Ricochet's Unpacking The News

Technocracy is the idea that experts should govern. For the common good, presumably. It makes a certain amount of sense, given how irrational our politics seem to be right now. So, technocracy is seductive. In fact, it’s an idea as old as politics itself. On this episode Darts & Letters begins the first of a three-part series telling stories of technocracies past, present, and future. In this first part, Ira Basen tells the story of Technocracy, Inc. This 1930s movement aimed to install non-democratic North American “technate” where we only work from the ages of 25 to 45, for 16 hours a week. It might surprise you to learn that Elon Musk’s grandfather was one of its leaders. Basen produced an extended CBC: Ideas documentary on the movement, and it’s worth checking out. Then, perhaps the most influential intellectual today: Noam Chomsky. What is the place of technical expertise in a radical left project? Chomsky’s famous “Responsibility of Intellectuals” is one of the best critiques of the liberal tech