Wednesday 5 August 2020

human resources as social engineering

How can you 'engineer' people?

A lot of it is about manipulation, one way or another:

The education system helps:

After all, humans are considered to be 'resources':

Here's an excellent and provocative documentary from Metanoia Films directed by Scott Noble, which looks at the issues:

 
 
HUMAN RESOURCES Social Engineering In The 20th Century HQ FULL - YouTube

With more here:
Human Resources Documentary (2010) - Quotes - IMDb
Human Resources - Top Documentary Films
“Human Resources” by Scott Noble // Skilluminati Research
Human Resources: Social Engineering in the 20th Century (Documentary)

The director has done other films:
The Power Principle - An Interview with Filmmaker Scott Noble

Here are some notes:
2010 documentary, "Human Resources" - outline/partial transcript [1 of 3] : DarkFuturology
2010 documentary, "Human Resources" - outline/partial transcript [part two] : DarkFuturology

And here are some further notes of key points from the documentary:

"If there is a devil in history, it is the power principle." Mikhail Bakunin
Cultural Criminology: An Invitation - Jeff Ferrell, Keith Hayward, Jock Young - Google Books

John B Watson was the founder of Behaviourism:
Behaviorism | Simply Psychology
John B. Watson - Wikipedia

"The driving force in society is fear":
Human Resources: Social Engineering in the 20th Century

Rebecca Lemov wrote the "World as Laboratory" about the remodelling of society on scientific principles:
Deeply researched, World as Laboratory tells a secret history that’s not really a secret. The fruits of human engineering are all around us: advertising, polls, focus groups, the ubiquitous habit of “spin” practiced by marketers and politicians. What Rebecca Lemov cleverly traces for the first time is how the absurd, the practical, and the dangerous experiments of the human engineers of the first half of the twentieth century left their laboratories to become our day-to-day reality.

BF Skinner said behaviour is predictable - and was particularly interested in operant conditioning:
B.F. Skinner | Operant Conditioning | Simply Psychology

George Ritzer has written on "The McDonaldization of Society" and behaviour modification
The McDonaldization of Society: Into the Digital Age 9th Edition CTQL - EbookEV - Selling Ebook store
McDonaldization Theory of George Ritzer - YouTube
McDonaldization of Society - George Ritzer - YouTube

Morris Berman looked at this in his "The Re-enchantment of the World":
The Reenchantment of the World: Morris Berman: 9780801492259: Amazon.com: Books
Morris Berman - Wikipedia

The eugenics movement and enforced sterilisation was very powerful in the the 1930s: 

Rockefeller invested $$$$$ 1929...

FW Taylor and Scientific Management is central:

Adam Smith warned about the Division of Labour as deskilling + control of decisions over work:
Smith recognized the potential problems of this development. He pointed out that forcing individuals to perform mundane and repetitious tasks would lead to an ignorant, dissatisfied work force.

More on job (dis-)satisfaction: Harold Sheppard and Neal Herrick: "Where have all the robots gone?":

But Lenin preferred Tayorism to Factory Councils:

But the anarchist Mikhail Bakunin did not:

An alternative would be the Participatory Economy:

John Taylor Gatto in "Dumbing us Down" is not impressed by what the education system does to us: 

His middle name is 'Taylor' - as in F W Taylor:

The American Horace Mann brought the Prussian model to Massachusetts in 1852, as a model of how to scientifically engineer schools to produce human resources:

The Gary Plan brought Scientific Management into education in 1900:

The educationalist Alfie Kohn challenges much of this:
Kohn's challenges to widely accepted theories and practices have made him a controversial figure, particularly with behaviorists, conservatives, and those who defend the practices he calls into question, such as the use of competition, incentive programs, conventional discipline, standardized testing, grades, homework, and traditional schooling.[2]

And so we get into the area of 'natural evolution'...

Charles Darwin stated that natural selection does not demand competition:

Herbert Spenser gave us social Darwism and the idea of the 'survival of the fittest'

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