Technology, Taylorism & Human Evolution

Considerations of the impact of industrial technologies are easy to find, but most of these are laudatory and generally focus on decreases in cost and increases in quantity, often overlooking the human impact and the significant problems that arise from uncritical overproduction - one of the specific critiques made in 1888 by Edward Bellamy in Looking Backward.

Early films like Fritz Lang's 1927 silent classic Metropolis demonstrate an early concern for the mechanizing impact of technology on human bodies as well as the efforts of owners to control workers via technological means. The contemporary relevance of Metropolis is suggested by its 2010 digital restoration.

Chaplin's semi-silent 1936 film Modern Times provides a more amusing reflection on the simultaneous mechanization of industry and man, as directed by owners and managers. Thought the film dialog could have been completely featured in sound, Chaplin choses to give only certain characters a voice - note who and reflect on the significance of this.



We've all enjoyed the bountiful (if often excessive) benefits of industrial production, but it's significant drawbacks have become normalized and its toll on us, invisible. As French philosopher Jacques Ellul notes in The Technological Society, the goal of technology is the precise, efficient result and the unpredictable embodied human must be subdued for this: "To the degree that technique must attain its result with mathematical precision, it has for its object the elimination of all human variability and elasticity." 


The connection to radio may be obvious, celebrating the variable and elastic nature of freeform radio, but a larger insight might be gained from brief reflection, at a greater distance, upon the history of our species. Technology has made our lives easier and more comfortable while simultaneously making us softer and less adaptable - and more rigid.

While forms, frameworks and systems are convenient technologies for organization and specific applications like mass production, they can become stifling bonds limiting creative exploration and problem-solving - like Blake's "mind-forged manacles" in his poem "Jerusalem."

While technologies have helped us to evolve, there may be a point at which our interaction with them is devolutionary, making us soft & unadaptable. Contemporary technological society requires increasing standardization and conformity on a variety of levels, but randomness, chance and mutation have been the drivers of human evolution - not predictable uniformity.

grassroots radio promotion

The useful "Best College Radio Stations" map in my previous posting is the work of a 26 year old radio activist and web developer named Sujay whose interest in the promise of non-commercial free-form radio was inspired by a move to the San Francisco Bay area where there are many creative, local stations ranging from KPFA's listener supported "free speech" radio at Berkeley to the more staid NPR clone KQED. 
When I asked Sujay what motivated his build of the site, he wrote "I've always sought out untainted sources of art and culture, and when I discovered college radio, I knew I found something great. I wanted an accessible map and playlist of the "best" stations and since I couldn't find them, I built them." 
When I asked whether the site included local community radio stations or if its focus was solely college radio. Sujay explained his rationale:"After initial research, it seemed like most 'community' stations relied on NPR broadcasts or were run by professional DJs.  I decided to limit the list to stations run by student volunteers. There are a lot of great stations that are not run by students, though, and that's why I'm working on a spin-off project right now that focuses on outstanding commercial-free radio shows from any station in the world."

This promising project may be part of the RADIOcollective grassroots work. From my brief email exchanges with Sujay, it seems that the value of promoting freeform radio is in its freedom for experimentation which is only possible with a freedom from regimentation. "To me, true freeform programming means that there are no rules. The DJ could broadcast static noise, satanic verses, or Top 40 hits. Obviously there are FCC guidelines, intellectual property restrictions, and hate speech regulations, but to me these are all forms of censorship."



Amen to that! In these days of homogenizing global consumer culture it is more crucial than ever to start creating our own. And when it comes to important issues, can't we find more serious moral considerations than whether or not someone has a potty-mouth?


Marlon Brando supplies a succinct analysis of our potty-mouth paranoia in his 
Colonel Kurtz monologue  from Apocalypse Now: “We train young men to drop fire on people but their commanders won’t allow them to write fuck on their airplanes because it’s obscene.” Is the broadcast of words like "fuck" and "shit" really a serious crime worthy of the significant legislative and enforcement costs involved? I wonder what the total annual cost would be?

Maybe the FCC's trivial obsession with taboo words is really just an effective distraction from their consistent promotion of media monopoly - just one more reason that grassroots radio is an increasingly important medium to use and support.

Radio & Resisting Regimentation

The image above is a map of The Best College Radio Stations courtesy of DJ Sujay of Radio Collective whose mission statement is well targeted for the promotion of genuine cultural creations rather than the mechanically produced programming that is the law in commercial radio.

"We believe that independent radio is an unparalleled source of music and cultural exchange. Our goal is to discover and share the most interesting radio shows in the world, with the world."

In the homogenized wasteland of commercial radio, there is some small degree of "programming diversity" but the spectrum is surprisingly narrow considering how much lip-service we give in America to creativity and freedom of expression. 

Jordan Page, artist, activist and social commentator, writes about this narrow spectrum of programming in his brief, cleverly titled essay "Homogenization of Radio: Let us all give thanks and pay grateful homage to Clear Channel" 

 "There are many systems of control that shape our lives in this great nation we call America. They govern our daily lives on most fronts, our political and spiritual views, but it is undeniably more personal when they attack a people's access to art by filtering and bottlenecking anything that does not fit perfectly into the mold."

There are almost 20 "morning zoo" radio shows still being aired even though this trite format has been regurgitated since the 1980's when it was considered a fresh approach being promoted by broadcasters like Glenn Beck. If you listen closely to their script, you are sure to recognize the zoo litany. 

How many dithering duos start our days with their inane banter and canned station slogans like "the 50-minute music hour?" or "the workforce block?" The subtext suggested by such standardized professional programming rhetoric seems designed for distracting or mollifying legions of cubicle-bound workers.

More about DJ Sujay, the Radio Collective and the crucial need for truly independent "freeform" programming in my next post.