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- Title
The criticism of modern civilization.
- Authors
Mitchell, Wesley C.; Rutherford, Malcolm
- Abstract
The article comments on the salient characteristic by which modern civilization is differentiated most clearly from the civilization of earlier ages and of other peoples is its industrial efficiency. Industrial processes are organized and carried on in a fashion which differs from that of other cultural epochs in somewhat the same fashion that the power-loom differs from the hand loom. For the business enterprise typical of today organized as a joint-stock company, on a capitalistic basis, managed by salaried officials, manned by wage-earners most of whom remain such all their lives, controlled by means of elaborate accounting, and related in intricate ways to other business enterprises which provide materials and equipment, buy products, transport goods and lend it credit-this business enterprise is vastly larger, more complex and more efficient than its predecessors, and is driven moreover by a stronger motive power-the quest of money profits as opposed to the quest of a livelihood. Criticisms of civilization, like all criticisms, logically imply the existence of some standard in the critics mind-some criterion by which civilization or certain of its phases are weighed or measured, and with reference to which a judgment is expressed.
- Subjects
MODERN civilization; MANUFACTURING processes; INDUSTRIAL efficiency; BUSINESS enterprises; CRITICISM; MANUFACTURED products
- Publication
Journal of Economic Issues (Association for Evolutionary Economics), 1995, Vol 29, Issue 3, p663
- ISSN
0021-3624
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1080/00213624.1995.11505703