1142 



Rangoon. To his surprise he found a clerk in one of Rangoon's main 

 hotels who had an M.A. from the University of Chicago under Quincy 

 Wright and was "a very competent teacher." He also discovered an- 

 other young man with an M.A. from the University of Southern Cali- 

 fornia, interested in radio and electronics, who was working with a 

 private firm. The university needed the skills of the international rela- 

 tions specialist, he said, and the government "certainly needed the 

 skills of somebody in electronics." But, according to Dr. Johnstone, 

 "Both were barred from any kind of government jobs because they 

 were Karens, Shans ; not Burmese." And he added, "This is a factor 

 which I think is true in many countries." ^*® 



REJECTION or IXXOVATIOX 



Resistance to innovation is another social aspect of traditional 

 societies that adds to the "push" factor of outward migration. Innova- 

 tion is a necessary ingredient of modernization. It often requires a 

 different perception of the roles played by scientists, engineers, tech- 

 nologists, and other educated professionals. It commonly requires 

 acceptance of radical economic and technological changes and the 

 realization that the ever-accelerating rate of these changes are creating 

 a new class or a new elite of human capital. This emerging scientific- 

 technical-managerial elite refuses to accept traditional values and 

 established power relationships and has acquired values and traditions 

 of its own that transcend national boundaries. Characteristically it is 

 ambitious, able, impatient ; and what is most important, it is a mobile 

 class which threatens the stability, inertia, and conservatism of tra- 

 ditional societies. It insists on a broad stage for its activities and 

 searches out the social environment receptive to innovation. Not all 

 traditional societies of the LDCs are prepared to accept this principle 

 of change, and accordingly push their talent into emigration, for as 

 Dr. Adams observed, "In order to retain such manpoAver, a society 

 must be prepared for constant self-renewal — for permanent self- 

 transformation." 2*^ 



PREJLT)ICE AGAINST SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 



What makes many traditional societies unreceptive to changes re- 

 quired for modernization today is a prejudice against science and tech- 

 nology in favor of jurisprudence, the humanities, and liberal arts. This 

 prejudice permeates such societies and their culture ; it has a spoiling 

 effect on the development of the scientific spirit; it produces values 

 and priorities that frequently conflict with the requirements of a 

 modern industrial order; and it pushes the scientist and technologist 

 into emigration. For denial of status and prestige, which is the main 

 point here, carries with it tangible social, political, and economic dis- 

 abilities, the most important being the inability of the scientist and 

 technologist to function as respected professionals with power and 

 influence in their own country. 



=** Department of State, Proceedings of Workshop on the International Migration of 

 Talent and Skills, October 1966, p. 116. 



2" Hearings, House, Government Operations Committee, Brain Drain, 1968, p. 57. 



