Today, everybody is talking about `knowledge' workers in a `knowledge society'. If working with unskilled or skilled workers had been such a `pain' earlier, will working with `knowledge' workers be any different? Putting it bluntly, will the gains outweigh the pains? What are we in for? What proactive steps should we take to be ready for the future? How should we treat our knowledge workers? In his book, Brave New World (1932), Aldous Huxley visualized a world where human beings
will be produced in the laboratory as per given specifications. He suggested that humans will
be made of genetic-engineering techniques, techniques of mind control, along with eugenics,
to produce large number of human beings, with similar physical features, limited intellectual
potential and having identical mental make-up.
This will be done to ensure that they can carry
out heavy, unskilled or semi-skilled manufacturing activities, individually or in teams, for long
hours, to ensure the endless supply of mass-produced goods. They would be expected to remain
at the shop floor level throughout their lives, producing standardized goods by using machines
after receiving rudimentary training.
They would be so designed as to work without fatigue or frustrated boredom in the day and
relax in the evening with Soma and safe sex, so that they remain unconcerned about the higher
aspects of life or raise a demand that they be consulted on any issue, including those that
concern themselves vitally. They would not nurture any ambition and will neither feel bored nor
be. Political and social peace would prevail throughout the world. |
