitting their tools and throwing down their arms.
Money was to empower kings to subdue the nobles; and kings could not have been convinced that trade must presently enable parliaments to execute kings. Trade and money, which go together in the stream of energy, inevitably wash away the enclosing walls of a society of status. What is now called the middle class was and is not a class; it is a different form of society, a classless society, the free society.
Society of Status and Society of Contract
As a proposition in physics . . . the property of mass is inertia. In politics, inertia is the veto. The limited size and direct hook-up of the mechanism of the republic made it possible for the tribunes of the people to be invested with the formal veto power. It was possible because the function of mass, which is taken for granted by mechanical engineers, and usually ignored by political theorists, was understood by the Romans. The device to cut the motor when necessary.
When unlimited supplies are voted automatically in unapportioned lump sums, it is obvious the function of the mass, the stabilizing element, is no longer included in government; the connection has broken somewhere. The citizens . . . have no representatives at all. Their presumed delegates represent the spenders of supplies. The final expression of the intrinsic mass-inertia veto . . . consists of men quitting their tools and throwing down their arms.
Money was to empower kings to subdue the nobles; and kings could not have been convinced that trade must presently enable parliaments to execute kings. Trade and money, which go together in the stream of energy, inevitably wash away the enclosing walls of a society of status. What is now called the middle class was and is not a class; it is a different form of society, a classless society, the free society.
The full paragraph in the book references opinion polls as potential expressions of the "veto power" of the citizens. However, in current practice, the polls are either manipulated or ignored.
The last sentence is ominous, but I wonder if it might be better stated as "... throwing down their tools and TAKING UP THEIR ARMS". Revolt rather than strike. As things currently stand, I don't think there are enough citizens in the US that are well-informed enough to even understand what is happening, let alone take any meaningful action against it.
Even the best-intentioned changes involve unfamiliar roles, processes, procedures, materials and involve training and familiarization (with resulting unproductive time and cost).
For a change to be positive overall, the resulting outcome must be SIGNIFICANTLY better than the status quo to outweigh the disadvantages inherent in changing.
Maybe the human characteristic of being "resistant to change" is a survival mechanism.
"The final expression of the intrinsic mass-inertia veto . . . consists of men quitting their tools and throwing down their arms."