Technocracy movement

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The Technocracy movement (or Technocracy Incorporated), founded in 1918 as "The Technical Alliance" and incorporated in 1933 as "Technocracy Incorporated" was (and, surpisingly enough, still is) a weird movement which flourished briefly during the Great Depression, advocating the merger of all of North and Central America into one nation, the "North American Technate," to be ruled by scientists and engineers replacing politicians.[note 1] Existing currencies were to be replaced by the "erg", the centimeter-gram-second (CGS) unit of energy.
The movement's founder was Howard Scott, an engineer who was later accused of exaggerating his academic credentials.[note 2] Marion King Hubbert, later known for his geoscience work for Shell Oil and his Hubbert's Peak Theory, was an early supporter and the main author of its study course.[1][2]
The movement's fondness for matching red and grey uniforms and militaristic fleets of grey vehicles brought it under great suspicion, given the rise of fascism in Europe in the 1930s. A newspaper article from 1942 claimed that the movement had "the tone of an incipient Fascist movement".[3] In 1942, Technocracy was described as propagandistic and an incipient fascist group.[4][5] The reasons why the movement were both symbolic (driving in identical gray cars, gray uniforms and replacement of member names with number-letter codes) and rhetorical (advocating an end to democracy, replaced by oligarchic technocrats).[5] Following the Pearl Harbor attack, Scott suggested that he become the continental dictator.[5]
Elon Musk's maternal grandfather (whom Musk cites as inspirational), Joshua Haldeman, was a prominent member in Canada (Haldeman was also a racist and antisemite).[5] In 1940, Haldeman was arrested and convicted of "distributing and publishing documents likely or intended to interfere with the efficient prosecution of the war, and likely to cause disaffection to His Majesty", one of three convictions that Haldeman had in connection with the movement.[5] Unusually, Haldeman, who was born in the United States, was blocked from entry into the US in 1940, where he was to give a speech (Haldeman would normally have retained US citizenship by birth).[5]
Haldeman's movement name was "10450-1", another member's name was "1x1809x56",[5] which sounds a lot like some of Musk's children's names.
Many of Scott's predictions of economic doom failed to materialize and membership dropped after 1948 during much internal dissent. The movement survived, a shadow of its former self, and Technocracy Inc. still exists today with a small presence on the Internet, promoting itself as "Functional Governance for North America."
See also[edit]
- The Venus Project — founded in 1975, a more New Agey sort of movement with some similarities
External links[edit]
- Technocracy Inc.'s official website
- Technocracy Vancouver - Technocracy's Canadian branch
- Technocracy Wiki
- Technocracy Links - An informal (and unofficial) list of Technocracy related sites.
- "Technocracy Study Course Unabridged" (at the Internet Archive)
- "Operation Columbia" - YouTube Video of an official Technocracy Inc. film from 1947
- "Technocracy: Howard Scott Q&A - Detroit" - YouTube video of a 1951 presentation by Technocracy's founder
- "Technocracy Incorporated" - Repository of technocratic information contaning documents in various formats
References[edit]
- ↑ Technocracy Wiki: Marion King Hubbert
- ↑ Technocracy Pictures Archive: Marion King Hubbert
- ↑ Joshua N Haldeman, DC: The Canadian Years, 1926-1950 (1995) J. Can. Chiropr. Asso. 39(3):172-186.
- ↑ Technocracy Springs to Life With Big Splurge of Publicity by John C. Rogers (March 18, 1942) Buffalo Evening News, page 37.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Elon Musk’s Anti-Semitic, Apartheid-Loving Grandfather: The billionaire has described his grandfather as a risk-taking adventurer. A closer read of history reveals something much darker. by Joshua Benton (September 20, 2023) The Atlantic.
Notes[edit]
- ↑ Fans of Sonic the Hedgehog might have alarm bells going off in their heads (mostly regarding a certain maniacal egg-shaped scientist) upon reading this.
- ↑ We'd say we're surprised, but we'd be lying.