Industrialism and Cultural Values

8/13/2019 Industrialism and Cultural Values

1/10

American Economic Association

Industrialism and Cultural ValuesAuthor(s): Harold A. InnisSource: The American Economic Review, Vol. 41, No. 2, Papers and Proceedings of the Sixty-third Annual Meeting of the American Economic Association (May, 1951), pp. 201-209Published by: American Economic AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1910794.

Accessed: 09/07/2013 15:42

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at.http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of

content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms

of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

American Economic Associationis collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The

American Economic Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 193.225.200.93 on Tue, 9 Jul 2013 15:42:08 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=aeahttp://www.jstor.org/stable/1910794?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/stable/1910794?origin=JSTOR-pdfhttp://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=aea


2/10

MODERN INDUSTRIALISM AND HUMAN VALUESINDUSTRIALISM AND CULTURAL VALUES

By HAROLD A. INNISUniversityof TorontoThe title of this paper, suggested by Professor F. H. Knight, impliesa contrast such as that suggested by his colleague Professor J. U. Nefin the use of the title Civilization and the United States. ProfessorKnight states in a letter that he has in mind the GermanBildung ratherthan Kultur. Bildung is defined as formation, form, fashion, shape,organization, constitution, education, cultivation, culture, civilization,and Kultur unfortunately as cultivation, culture, civilization. Adocument headed, An Appeal-a Challenge, sent out at an earlystage in the preparation of the program has the item, Industrialism(Capitalism) and Culture (high or low quality of civilization). How farand wherein 'materialistic' and 'vulgar.' Among Professor Knight'smany contributions he has developed the quotation mark to new levelsof usefulness.I must apologize for this excursion in semantics since it probablyreflects very recent and prolonged experience with a study of the im-portance of the meaning of words. I suspect, however, that the prob-lem of semantics suggested in the title of this paper is part of theproblem to be discussed in the paper. I can go further and suggest thatthe instructions sent out to readers of papers at these meetings regard-ing their length and the time allocated for reading reflect similarphasesof the problem.The demandsof industrialism n the form of time tablesand a printing budget will have their implications.If I may appeal toa directive, a volume of papers and proceedings of 704 pages, coveringtwenty-two sessions, assumesa maximumof 4,500 wordsfor each paperto be given in a maximumof thirty minutes, talking at the rate of notover 150 words per minute. We are faced immediately in this veryhall with the problemof the subject of this paper.The writer and reader of a paper who has artistic interests mustthink in terms of a relatively fixed medium; namely, a maximumof4,500 words in thirty minutes. The demands on artistic skill among

those concernedwith the field of economics implied in the writing ofsixty papers or more can be left to the imagination,particularly asmost of us have been trained in another medium; namely, the fifty orsixty minute lecture as part of a long series of lectures following ageneral pattern. Lest I should appear unfair in these remarks,I must

This content downloaded from 193.225.200.93 on Tue, 9 Jul 2013 15:42:08 PMAll use subject toJSTOR Terms and Conditions
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsphttp://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


3/10

202 AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATIONquote part of a handwritten note from the President in which his recog-nition of the limitation of machine industry or industrialism in a pro-gram of the American Economic Association is obvious: I'm notthinking in terms of scientific contributions on such subjects; only in-telligent stimulating discussions. The papers can be summarized forthe proceedings if the speakers don't think them finished enough forprinting as written. Finally, his concern with the problem explainsmy appearance on the program and I suspect his ultimate consent tobecome President of the Association.To quote again from his letters, he wanted a paper on the relationsbetween 'modernism' and 'culture' (cultivation not culture in the an-thropologist's sense).... The only difficulty will be that it's too easy.I wish this were true. In the first place, we must be aware of the ex-traordinary, perhaps insuperable, difficulty of assessing the qualityof a culture of which we are a part or of assessing the quality of a cul-ture of which we are not a part. In using other cultures as mirrors inwhich we may see our own culture, we are affected by the astigmia ofour own eyesight and the defects of the mirror, with the result thatwe are apt to see nothing in other cultures but the virtues of our own.During the twentieth century machine industry has made it possibleto amass enormous quantities of information evident in encyclopedias,histories of civilization, and quiz programs. The concern with the studyof civilization in this century is probably a result of the character ofour civilization. Certainly such studies reflect ourcivilization. Spengler,in The Decline of the West, could not have been uninfluenced by theposition of Germany, nor could Toynbee free himself from the tradi-tions of English-speaking countries, nor could Kroeber escape the in-fluences of the United States and the obsession with- the objectivequalities of science. I shall assume that culturalvalues-or the way inwhich or the reasonswhy people of a culture think about themselves-are part of the culture.It is perhaps a unique character of civilization that each civilizationbelieves in its uniqueness and its superiorityto other civilizations. In-deed this may be the meaningof culture; i.e., somethingwhich we havethat others have not. It is probably for this reason that writings onculture can be divided into those attempting to weaken other culturesand those attempting to strengthen their own. The emphasis of St.Augustine on original sin implied an attack on those representingthesecular state, as the emphasis of John Locke on the tabula rasa wasthe basis of an attack on ecclesiastical hierarchy, and the work ofSpencer on progress the basis for the supremacy of Anglo-Saxons.Reason is and ought only to be the slave of the passions and cannever pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them -a



4/10

MODERN INDUSTRIALISM AND HUMAN VALUES 203statement as true of this quotationand of Hume's writings as of others.Perhaps the obsession of each culture with its uniqueness is the ulti-mate basis of its decline. Dean Inge has remarkedthat civilization is adisease almost invariablyfatal unless the cause is checkedin time. TheHindus and the Chinese have survived by marking time.

A brief survey of cultural developmentin the West may indicate thepeculiarity or uniquenessof culture and elementswhich make for dura-tion and extension. Cultures will reflect their influence in terms ofspace and in terms of duration.How large an area did they cover andhow long did they last? The limitations of culture, in point of dura-tion, are in part a result of the inability to muster the intellectual re-sources of a people to the point that stagnation can be avoided andthat boredom can be evaded. The history of boredomor stagnationhasyet to be written, but it might well include the story of the ostracismof Aristides the Just on the ground that the Greeks became weary ofhearing him called the Just. Hume wrote that when the arts andsciences come to perfection in any state, from that moment, they nat-urally or rather necessarily decline and seldom or never revive in thatnation where they formerly flourished. Intense cultural activity isfollowed by fatigue.The facility of concentrating on intense cultural activity during ashort period of time and the capacity to mobilize intellectualresourcesover a vast territory assume to an important extent the developmentof armed force to a high state of efficiency.Cultural activity, evidentin architecture and sculpture, capable of impressing peoples within awide area, is designed to emphasize prestige. It becomes an index ofpower. A concern for continuity, the biological limitations of the pa-triarchal system as a basis for dynasties, and the difficulties of main-taining a high cultural level over a long period of time, will involvean emphasis on types of architecture calculated to reflecta controlovertime as well as over space. The pyramidswere an index of power overtime but dynasties represented by them were displaced and in turnnew dynasties concentrated on new monuments to enhance their pres-tige. Old capital sites scattered along the Nile Valley were a tributeto the demands of successive dynasties for prestige. The Egyptian em-pire was a tribute to their success. But such monuments as capitalswith tombs, palaces, temples, and sculpture were expensive and didmuch to bring the empireto an end. Politicalpowerreflected in capitalswas supported by such culturalactivities as writing evident in succes-sive bureaucracies.Civilization in the Tigris and Euphrates valleys developed along



5/10

204 AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATIONlines similar to that in the Nile but solutions to the problem of timeappear to have been reached before the problem of space and organizedforce became acute. Religious communities with hierarchical organiza-tions characterized Sumerian civilization, and while architecture de-pendent on bricks made from the clay of the delta regions became im-portant, writingon clay was a basis for communication,administration,and trade. Organized force represented by Sargon of the Akkadiansbrought religious communitiesunder controland with access to writingbecame the basis of a vast empire. With religion based on writing,Sumerian culture proved sufficiently strong to throw off control of aforeign ruler and to support a capital at Ur for a limited number ofdynasties. In turn this culture came under the control of fresh con-querors and a new capital of palaces and temples emerged at Babylon.The effectiveness with which control over time reflected in religion wasfused with control over space was evident in the long period in whichBabylon persisted as a capital under the Kassite dynasty.The success of organized force was dependent in part on technologi-cal advance-notably in early civilizations-in the use of the horse, thecrossing of the light African horse with the heavier Asiatic horse, andthe introduction of horse riding and cavalry to replace horse drivingand chariots, and the use of iron as a substitute for bronze. The Hit-tites with the use of iron succeeded in building an empire with acapital which emphasized sculpture and architecture but which waschecked on the south by Babylon and on the north and west by theGreeks with their control over the sea at Troy. They were followedby the Assyrians who exploited technological advance in warfare andmade fresh contributions to its development. With a new capital atNineveh they succeeded in offsetting the prestige of the Nile and ofBabylon and establishingan empireto include the civilizationsof both.Prestige was based not only on architectureand sculpturebut also onwriting. The library became a great instrument of imperial power andset an examplewhich has influencedthe history of the West until thepresent time. The concern of the Assyrian empire with the collectionof Sumeriandocumentsfor the libraryat Nineveh has been paralleledat Alexandria, Rome, Paris, Berlin, London,Moscow, and Washington.In Canadawe are attemptingto follow in our own way at Ottawa.TheAssyrians not only attempted to maintain their prestige by librariesbut also by developmentof a reputationfor warlike ferocity paralleledin this century. Failure of the Assyrian empirewas in part a result ofthe tenacity and diversity of civilizations in Babylon and Egypt.Persia succeeded where Assyria had failed by emphasizing the im-portance of a single capital by architecture and sculpture and theimportance of small capitals of districts or satraps governed from a



6/10

MODERN INDUSTRIALISM AND HUMAN VALUES 205center. The beginnings of the principle divide and rule were evidentin recognition of the religions of Babylon and Egypt and encourage-ment of the religionof the Hebrews at Jerusalem. But as in the case ofAssyria, the political organization of Persia was unable to meet thedemands of continuity.Political organizations determined to an important extent by thelimitations of armed force and characterizedby centralizedpower em-phasized the capital city and left their impress on cultural activity inarchitectureand sculpture. They emerged in land areas and extendedfrom the Nile Valley to Asia Minor. They provided a shelter for thedevelopmentof communicationfacilities and the growth of trade, suchas that of the Arameanson land and of the Phoenicians on the Medi-terranean. Communicationwas subordinatedto the demands of cen-tralized power in religion and in political organization and was char-acterizedby the use of the eye ratherthan the ear. The scribe occupieda strategic position in centralizedbureaucracies.

IIIn attempting to use other civilizations as mirrorsby which we mayunderstandour own, we are exposedto much greaterdangersin study-ing Greek culture and its successors since our own culture has beenprofoundly influencedby it. Civilizations of the Nile and Asia Minorhad a limited influenceon peoples among the north shore of the Medi-terranean.Minoan civilization was an attempt to encroach on the seawhich failed in the face of oppositionfrom the north. Mycenean civili-zation on the mainlandproved more adaptablebut in turn succumbed.The Greeks escaped the centralizing tendencies of river civilizationswith their effects on capitals, architecture,and sculptureand on writingwith its implications to bureaucracy.With settlements on the islandsand along the coast, civilization emphasizedcultural aspects suited tothe need of the Greeks. The oral tradition rather than writing pro-vided a basis for the epic and for literature designed to unite scatteredgroups in a consciousness of Greek culture. The alphabet borrowedfrom the Phoenicians was given vowels and adapted to the demandsof speech. The ear replaced the eye. With the spread of writing, theoral tradition developed fresh powers of resistance evident in theflowering of Greek culture in the sixth and fifth centuries. A concernwith the eastern concept of the capital was emphasizedin the age of

tyrants in the sixth century notably in Athens and in the fifth centurynotably in the Athenian empire. But as the epic and tragedy reflectedthe characterof Greekcivilization, so, too, did architecture and sculp-ture. After art had been toiling in India, in Persia, and in Egypt toproduce monsters, beauty and grace were discovered in Greece. (Sir



7/10

206 AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATIONJames Mackintosh) Nothing overmuch was a maxim which im-plied distrust of specializationin all phases of culturallife. Greekcul-ture was destroyedin the growthof writing and of individualismin thelatter part of the fifth century.The vitality of Greek culture was evident finally in the flowering ofmilitary skill in the conquests of Philip and Alexander. Greek culturewith its political organization reflected in the city-state came in con-tact with concepts peculiar to early civilizations and compromisedwith them in the Hellenistic kingdoms.The capital to a limited extentwas restored. In Egypt the Ptolemies established a new capital atAlexandriaand created a new deity to destroy the influenceof the oldcapital at Thebes, and built up a library to exploit the limitations ofAthens and to offset the influence of Babylon. At Pergamum,the At-talids developed a capital with a library designed to offset the prestigeof Alexandria. The Antigonids were eventually defeated by a revivalof Persiancivilization.In the west, along the north coast of the Mediterranean,Rome cameunder the cultural influence of Greece, and after destroying Carthage,which had inherited the commercialtraditions of Phoenicia, extendedher influence to the Hellenistic kingdoms to the east and to Spainand Gaul in the north and west. The influence of Egypt was evidentin the deification of the ruler, in the decline of the Roman Republicand the emergenceof the RomanEmpire, and in the increasingcentrali-zation of a bureaucracy.The attempt to offset the influence of Persiancivilization was evident in the orientalization of the emperors andeventually in the establishment of Constantinople as a capital to takeadvantageof the support of Hellenistic culture, includingChristianity.The inroads of the barbarianswere followed by the decline of Romeand the rise of Constantinopleas a political center. The difficultyofsubordinating cultural capitals with their roots in earlier civilizationsreflected in the religious controversies of the period led to the emer-gence of Rome as the religiouscapital of the West, and to the spreadof Mohammedanism n the East. With Mohammedanism,new capitalsarose at Baghdad and at Cordovain Spain. Access to a mediumotherthan papyrus and parchment,namely paper, enabled these centers tobuild up librariesand compelledConstantinopleto take a fresh interestin learning.In the West the Holy RomanEmpirebecame an institutiondesigned to strengthen the prestige of Rome. In turn the political in-fluence of Rome led to the increasingprestige of Paris as a theologicalcenter. The attempt of the papacy to recapture Jerusalem and theEastern church in the Crusades was followed by the growth of smallItalian city republics, notably at Venice, Florence, and Genoa. Thefinal collapse of Constantinople and of the Byzantine Empire follow-



8/10

MODERN INDUSTRIALISM AND HUMAN VALUES 207ing the use of artillery in 1453 brought new efforts to regain prestigein the East at Kiev and in the West at Paris.

The capitals of the northern Mediterraneanand Europe, while re-flecting the influence of the capitals of the Nile and the Tigris andEuphrates valleys, were dominated by the oral tradition of Greece.The absolute monarchy of Egypt and the East became the Romanemperor, the English Tudors, Louis XIV, and the Czars of Russia;and its culture was evident in the courts of Rome and Constantinople,London, Paris, and St. Petersburg. The city-state of Greece was re-vived in the city republics of Italy and Germany and in the renais-sance, and its influence softened the tyranny of the courts. In somesense the culture represented by the courts had solved the problemof time and space. The Byzantine Empire persistedas a unique achieve-ment in duration, and while the size of its territory fluctuated, itsachievement in the solution of problemsof space was scarcely less re-markable.Paris became the culturalcenter of the West, notably underLouis XIV, and the influence of the French court was evident in theEngland of Charles II, in the courts of Russia, and indeed whereverculture in the Western sense raised its head. Antwerp, Amsterdam,London, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Washington were in-fluenced directly and indirectly by the dominance of Paris. Frenchculture persisted after the revolution and after the occupation of therecent war, and survived the state. Like Paris, London became moredependent on cultural influence than on political organizationto referonly to the British Commonwealthof Nations.

IIIAfter a brief survey of earlier civilizations we can attempt an ap-praisal of the possibilities in terms of durationand extent of our own

civilization. We have emphasizedthe significanceof communication ndeterminingthe characteristics of earlier civilizations and of changesin methods of communication.The discovery of printing in the middleof the fifteenth century implied the beginning of a return to a type ofcivilization dominated by the eye rather than the ear. With printingand an increase in the use and manufacture of paper, Germancitiesstrengthenedtheir position and facilitated a break from the ChurchinHolland, Germany,and England. Their advance was registeredin theconcern for the word of the Bible, the Reformation, and the rise ofProtestantism. The full impact of printing did not become possibleuntil the adoption of the Bill of Rights in the United States with itsguaranteeof freedomof the press. A guaranteeof freedom of the pressin print was intended to further sanctify the printed word and to pro-vide a rigid bulwark for the shelter of vested interests. Printing as-



9/10

208 AMERICAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATIONsumed mass productionor reproductionof words, and once it escapedfrom the pattern of the parchment manuscript, it compelled the pro-duction of vast quantities of new material, including material to meetthe demands of science and technology. Improvement of communica-tion hastened the developmentof markets and of industry.The indus-trial revolutionfollowed the printing industry and in turn in the nine-teenth century with the use of steam power in the manufacture ofpaper and of printed material, supportedrapid expansion of the print-ing industry.We are perhaps too much a part of the civilization which followedthe spread of the printing industry to be able to detect its character-istics. Education, in the words of Laski, became the art of teachingmen to be deceived by the printed word. But there are unmistakeablesigns that this is a civilization which partakes of the character ofcivilizations in its belief in its uniqueness and superiority over othercivilizations. We are all familiar with the claims of the printing in-dustry to the effect that it has ushered in a new and superior civiliza-tion. No other civilization, we are told, has enjoyed our advantages.Democracy, education, progress, ndividualism,and other blessed wordsdescribe our new heaven. At this point the water becomes swift and weare in grave danger of being swept off our feet by the phenomenonweare describing. We are in danger on the one hand of losing our ob-jectivity and on the other hand of being placed under arrest. Freedomof the press has been regarded as a great bulwark of our civilizationand it would be dangerous to say that it has become the great bul-wark of monopolies of the press. Civilizations have their sacred cows.The middle ages burned its heretics and the modern age threatensthem with atom bombs.I have no preferences for martyrdom even to the extent of beingrefused admission to the United States and perhaps I should go nofurther. But I must venture concluding remarksin the hope that I maymeet the President's interest in stimulating discussion. In contrastwith the civilization dominated by Greek culture with its maxim,nothing in excess, modern civilization dominated by machine in-dustry is concerned always with specialization, which might be de-scribed as always in excess. Economics, beginning with Adam Smith,and indeed other social sciences have an obsession with specialization.Specializationand industrialismsupport an emphasis on equality. Aninterest in material goods which characterized the Scottish people asrepresented notably by Adam Smith has been followed by an attitudedescribed by Samuel Butler: All progress is based upon a universalinnate desire on the part of every organismto live beyond its income.The concern with specializationand excess-making more and better



10/10

MODERN INDUSTRIALISM AND HUMAN VALUES 209mousetraps-precludes the possibility of understanding a precedingcivilization concerned with balance and proportion.Industrialismim-plies technology and the cutting of time into precise fragments suitedto the needs of the engineerand the accountant. The inability to escapethe demands of industrialism on time weakens the possibility of anappraisalof limitations of space. Constant change in technology, par-ticularly as it affects communicationas a crucial factor in determiningcultural values (for example, in the development of radio and tele-vision), increases the difficulties of recognizing balance, let aloneachievingit.The cultural values of an industrial society are not the culturalvalues of other societies. The equation of ethical values between cul-tures is possibly more difficultthan the equation of other values, thoughProfessor V. GordonChilde has described the implicationsof culturalchange in fields of such abstraction as mathematics. Dean Inge hasreminded us that the outburst of rich artistic activity in Greece co-incided with a decline in the status of women. The extreme sensitivityof modern civilization (for example, in the attitude toward cruelty toanimals and the extreme insensitivity toward unbelievable cruelty tohuman beings) has synchronizedwith the complete collapse of spon-taneous and unconsciousartistic production.Anthropologists-notably Pitt-Rivers-have explored the dangersof the intrusion of one culture on other cultures. Historians have com-mented on the unsatisfactoryresults which followed the importationofthe parliamentary system to the European Continent. The disasterswhich overtook North American civilization following the coming ofEuropeans have been described at length. The disturbances whichhave characterizeda shift from a culture dominated by one form ofcommunicationto another culture dominatedby another form of com-munication,whether in the campaignsof Alexander,the Thirty Years'War, or the wars of the present century, point to the costs of culturalchange. The impact of Point Four on other cultures-the clash of so-called backward and so-called forward countries-involve suchunpaid costs as the enormous loss of life directly through war andindirectly through cultural change. The spread of communism fromFrance to Russia and China is a further illustration of the instabilityof Western civilization. Stability which characterizedcertain periodsin earlier civilizations is not the obvious objective of this civilization.Each civilization has its own methods of suicide.

Documents

Industrialism and Cultural Values