The promised land

"Facing the future" is a book authored by Manly P. Hall, most known as a writer on various esoteric subjects. In this text, published in 1934, Hall ventures into politics. His ideas turn out to be elitist, anti-democratic and "socialist". Hall's sources of inspiration are unclear, but he quotes Plato and claims that the pyramidal structure of government he wants implemented is symbolized by the Egyptian pyramid found on the Great Seal of the United States (the pyramid is also a Masonic symbol).

Hall explicitly calls for a planned economy. The government should own and control public utilities, communications and banks. It should balance production and consumption through a plan, and abolish unemployment through a program of public works. The government should also decide what crops the farmers should grow on their land. Capitalism is tearing the nation apart through competition and unemployment, while turning those still employed into obsessive consumers. It must therefore be abolished. For some reason, Hall never actually uses the term "capitalism", preferring instead to speak about "competition" or "individualism". Nor does he ever use the term "socialism" for his own preferred system. Yet, I think it's obvious that the main thrust of his little book is anti-capitalist and socialist (or perhaps pseudo-socialist, depending on how you define "socialism").

Hall's ideal system turns out to be non-democratic. Only people educated in statecraft and administration should be eligible to become politicians. They should be appointed rather than elected. No more incompetent, corrupt politicians! Local and state governments should be abolished, with all power being in the hands of the federal government. Congress should be abolished in favour of an assembly of 48 state governors, one of whom should be appointed president. Under him, the president will have a huge federal administration. No political parties or lobby groups will be allowed. Like many isolated elite reformers, Hall fulminates against pretty much everyone: bankers, industrialists, politicians and the common man. Nobody can be trusted, least of all the people, who are easy prey for corrupted demagogues and simply don't know their own good. Rationality and common sense is represented by the disinterested administrators, who have the good of society as their only ideal. Hall even proposes the establishment of an international federation or world government. It's not clear how this far-reaching program should be implemented. Hall liked Roosevelt, so perhaps he hoped that FDR would go much further than the New Deal?

While Hall doesn't sound explicitly "Green", there is nevertheless an anti-technological streak in his book. He wants to tax corporations that use labour-saving machinery (see further below), and attacks the commercialization and vulgarization of American culture. While attacking capitalism for making people unemployed, he also dislikes the consumerist dreams (or habits) of the common man. Instead, Hall wants a society where people live frugally, at a lower standard of living than modern industrial society. Somehow, he manages to square this with a call for a national pension plan and substantial remuneration for inventors, scientists, etc. I wonder what they are supposed to be inventing?

"Facing the future" also contain a number of other contradictions. The author calls for local community control of the economy, which doesn't square with the centralist vision in other parts of the book. At one point, he proposes that the local communities buy out the private business owners. Where should the community find the necessary money? And why should the private entrepreneurs even want to sell? Hall makes a strange distinction between useful machinery (such as the radio) and useless machinery (labour-saving devices). The latter should be heavily taxed, since it creates unemployment by making workers redundant. But what if the only way to efficiently build useful machinery is by using labour-saving devices? What if useful machinery creates unemployment? Surely, the telegraph (or computers, or e-mail) could make many people redundant.

Strangely, Hall is very individualist when discussing housing, calling for every family to own their own house. He therefore wants to abolish property taxes, and even bemoans the fact that people who don't own property have a say in deciding about such taxes (such as people living in rented flats). This, of course, is an anti-socialist argument, yet Hall somehow wants to square it with his socialist vision. He promises a society without any taxes at all, presumably because the government will get all its revenue from taxing private businesses. Or nationalizing them?

Despite this muddle, the main thrust of "Facing the future" is the centralist one. To sum up its argument: Hall wants a society rationally controlled by a hierarchic administrative apparatus, which does away with all special interest groups and promotes national unity, peace and (perhaps) prosperity. The government apparatus isn't an entirely closed caste, since everyone can enter the proper educational facilities for future politicians and administrators. But there is no democracy, not even on paper.

Of course, it's easy to mock a proposal like this. Even Hall should have known better, writing in 1934, during the heyday of Joseph Stalin (or Hitler and Mussolini). The disinterested, rational administrators in the Soviet Union became an oligarchic ruling class, just as corrupt as Tammany Hall. Today, it's obvious that the West European combination of democracy and a "welfare state" was more civilized than Hall's pyramidal vision. Yet, one cannot entirely dismiss Manly P. Hall either. The democratic welfare states were built on the promise of sustained economic growth and permanent progress for both the working class and the middle classes. Today, these propositions look very problematic - yet, both the people and the establishment want to continue as before. Unless "we the people" manage to revamp our democracy somehow, Hall's authoritarian promised land might become the only option left...