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Defoe has Crusoe whittling down his 42 day board
“With inexpressible hacking and hewing” and you can just feel the aching
muscles and sense the determination. Crusoe again “….labour and patience
carried me through that, and many other things.” So, not much
enjoyment there; little sense of achievement is mentioned. Was it really
worth it?
We would have to ask Daniel Defoe that and he is long
gone. He lived and died before the Industrial Revolution as it is now
called, he was an entrepreneur and an obsessive writer. His business
life was troubled by debt and there were allegations of dishonesty. In
1726 his Tour thro the whole Island of Great Britain was published
where he gives an overview of British Trade prior to the Industrial
Revolution and he was later described in Scotland as a Government spy.*
(thanks to Wikipedia for this)
By the way, Robinson Crusoe has run to 700 editions,
so Defoe was very successful and very persuasive, and so is the message
of Progress. In fact we live in Post Industrial Revolution times when
this message is food and drink to the world, but we have the benefit of
hindsight. Our environment is under attack, from us; and the whole of
the natural world is at risk from man’s greed and waste, and the spoil
of the industrial process. Robinson Crusoe is about a young man who
defies his father; Dad recommended “a quiet, retired life” but Robinson
runs away to sea; always feeling guilty and having, as it turns out,
plenty of time to reflect on his actions when he was shipwrecked. In
fact the book is heavy with religious guilt and it’s not easy reading
for today’s young person.
There’s not much redemption there, well, I couldn’t
find it. I would have liked to see some evidence of satisfaction for its
own sake, pride in a job well done, joie de vivre even: However, Crusoe
is dogged by uncertainty and frailty before a Greater power. Maybe it’s
that tension that gives the book its driving force, its undeniable
un-put-down-able quality. The logic of the 42 day board versus the
pit-saw and teamwork is undeniable and it leads to the sawmill – water
powered, then steam driven, then electrical and so on, and it’s called
Industry and everyone wants a bit of it, and there’s satisfaction there,
but does it go any deeper ? Cutting down a giant Californian redwood in
the early days must have been a great achievement, but when it becomes
an industrial process, and it’s Friday afternoon and you are looking at
the ground, cleared, except for a few branches, what then? Another job
well done? What does it really feel like if you care at all about nature
?
With the benefit of hindsight then, what can we say
about “Progress” ?
Is it the same as evolution? No.
Is it all bad? No, far from it.
Is it unavoidable? Is it “Going to happen anyway”? No
we can choose.
Is it irreversible? No, but some of the results of
our short-sightedness are.
Why is it that we have not learned to be sceptical as
the ideas have “rolled out” and the new products and organisations have
washed away what was there before? Babies and bathwater spring to mind
as I think of the eagerness with which politicians and businessmen of
all nations have welcomed the new with greedy self-righteousness and
hastened “progress” along; Thalidomide in the 50s, the arms race,
genocide etc. and now we find that global warming is advancing faster
than we had ever expected. It seemed like fun to put a man on the moon,
but is that a good enough reason for doing it when people are dying of
starvation on earth? I remember the question being asked at the time.
What have we discovered in our costly adventure in space that makes it
all worth while? Teflon? It seems to me that we have got to get to grips
with our usage of this planet as our researches show us conclusively
that this is all we have got. I’m not suggesting for a moment that we
should go back to the conditions of 300 years ago. I am concerned that
our society in the UK seems unable to tell the difference between
holistic, healthy and informed progress to a better life for all, and
progress which is an infernal and selfish race to get more for ourselves
while wasting more and more of nature’s bounty. I am suggesting that we
should stop and think and savour and digest what we have before barging
on towards the next glittering thing. We are not very good at this as
individuals and far less adept when acting as a mob. What would have
happened if respect for our environment and community and genuine
satisfaction in our work had been amongst the goals of the Industrial
Revolution rather than occasional or incidental by-products ? |
