The Invisible Wedge

Our societal schizophrenia between production and consumption.

During the 19th and 20th century Second Wave industrialism, like a nuclear chain reaction, forcefully split apart two facets of our civilization. It shoved a massive invisible wedge into our economics and our minds.

At one level, the industrial revolution created a marvelously integrated social system with its own distinctive technologies, its own social institutions, and its own information channels— all plugged tightly into each other. Yet, at another level, it ripped apart the underlying unity of earlier agricultural society, creating a way of life filled with economic tension, social conflict, and psychological malaise. Only if we understand how this invisible wedge has shaped our lives throughout the Second Wave era can we appreciate the full impact of the Third Wave that is beginning to reshape us today in the Information Age.

The two halves of human life that the Second Wave split in half were along the lines of production and consumption. We tend to think of ourselves as producers or consumers, but this was not always the case. Before the industrial revolution, most goods and services produced by humanity were consumed by those who made them, their families, or a minority ruling class.

As with most agricultural societies, much of the population were slaves, peasants, or serfs. They produced just enough for themselves and their masters. They lacked effective food storage techniques and lacked an adequate transport system for distant markets. They also knew that any surplus was likely to be appropriated by the feudal lords, plus they also lacked the incentive to improve technology or raise production.

Of course, commerce existed for First Wave societies. We know that small numbers of intrepid merchants carried goods for thousands of miles by camel, wagon, or boat. We know that cities sprang up dependent on food from the countryside. The pre-Columbian Native Americans engaged in a complex trade network in buying and selling jewels, precious metals, slaves, chocolate, skins, animals, and pottery. China and India had a robust trade system which was much coveted by the Europeans.

Nevertheless, all this trade was tiny, compared with the extent of production for immediate self-use by the agricultural slave or serf. Even as late as the sixteenth century Europe, a population of sixty to seventy million, of which 90 percent lived on the soil, producing only a small amount of goods for trade. Even in the high productive Mediterranean region, 70 percent of the overall production never entered the market economy. In Northern Europe, with a shorter growing season, peasants found it difficult to extract a surplus.

This little history lesson is to help us appreciate the Third Wave if we imagine the First Wave economy before the industrial revolution. First Wave society similar, to Second Wave society, was comprised of two sectors. In Sector A, people produced for themselves. In Sector B, people produced items for trade or exchange. Sector A was enormous; Sector B was small. For most people, therefore, production and consumption were fused into a single life-giving function. 

The ancient Greeks, the Romans, and the medieval Europeans did not distinguish between the two sectors. For example, the ancient Romans lacked a word for consumers. Throughout the First Wave era, only a small percentage of the population depended on the market; most people lived outside the market.  

The Second Wave forcefully changed this situation. It brushed aside the self-sufficient people and their communities. For the first time in history, the overwhelming bulk of all food, goods, and services was destined for the market. It essentially wiped out the ability to produce for one’s own consumption— and transformed our civilization into which almost no one, not even a farmer, was no longer self-sufficient. Everyone became totally dependent upon the market for food, goods, or services made by somebody else.

In short, industrialism smashed the union of production and consumption and divided the producer from the consumer. The fused economy of the First Wave was transformed into the dual economy of the Second Wave. Yet, the cleavage between the roles of producer and consumer also created a psychological duality of personality. Second-wave society demanded a hybrid citizen with conflicting psychological demands. A factory worker might be a producer working in a factory. In this capacity, the worker was indoctrinated by society to be disciplined, defer gratification, obedient, and restrained. However, such a worker was also indoctrinated to be a consumer too. As a consumer, they sought instant gratification and hedonistic pleasures of the marketplace and advertisement.

As we contemplate a Third Wave society, we should question some aspects of the integrated economic systems, its old social institutions, and outdated information networks; such as advertisement— all plugged tightly into over-centralization. Now is the time to repair the underlying unity of society. We can and should reimagine a way to reduce economic tension, social conflict, and psychological malaise. Only if we acknowledge how this invisible wedge has shaped our society can we build on Third Wave ideas to reshape us today.

Author: John Foley is a retired U.S. Army officer. He currently lives in Colorado.

http://www.historyhaven.com/documents/trade_americas.pdf

History of Europe - Demographics | Britannica

Frank Trentmann: How Humans Became 'Consumers' - The Atlantic