Why the Machine Stopped
S. Cosburn Mortimer, research director of the Bankers' Alliance for Responsible Freedom, replies to St. Clair Carr's review of "The Machine Stops," and to Roland Barphe's reply to it.The other two reviews of "The Machine Stops" posted on this site are imbued with the worldview of academe. While the Bankers' Alliance for Responsible Freedom strongly believes that responsible academic study has much to offer the community, the view from the ivory tower, while panoramic, does not provide much detail. The point of academic discipline is to be out of the world, to be free of its strictures and limitations. The academician produces analyses which become useful when the more practical groups in society test them in the harsh laboratory of everyday life.
For a comprehensive view of society, then, we must look beyond the academy to the actual world in which things are done. Is that not the world with which "The Machine Stops" is concerned?
Forster's story is neither a technological prediction nor an anguished cry of despair. It is rather a fable which was intended to alert Forster's contemporaries to a looming social danger. The danger was eventually beaten back, but it has yet to be quelled, so Forster's fable is still instructive for us today.
In the 1920s the looming social danger was communism. When we look back at the writing of the period we are amazed to find how many intelligent people had been inflamed by the idea of class warfare. Many well-meaning people, although they did not want class warfare, nevertheless expected a class war to break out. Many well-meaning people did want class warfare.
Class warfare had of course resulted in the fall of the aristocracy in Russia. The Communist society of the Soviet Union was widely touted as a model for the world. And the Communists claimed that their society was scientific. They called themselves scientific socialists.
The key factor in Communism of course is the elimination of the free market. Forster's fable shows what happens when the free market is eliminated. In The Machine there is neither buying nor selling. People's wants are supplied automatically without any exchange of value. There is only one supplier, The Machine. The valuable spur of competition has been lost. There is no motivation to improve, to be efficient, to be better.
And what happens? First, musical programs become undependable. Then fruit becomes mouldy, bathwater starts to smell, and beds become inaccessible. And finally The Machine stops entirely.
What The Machine needed was a strong dose of competition. For example, the people could have deposited their savings with large competing companies who would have paid them a fee or interest so they could use that money to invest in profitmaking activities to benefit the community. The people would of course have had the option of withdrawing their deposits if they were unsatisfied with service or needed part of their savings to cover expenses, but charges would have been made for these services to make it clear to the community that every benefit is associated with costs.
When necessary to ensure competition on a wider scale, the companies could have merged to produce more dynamic entities. As competing investment groups supported a wide range of profitable and productive activities, The Machine would have become stronger instead of weaker!
Forster's story is a powerful demonstration of the folly of interfering in the free market. Its message is as pertinent today, when the formation of more competitive corporate entities is being thwarted by governments who prefer to play to popular sentiment. Forster's message is that the market is not a machine. It is a dynamic organism which requires the proper conditions to grow and prosper. We have been entrusted with the care of the market, and to keep it thriving we must ensure that no barriers are placed in the way of those who would create great competitive enterprises.
For links to more articles by S. Cosburn Mortimer, visit our Commentary page.
Why the Machine Stopped © John FitzGerald, 1999
Click the banner or click here for ACTUAL ANALYSIS
Reviews | Home