Some comments at The Distributist Review have brought an issue to my attention. Commenter “CP” pointed out that distributists seem to focus too much on agriculture and heavy industry and not enough on other fields. At first, I disagreed; agriculture and industry are the bedrocks of an economic system, and it seems hard to believe that we could focus on that too much. However, on reflection, I think he’s correct about this. Oftentimes we, as distributists, do neglect the role that improving technology and science can play in furthering the distributist system, particularly in fields apart from agriculture and industry. However, technology can play an important part in distributing certain trades, and the distributist who neglects this is neglecting an important aspect of distributist thought. Belloc, after all, noted in The Servile State that the industrial revolution, had it occurred in a distributive rather than a capitalist state, would have been just as beneficial to the worker as it ended up harmful to him. Far be it from a mere follower of Belloc like myself to disagree with him on that.
Distributists are often accused of being inimical to technology. This, of course, is not so; distributists are merely cautious about it, rather than accepting every new gadget and invention that pops out of the corruptible mind of man. Sometimes, this means that distributists frequently reject the use of certain technologies; for example, most distributists argue that modern chemical farming techniques are a net loss to society. However, sometimes this means that distributists embrace technology. The difference is that some technologies contribute to the common good, while some derogate from it.
The computer, for example, makes distributist economies much easier in many industries. The most obvious example is publishing. Publishing was originally done by small printing presses, which were available to the common craftsman; a master printer would print out, say, a newspaper, or a book, and sell it in his local area. Because production in this way was limited in quantity, printing had to distributed out to many different printers, who did most of the printing for their local areas. In this way, the great classics of the pre-printing age were spread and made common, such that even the poorest could have a Bible, or a Primer, or both, with some saving.
In the nineteenth century, however, publishing became industrialized, and the ownership of copyrights (the right to publish) became concentrated in an increasingly small group of corporations. Without paying these corporations, you couldn’t have the book; without paying them exorbitant licensing fees, you certainly couldn’t print it and distribute it. Furthermore, the industry was very difficult to break into for a small publisher, barring some type of niche market, because the equipment required was huge and incredibly expensive. The enormous printing machines owned and operated by these publishers were prohibitively expensive, and produced books so quickly and so cheaply that smaller printers couldn’t possibly compete in the same fields. Thus, distributism was completely defeated in the publishing industry; ordinary citizens could not be the owners of this type of productive property.*
However, the advent of the computer, and free professional-quality typesetting software like TeX, has changed all that. This technology allows anyone with an interest in publishing to become involved in the field. Professional-quality typesetting does involve a learning curve; professional-quality book design involves an even higher one. Any type of craft, no matter how mechanized, requires some specialized knowledge; this should come as no surprise, least of all to a distributist. However, someone with that knowledge can now enter the publishing field, and be successful, thanks to this new technology.
Technology, of course, is not alone in this fact. New discoveries and scientific research are also an enormous assistance in many fields. Thanks to new discoveries about plant and soil health, for example, small-scale organic farming is capable of producing yields as good or better than those of the famous “Green Revolution” chemical farming, while much more sustainably maintaining soil and water health; indeed, organic farming which takes into account these new discoveries actually does better than chemical farming in drought conditions. (See, e.g., Organic farming success.) Because small-scale chemical farming is prohibitively expensive, while small-scale organic farming is less so, the discoveries which led to these results are a real boon to distributists everywhere. Thus, the distributist who neglects such discoveries, or who does not wish man to continue to find new ones, is putting distributism itself at considerable risk.
Distributists should not neglect these aspects of the economy. The fields, the forests, the factories, and the mines are certainly the bedrock of the economy; however, they are not the entirety of the economy, nor are they limited to their status two centuries ago. Distributists should not be afraid of opening up discussion concerning these other fields, and in what ways new technologies and discoveries can improve the state of the economy in the present day.
Praise be to Christ the King!
* The nature and enforcement of copyright has also changed considerably, which naturally plays a role in who can print what. Here, I refer primarily to non-copyrighted work, such as the Bible, though I think the analysis applies partly to copyrighted works, as well.
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