The Factory of Society

Before factories came along, things were usually produced entirely by someone alone. From the beginning of the process, all the way to the end, one person made the whole thing. This made for experienced and knowledgeable craftsmen who knew everything about what they made. They were generalists who knew how to do many things.

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But as we became more technological, things changed. Fast forward to about the time of the industrial revolution and we diverge from being generalists. In order to produce more, and quicker, factories started to make people into specialists of constructing a single aspect of the larger whole. Rather than build the whole product themselves, a person would only deal with one component in factory line. Each person played a role in building the whole product, but they only knew how to build there one section of the whole product. This was the introduction of specialization into the mainstream.

Specialization makes things more efficient in the larger social context where we cooperate. Imagine trying to do everything yourself. That's why factories in the industrial revolution boomed because they separated tasks into parts which made things go quicker and got more done.

Specialization was increased in various areas of society. Different types of industry employed specialization, and workers became specialized into one field, experts in one field to accomplish a specific task. Specialization brought about a greater split from generalization and being capable of doing many things related to a product or industry.

Compartmentalization also developed, as someone works only in one compartment within a company. They may or may not know what other compartments do, or how they do what they do. All an employee in one compartment needs to know is how to do what they do in their own respective compartment. This was an especially favorably method for areas of secrecy, be it in companies or in government sectors.

Compartmentalization also allows ignorance to perpetuate, as people are forced to be ignorant of what happens in the larger picture, and only see the part they play. This can allow the heads of a company or governmental institution that engages in secrecy to employ people who don't know what they are working towards in the end. They can be involved in building things that they might object to if they were building it all on their own or if they knew what it was.

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This model of efficiency by segmenting people into specialized tasks or parts has been replicated to all of society. Society operates like a factory now.

The factory of society has us all outsource various aspects of our lives for others to do instead of us doing it all. It makes things more convenient, but it also brings with it more co-dependence on each other to get things. We are all human resources, parts of a larger whole, united by our dependence upon each other, even if we don't know each other for the most part.

The system is more functional now, with experts in various parts. We all act as cogs in a machine. If one cog fails, then another can replace it to keep the systemic machine running. We are mostly all replaceable and expendable in a corporate "slave" structure. No longer is one person the whole builder, and without them the thing can be built or service can't be provided. We have value to do the work requested, value to the corporate overlords and to the system as a cog, but we can all be replaced with someone else who specializes as we do.

Many people find specialization boring as they focus on one thing for too long. Their specialized careers are a routine of doing the same thing and this gets mundane and loses meaning and value for them personally. They do their jobs because they get pain for economic survivability. We stick with out boring jobs because we need to in order to survive.

Technology has helped us get to where we are, and it has greatly benefited us all. But there are costs that we don't really notice, costs to our way of life and self-sufficiency. We have more pollution, waste and toxins in our environment as a result of this boom in technology and production from the industrial revolution. We are more dependent on each other.

Think of the fickleness of our economic system and transportation. If we have an economic crash, or fuel shortage, transportation costs are affected, and so too are all the products we import, such as food for our survival. The way we live and exploit this planet isn't sustainable, but we keep going at it because that's what we know how to do and we are now dependent on keeping things going this way for things to stay as they are.

At some point things will have to change, and that may involve a lot of suffering for many of us. I hope the technological developments will help to allow us to change from our way of life. Solar power is one area that can help us greatly.

We have also outsourced our thinking and become more dependent on technology to provide us with answers. There is so much information, that many don't want to try to wade through and figure out what is going on in our world. Information overload has them apathetic to wanting to learn more. They end up coasting through low quality information and entertainment to distract them and remove the boredom from the jobs they do 5 days a week.

Looking deeper into things has become less desirable, as it's a chore that takes time, energy and greater effort compared to the distractions they prefer to focus their attention on. Many think that if they need to know something, they can just look it up on google and their trusted sources and experts will give them the answer they need.

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Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.

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