This is from a post on a different board:
The technocratic movement started in the United States after World War I and was based on the belief that the advent of science and technology had made the traditional economic system obsolete. It offered instead a system based on scientific and physical laws and an economic system based on units of “productive energy.” The argument in favor of the technocratic system reached its peak during the Great Depression (1932-33), but its popularity declined considerably during the New Deal.
Technocracy can be described simply as a research and educational organization. It is not based on any form of philosophical concept, religious belief, economic or political theory. With philosophy, religion, economic or political opinion, a person endlessly debates and therefore accomplishes nothing because neither side can be “proven” right, but with scientific facts, on the other hand, there is a correct and an incorrect way.
It is for this reason that Technocracy freely and wholeheartedly challenges anyone to either prove or disprove its findings on a purely logical and scientific basis. If the findings are found in error, the error can be fixed, and problems thus avoided. If the entire research is found to be incorrect, and provably so, then one can stop wasting their time promoting worthless ideas.
When investigating Technocracy, many people come across parts of it and say “Hey, this looks a lot like communism!”, or something similar. It is easy to see why this happens. Most other systems of government are based, at least in part, or in opposition to, some other system. Every one relates to others in some way. Thus people are prone to look at each one in terms of its relationship to others, e.g. “Democracy is the opposite of fascism.”
Technocracy, on the other hand, is so completely different from any other form of administration that this logic cannot be applied to it.
There are two main reasons why Technocracy differs so completely from all these previous forms of government. The first is the fact that all the others were devised as a means to administer a scarcity economy. As such they are all unsuitable for managing an abundance condition, one that is unique upon the North American continent today.
The second is that all other forms use politics and money in their methods of decision making. Up until now this has been seen as inevitable, so it is understandable that most people would think that Technocracy would as well. However, it does away with both these concepts, which are found nowhere in its design. Instead they are replaced with rational methods of control and distribution that are compatible with our existing high technology. Only in this way can we as citizens enjoy the full benefits of this technology with virtually none of its drawbacks, which is a situation that is the reverse from the one we experience today.
While not a common view, many see the word Technocracy referring to a government that is controlled by corporations and other financial institutions. This is understandable, since today, corporations undoubtedly have more power over the affairs of government than ever before in the past. They also are in possession of the highest technology in existence, such as genetic engineering and nuclear power. Based on this, it would seem that we live in such a technocratic society right now, but this is not the case. In a real technocracy, if it were to exist, people would enjoy all the benefits of technology, with economic freedoms undreamt of today. No more would be the waste, duplication, competition, and pollution that occurs in today's society due to the power and economic wars fought by the giant corporations of today. Only a functional society, geared toward providing the highest possible standard of living given available technology, and the widest latitude of choice in its use, would exist in a true technocracy.
If you were to look in any historical book for information about technocracy, the first thing you would notice is that this is rather difficult to do. The current “status-quo” has done an excellent job of keeping this information out of the hands of the public. This is indeed interesting as technocracy was the biggest social movement of the Depression era.
While it may be true that Technocracy's membership levels are not up to what they were prior to World War II, Technocracy is again beginning to see a resurgence of popularity as more and more citizens become aware that the present “system” is becoming increasingly defunct. Growing dissatisfaction with economic instability, wastage of resources, pollution, etc. is forcing people to open their eyes.
Many have asked the following questions: (1) What is/are Technocracy/the Technocrats going to do when they take over? (2) How does Technocracy plan to overthrow the government? Technocracy has no plans to violently overthrow the government. Technocracy is not going to "take over" like so many other political groups.
Technocracy seeks to bring order to the world: a perfect world under its careful guidance. The Technocracy's science holds no room for erroneous Middle Ages magic and superstition or ridiculous ideologies.
