BlackEconomics.org®
Why are Black Americans so wedded to a system that is speaking clearly to us in no uncertain terms that “technology” in all its forms is preeminent, and that technology is likely to render us “null and void” or nonexistent?
Let us be clear: BlackEconomics.org is not averse to technology, and that we do not reject it out of hand. Clearly, technology has and can have many positive/favorable applications. We believe that study of STEMAIR (science, technology, Mathematics, artificial intelligence, and robotization) fields is very important because of the technological innovations that they produce. However, in the spirit of Afrikan traditions, we suggest the following approach when deciding on technology adoption.
First, fully comprehend the true nature of technological innovations, the most important of which is to have complete cognizance—to the extent possible—of long-term implications linked to innovations.
Second, always consult the elders and young and old experts for their wisdom about innovations and their likely long-term impacts if and when adopted.
Third, before adoption, ensure that estimates of benefits and costs are prepared and used in decision making. The estimates should reflect reasonable confidence intervals and should be of a relevant long-term duration.
Finally, decisions to adopt technological innovations should hinge on a basic and fundamental fact about which there is no doubt: Planet Earth is the likely only long-term home of most humans. Therefore, adoption of technological innovation should in no way jeopardize the smooth and proper functioning of Earth as a complete and self-contained atmospheric, material, and ecological system.
Where are the citations for this four-part decision-making process? We must plead ignorance concerning the answer to this question; we are not fully aware of all ancient text that might provide a direct answer to the question. However, what we know about the history of Earth’s crises that ended in the extinction of numerous species (namely the most recent Ice Age), is that they were caused by naturally occurring phenomena (in the case of the Ice Age, a meteorite is hypothesized), not by the intentional intervention of species recognized as humans’ predecessors. That is, from the arising of our human predecessors until today, we know of no major disaster that created planet-wide unlivable conditions.
History and science tell us that the first human-like creatures originated in what is known today as Afrika and that these Afrikans developed a full complement of requirements to support favorably functioning social systems: Economies sufficient to supply human needs, governance systems, art, health science to heal, and physical and material sciences to include the calendar, navigation, engineering, etc. The fact that the chain of human-like life has been unbroken for 300 thousand years or more means that Afrikans developed methods of life that were successful in preserving our Earth home. Not only that, but wherever we go today and find newly identified indigenous people, they all possess cultures that emphasize respect for, and preservation of, the physical environment. Therefore, it is logical to conclude that Afrikans were cautious conservers and preservers of the Earth environment.
However, after Europeans emerged on the world scene a few hundred years before the Christian Era and obtained a glimpse of the beauty and culture that already existed to the south and east, their lust for power and wealth began to turn humans’ tenure on Earth in a different direction. Admittedly, Europeans’ subsequent efforts to dominate the world were interrupted temporarily. However, by the end of the 15th century and the onset of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, global European domination was well under way, and it produced conditions for growth and innovations that now have our world on the very brink of climatological disaster.
The European mindset is pseudo-scientific in nature and results from historical experiences that infer that innovation (including today’s technology) can provide adequate responses to all problems. Couple this mindset with the fact that European oligarchs and plutocrats (the one percent of the one percenters) at the top of global systems possess an insatiable appetite for wealth and power. In combination, these conditions have produced a scenario in which technological innovations will be employed ubiquitously to attempt to produce maximum wealth and power without regard to human suffering or Earth’s destruction. These oligarchs and plutocrats have concluded that in a best-case scenario they will find the secret of life and live forever with an unlimited capacity to enjoy pleasurable consumption. In a worst-case scenario, if things go awry, then they will heap technology on problems that surface. And if technology is unsuccessful in resolving problems, then the oligarchs and plutocrats and those they select will simply retire to their safe havens in the ocean, deep in the Earth, circling above the Earth, or in outer space.
The oligarchs and plutocrats view Black America as benign and problematic. Benign if we continue to be programmed like the remainder of society and concede unconsciously to the adoption of technological innovations that render us, like most others, null and void as a threat to their power and control. Problematic if we continue to arise in wokeness and fight for Reparations and reject technological innovations intended to make us nearly useless creatures on a planet that our ancestors were the first to occupy and who preserved it till now.
Black America’s increasing wokeness and thrusts for justice since the onset of the Civil Rights Era has caused oligarchs and plutocrats to use governments, enterprises, and institutions that they control and a wide range of technology and innovations to: (1) Exploit us as labor, innovators, consumers, and taxpayers to increase their wealth and power; (2) reduce our population growth methodically with the intent to ultimately cause outright reductions in our population; and (3) to transform our very nature (mentally and physically) making us less willing and fit to fight effectively to disrupt the plans of oligarchs and plutocrats to destroy us as a people.
Nevertheless, Black Americans have choices to avoid walking into the cleverly designed, developed, and disguised “gas chambers” of the 21st century. Specifically, we should extend due consideration to the Long-Term Strategic Plan for Black America (and/or its executive summary), which does not promise miracles, but provides systematic short and long-term strategies that, when executed properly, can and will save us from the disastrous outcomes that confront us today.
B Robinson
081823