Technocracy

**Technocracy** is a system of government or control in which leaders are appointed on the basis of their supposed scientific or technical knowledge. Those who lead such a system are called **technocrats**, and the National Institute of Co-ordinated Experiments would qualify as such. This system explicitly contradicts representative democracy, i.e. the notion that ordinary people can select their leaders.

The idea is partly influenced by Plato's *Republic* and the idea of "philosopher kings" (as opposed to Fisher Kings), but with a modern twist. A technocracy can also be run by pseudoscientists, or those whose scientific interests are subjective and selective.

Support of technocracy has increased in response to the internet and other information technology, and also environmental concerns (although they themselves arise out of an abuse of science in the first place). Technocrats are often as interested in scientism (a misrepresentation of scientific values) as science itself, and opposed to liberal democracy in its true forms.

## The Space Trilogy and The Dark Tower

in writing The Space Trilogy, Lewis was making a critique of the technocratic-minded science fiction of the likes of H.G. Wells (parodied as Horace Jules in the third novel), Olaf Stapledon and so on. Lewis was particularly critical of how Stapledon felt that emotions such as pity should be scientifically eliminated for the furtherance of the human race, that any primitive Hnau should be wiped our or Wells' notion that religion should be eliminated by force and repression. Dr. Edward Rolles Weston and Richard Devine both represent the worst kind of technocrats - in *Out of the Silent Planet*, their aim is a form of pseudoscientific colonialism, and to exploit the Sun's blood on the planet. In Perelandra, Weston is more spiritual but after becoming the Un-man falls under the control of dark forces. In *The Dark Tower*, allegedly by Lewis, the criticism of technocracy is less obvious but the Jerkies are a clear metaphor for the forces of Hitler and Stalin, whose regimes made a pretence towards some level of technocracy.

As one blog puts it:

"*N.I.C.E. is a powerful expression of the type of scientific technocracy which denies God, Christ, and in a real sense even humanity in order to gain greater control over man, nature, and society. At its deepest levels, N.I.C.E. is downright Satanic, and the reader understands that Lewis believed much of modernity to be Antichristian in the biblical sense.*"
Because of these concerns, Lewis has been criticised for being anti-science (a charge he himself denied), and a Mediaevalist Reactionary wishing to return to an unobtainable and non-existent past, and that element is personified by Mr. Bultitude, Pinch, and Merlinus Ambrosius in *That Hideous Strength*.

## The ideal vs the reality

Ideally, such decision-makers are selected on the basis of specialised knowledge and performance, rather than their political affiliations, personal morality/integrity, personality or parliamentary skills. But that would be the ideal, and not the reality of such a system. Supporters often claim such leaders would be chosen by ability and knowledge, but as C.S. Lewis points out, this is not necessarily the case, and that the "wrong sort of scientist" can be excluded from such a system if they disapprove of the establishment viewpoint as William Hingest does in *That Hideous Strength*. In Lewis' view, a technocracy is liable to coruption and even physical repression e.g. Institutional Police, if it is either godless or lacks guiding morality. Lewis as such is not against science itself, but the abuse of it by people either working in the scientific field or those administering science from without.

The term *technocracy* was originally used to signify the application of the scientific method to solving social problems - this is again shown in its perversion by the N.I.C.E. In its most extreme sense technocracy is an entire autocratic government running society as a kind of technical or engineering problem and is mostly hypothetical. A government in which elected officials delegate approved scientists, doctors and psychologists to administer individual government functions and recommend legislation can also be considered technocratic, such as many world governments during the Covid crisis who handed over control of society and economy to advisory groups mainly consisting of behavioural psychologista and some other doctors. It also applies to governments who wish to realign their society towards the so called Fourth Industrial Revolution, which consists of continuous mass surveillance, genetic engineering, transhumanist elements and possibly even future weather modification. Some uses of the word refer to a form of meritocracy, where the ablest are in charge, ostensibly without the influence of special interest groups, but again this is an ideal and impossible to mitigate for, since such a government will need funding, probably from corporate sources and the protection of the security services and military like any other.

Technocratic elements in modern society endorse forms of penalisation of those who do not comply with their suggestions - Communist (or quasi-Communist) countries such as the USSR and PRC presented themselves as semi-technocracies where society and agriculture is ordered along logical lines, but again the reality was/is quite different, with tens of millions dying aa a result. Certainly in a technocracy, those in charge *will* likely consider themselves the best, whether they are is a different matter. Supporters of technocracy such as H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw and J.B.S. Haldane were all willing to turn a blind eye to the atrocities, failures and human rights abuses under Stalin, demonstrating how dangerous such thinking can be.

As one blog puts it:

" *of modernity to be Antichristian in the biblical sense.*"

## References

1. ↑ https://thereformingtrombonist.com/2015/11/25/great-books-c-s-lewiss-space-trilogy/