Is more and more really better and better?

When Thomas Newcomen invented the first functional steam engine in 1712, he had no idea what he had set in motion. His machine was a water pump and was used to pump water out of coal mines in England. More important for history is that he was the first one who used a fossil fuel to produce energy. Up to that point, it was human and animal muscle power that made things happen.

Coal became industry’s fuel of choice. It was abundant and folks did not seem too bothered with the black smoke that belched from furnaces of many different types. The benefits were enormous. Today, oil and gas are preferred, but the dynamics are the same. The burning of fossil fuels makes life easy for all and allows us to measure the good life by how much we have. We have become a consumer society because fossil fuels have supplied the muscle to do the work. This sounds very good until it is projected out to the modern world.

Machines driven by energy derived by burning some sort of fossil fuel have become incredibly efficient. Of course there are other sources of energy such as nuclear, flowing/falling water, wind, waves and solar, but the No. 1 source of energy for the world is the burning of fossil fuels. Apparently, there is nothing on the horizon that can deliver us from the burning of fossil fuels. Demand is growing too rapidly.

The burning of fossil fuels has transformed the value framework of the whole world. We have all been tricked into the idea that more is better. We can produce more and more products that people can buy that are seen as necessary or at least desirable. Under the more is better value system, we have created a monster that constantly cries out “feed me more!” We oblige by burning more fossil fuels to produce more stuff to meet appetites that can never be satisfied.

We are so addicted to the more is better formula that we cannot bring ourselves to face the pollution now engulfing our entire planet. We talk about bringing the fossil fuel monster under control, but the “undeveloped” world is crying out: “We want more too.”

There are a lot of people who are concerned about what is happening to our environment. However, my observation is that much of their concern is misguided. Deeply concerned people are making fossil fuels the central issue. The greater concern ought to be the rampant, addicting “more is better” value system that drives consumer appetites.

There is another developing dynamic that is even more deadly than our drive to despoil our earth. The dynamic can be illustrated by the manufacture of modern automobiles. Modern cars are marvels of technology. Autos are great machines. They are no longer built primarily by human beings, robots are doing the work. Robots are very good at what they do. They work 24 hours a day, receive no wages or benefits, no health or dental insurance, no vacation or retirement provisions, no wage negotiations and no threat of strikes. In the process, fewer and fewer workers are needed to produce a modern automobile. The downsized workforce is very skilled and is well paid, but the laid-off worker is sitting at home.

The dynamic set in motion by Newcomen is unrelenting. In his day, steam replaced human and animal muscle strength. Today, robots are replacing skilled mechanics. The next step has been set in motion. Computers are replacing managers and thinkers. Even in a “healthy” economy, the number of people who are unemployed is naggingly high. High technology is a destroyer of jobs. What Thomas Newcomen set in motion is marching through history not simply destroying the earth, waters and air of the world with pollution, but also the opportunities to pursue honest labor.

The future does not look good. The more-is-better dynamic is destroying our planet and loading the town square with people without jobs.

If Thomas Newcomen could come back and view what has happened, he could understandably shrug and say “unintended consequences,” and he would be quite correct. He intended nothing but good from his invention. I cannot hold him responsible for despoiling the earth and producing unemployment. I can call into question the “more-is-better” standard that the world has embraced. With what would I replace it? In the words of Jesus, I call for the establishment of justice and the reign of God on earth. In one word I call for “community” — community, where every person seeks the wellbeing of his human brother and sister and the kind treatment of the planet on which we live together.

Community need not be opposed to modern science and technology, but it must see everything through the eyes of common interest and the wellbeing of the whole. There is no more dangerous force in our world than the idea that more is better. If the world standard for the good life becomes community, the facing of pollution and unemployment becomes much more manageable.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.

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