the life-expectancy of those of us who live in “advanced” countries,
but they have destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to widespread psychological suffering (in the Third World to physical suffering as well) and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world.
the situation.
It will certainly subject human beings to greater indignities and inflict greater damage on the natural world,
it will probably lead
to greater social disruption and psychological suffering, and it may lead to increased
physical suffering
even in “advanced” countries.
The industrial-technological system
may survive or it may break down.
If it survives, it MAY eventually achieve a low level of physical and psychological suffering, but only after passing through a long and very painful period of adjustment
of permanently reducing
human beings and many other
living organisms to engineered products and mere cogs in the social machine. Furthermore, if the system survives, the consequences will be inevitable: There is no way of reforming or modifying the system so as to prevent it from depriving people of dignity and autonomy.
If
the
system
breaks
down
the
consequences
will still be very painful.
But the bigger the system
-
grows the more disastrous
the results of its breakdown will be, so if it is to break down it had best break down sooner rather than later. -
We therefore advocate a revolution
against the industrial system. This revolution may or may not make use of violence; -
it may be sudden
or it may be a relatively gradual process spanning a few decades.
outline in a very general way the measures
that those who hate the industrial system should take in order to prepare the way for a revolution against that form of society.
a POLITICAL revolution.
Its object will be to overthrow not governments but the economic and technological basis of the present society.