Technology Bashing and Altruistic Business

Last night, as with every Wednesday night, I attended my Political Literature class, which is always interesting. In actuality I do find some of the class discussions truly interesting; however, in this particular case I am using interesting in a somewhat sarcastic manner. This is not to say the class is usually boring; this is to say the class discussions show me how wrong everyone is. For example last night the class discussion concerned the second half of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court. The first interesting point of the conversation was when the some members in the class, but mostly the professor, bashed modern technology.
Before I discuss how wrong my professor was for bashing modern technology let me state this is the professor I highlighted in my previous post. I like this professor and I have him for two classes (the essay in the previous post was for the other class); however, his bashing of technology confirms he is just a little "o" objectivist not a big "O" Objectivist.
Now to point out the fallacies in identifying technology as the bane of the earth scourging the well being of man kind. This is just simply not the case. I will admit many people do not appear to truly understand why technology, or anything is created. The favorite argument is that new technologies are invented to better humanity. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. New technologies are invented because an individual wanted to create it. Every technology is born from the selfish desire to create it. No man created something he did not want to create. One could argue that some inventions are created with bettering humanity in mind. This is true, but the person with that in mind would not have created it if he hated doing everything he needed to do to create. For example I am going to make up a fictional disease called relativtitis. Finding a cure for relativtitis would certainly benefit humanity. According to Dr. Paquin W. Stevens, he is trying to find the cure for relativtitis to help humanity; however, Dr. Paquin W. Stevens enjoys chemistry, science, and whatever else one needs to work with and know to find the cure for relativtitis. If Dr. Paquin W. Stevens loathed every element of science he would not be trying to find the cure for relativtitis. Since Dr. Paquin W. Stevens enjoys working to find a cure for relativtitis the cure is born from selfishness.
However, what is more important is how new technologies are used. This is the real problem I had with the class. My professor was arguing that technology had made man less happy and a worse being. According to my professor man is less intelligent and lazy; therefore, unhappy. I agree ignorance and laziness make man unhappy, but this is not technology's doing. His example for his argument was a calculator. With a calculator the user does not need to understand mathematics very well; therefore, he is unintelligent and too lazy not to learn math. This is not the case. Personally, I hate math, but I can understand how a calculator would make a mathematician extremely happy. Since the calculator can solve problems faster than a man the mathematician now has more time to continue with his work or research. Furthermore, even a high school student using a calculator is not stupid or lazy. In order to understand the information the calculator is providing the student must understand something about math. Also, the calculator allows for more homework problems and for math lessons to move faster; therefore, math students are not lazy. Of course the high school math student does not work for my next point because high school students are forced to learn math and is not really learning it because it makes him happy. So, I am going to speak about technology in general again. Technology is used because it makes the user happy. The problem is the user does not readily know that, which only proves that man needs to be more concerned with living a conscious life. Now I will go back to an example this time the Internet. I use the Internet quite often, and I use it because it makes me happy. Using the Internet makes me happy because whatever I want to learn I can learn in minutes. Without the Internet if I wanted to know the history of the Freemasons I would have to spend time going to the library and finding books until I could finally read and gain the information I was seeking. The Internet allows me to know more because I save time and can spend the saved time looking up knew things or using the information I found in my work. Therefore, technology is also used out of selfishness.
The other interesting point discussed in class concerned altruistic business, which is clearly an oxymoron and, in turn, illogical. The specific topic discussed in class was outsourcing of jobs to Vietnam and China, which lays off people in the United States. There were two problems in this discussion. First the obvious being, American businesses should be more concerned with making America better before making China and Vietnam better. The retort to this points out the other fallacy being, it is selfish for an American business to only be concerned about America since the people in Vietnam and China need those jobs more. Both of these groups are wrong because the business, and all individuals, should operate selfishly not altruistically. The business owner should not keep jobs in American just to make life better for Americans. The business owner should also not send jobs to Vietnam and China to make life better for the Chinese and Vietnamese. What the business owner should do is send jobs wherever his business is going to be most helped, and in turn earn him more money. That is how the business owner should operate, and I like to think most business owners operate that way. As for the potential workers in America, Vietnam, and China these people are not applying for jobs with American businesses to benefit humanity. Every individual worker whether American, Vietnamese, or Chinese is acting selfishly. Every individual worker applies for a job to make himself happy. Either the individual likes the job, or the salary will make his life more comfortable. Both selfish reasons.
Imagine I am not even halfway through the semester. I am sure this class will offer plenty of other interesting topics that need addressing.