Why Modern Systems Dehumanize people
Irrational and inconsiderate human behavior is a form of resistance to the social forces of dehumanization. Modern systems seem to actually work together (intentional or not) to create a sense of rootlessness among the population—what we now called the masses. Possibly this was an unintended consequence that stemmed from the need to maximize worker portability in the industrializing economy. Some say that the unintended consequence is
It was important during the industrialization process that the workers could easily be available in the places where the modernizing economy demanded. Even the most radical among us, although they would not admit it, still are affected by mainstream modes of thought. Conditioned from birth to emulate certain models of thought and action, we grow attracted to the icons of our age. We associate these icons with the quality of the life and the freedoms that we appreciate in America: the automobile and the single family home, the television, the automobile and the American drag, etc, etc. Such modern cultural and social trends worked in a synergetic way to maximize portability and efficiency for the industrial machine, successfully and pervasively working their way into our consciousness. This happened because our cultural consciousness was affected not so much by the allure of capitalism, but by the allure that those who were motivated by capitalism to create extremely powerful mechanisms of persuasion.
While the short term economic success of these unprecedented changes in human society was irrefutable, the longer term social, cultural and environmental impact of these changes were eroding the human psyche in some subtle ways, as well as undermining the stability and the reliability of the social, economic and environmental systems that we depend upon for our well being.
Corporatism is one aspect of the modern condition which many dehumanizing attributes, yet it is thought of vital to sustaining our prosperity and affluence. Hence we might say that the price of modern affluence and progress is that we are dehumanized or reduced to automatons by corporate or corporatist hierarchies.
The way in which we sustain ourselves is not only important in economic terms of self-sufficiency, but also from the stand point of living lightly on the earth, and having the opportunity to help others. The desire to build a new emerging alternative economy emanates from a understanding of the possible externalized impact of the false premises which underlie the dominant social paradigm.