"We have increased and developed our technical ability to a degree which appears almost fantastic, and yet man has not become richer thereby; on the contrary he has become poorer. Our whole industry is in a state of constant insecurity. And while billions of wealth are criminally destroyed in order to maintain prices, in every country millions of men live in the most frightful poverty or perish miserably in a world of abundance and so-called "overproduction." The machine, which was to have made work easier for men, has made it harder and has gradually changed its inventor himself into a machine who must adjust himself to every motion of the steel gears and levers. And just as they calculate the capacity of the marvellous mechanism to the tiniest fraction, they also calculate the muscle and nerve force of the living producers by definite scientific methods and will not realise that thereby they rob him of his soul and most deeply defile his humanity. We have come more and more under the dominance of mechanics and sacrificed living humanity to the dead rhythm of the machine without most of us even being conscious of the monstrosity of the procedure. Hence we frequently deal with such matters with indifference and in cold blood as if we handled dead things and not the destinies of men."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Social activistsImmigrants to the United StatesSocial anarchistsHistorians from GermanyNon-fiction authors from Germany
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Ch. 15 "Nationalism — A Political Religion"
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rudolf_Rocker
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Rudolf Rocker
Rudolf Rocker (25 March 1873 – 19 September 1958) was an anarcho-syndicalist anarchist, writer, historian and prominent social activist. He was the partner of Milly Witkop.
40 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Rudolf Rocker →
Related Quotes
"For two decades the supporters of Bolshevism have been hammering it into the masses that dictatorship is a vital nece…"
"I am an Anarchist not because I believe Anarchism is the final goal, but because there is no such thing as a final goal."
"The deeper we trace the political influences in history, the more are we convinced that the "will to power" has up to…"
"Every process which arises from our physical being and is related to it, is an event which lies outside of our voliti…"
"However fully man may recognise cosmic laws he will never be able to change them, because they are not his work. But …"
"No thinking man in this day can fail to recognise that one cannot properly evaluate an historical period without cons…"
"The will to power which always emanates from individuals or from small minorities in society is in fact a most import…"
"The view which sees in every capitalist only a profit machine may very well meet the demands of propaganda, but it is…"
"Because of his social position there are left no limits to the power lust of the modern capitalist. He can interfere …"
"For the machine, because of the way it is built, can work only in a given direction, no matter who pulls its levers."