“Machinery and Labour”

1997 Stapledon, [William] Olaf (1886-1950). “Machinery and Labour.” In An Olaf Stapledon Reader. Ed. Robert Crossley (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1997), 169-174. First publication of a talk given on the BBC in 1934. Published from Stapledon’s handwritten copy in the BBC Archive. PSt

The talk begins with a critique of how machinery has been used within capitalism to benefit the few and produce miserable lives for the many. It then turns to a description of the life that could be created for all if machinery, largely automated, were used to benefit everyone. Most people work very short hours but have been educated to get the best out of their leisure time and “how to think critically and fearlessly, how to play an intelligent and responsible part in the  great common enterprise of maintaining a truly human and civilized world-society” (173). Routine work is done by machinery but there is much handcrafted goods available.