“When some remote ancestor of ours invented the shovel, he became a giver: he could plant a tree… When the axe was invented, he became a taker: he could chop it down…”
- Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
Shovel or axe?
In this reflection, Leopold’s influence is the philosophical determinism and free-will debates that shaped thought for centuries.
His concern is with the offloading of responsibility by the division of labor we have created. This disconnect prevents us from seeing a determinist’s worst fears take the reins…
Determinism is the philosophy that, succinctly stated, says,
“We shape our tools and they in turn shape us.” - Marshall McLuhan, Father of many deterministic ideas about technology and media theory
Taken at face value, determinism implies that any technology when loosed in society can reach a state beyond programmable control.
Most determinists have hopeless views about a technology after its creation. We unwittingly created an axe with immense societal influence. Our government’s attempt to control this emergent Technopoly is equivalent to a hand grasping a river’s rapids.
What some (namely me) choose to accept is the opening assertion from McLuhan:
We shape our tools…
We have the power to ensure our tools are not chopping all the time: We can shape them in ways that promote communal thriving. We can use them to preserve and protect historicity and cultural artifacts. We can harness their gifts to create beauty and hone our crafts. We can come together to refine education systems for the promotion of global connection.
We can become developers of a new kind of technology that won’t represent the interests of profit and corporate thriving. These, instead, can embody the qualities the shovel represents. Generosity, integrity, wisdom.
