he assures himself of his power by assuring others of his cleverness or v\'orth. 

 He needs to feel that he counts. 



These creations embody man's imagination and ingenuity. That is why we 

 are always interested not only in what we ourselves make, but in what others 

 make. We admire the handiwork of the ancients and of faraway peoples, quite 

 aside from any question of its beauty or usefulness. We like to gaze at collec- 

 tions of human product in museums and galleries and market-places. We like 

 window-shopping. Man is a maker. Ha\ing to do and to make is quite as 

 much a need as ha\'ing to eat or to keep warm. 



Human Power Because of this restless drive to assure himself and his 

 fellows that he is quite all right, man is constantly using up more and more of 

 the materials around him. He is also accumulating surpluses that are never of 

 any use — except to show that somebody was smart enough to accumulate 

 larger heaps than others. Modern science and technology — which developed 

 more rapidly in the mechanical arts and in chemistry than they did in the 

 biological fields — have enabled us to make more and more things. That means 

 also to use up still more and more materials. These heaps of things are the 

 outward sign of our power over nature, and they furnish us much satisfaction. 



The tremendous productivity of modern industry should yield a sense of 

 security; for we are now able to produce all we need — nobody need ever suffer 

 want. We are able to produce an abundance through only a fraction of our 

 traditional effort; more and more men and women can therefore be free to 

 enjoy leisure time. More and more men and women may be free to follow 

 special interests — music, art, science, exploration, whatever the heart desires 

 (see page 648). Truly science has given us great abundance and vast powers. 



In spite of our increased productivity, which has been tremendously ex- 

 panded during the Second World War, people continue to be overworked. 

 Large sections in every country continue to be ill fed, ill clothed, ill housed. 

 People remain anxious about what they have, and fear want. They are in- 

 secure and fear their neighbors as possible thieves. 



The Sources of New Powers We have seen that these powers come 

 from increasing division of labor, which enables us to use the great variety of 

 talents in human beings to the utmost (see page 529). These subdivisions re- 

 move more and more of us, as "consumers*', from the plans and processes of 

 production, while they remove the individual workers farther and farther from 

 the finished product (see page 530). Millions of men and women have learned 

 to control vast accumulations of energy, or to direct the movements of large 

 numbers of persons, by performing rather simple operations. A child can shift 

 a traffic signal and make hundreds of cars come to a stop. A fool can pull a 

 false alarm and throw hundreds into a panic. A man makes some marks on a 

 piece of paper, and hundreds of famiUes in another state lose their chance to 

 make a living. 



650 



