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of his narrative remained the age-old struggle for "the girl and for the
gold."
Wells's reply to this criticism was to affirm his belief that future tech–
nology would transform the human condition including the kind of
motivation that would be present in a more advanced age. He conceded
that it was his gift and his limitation as a novelist to be able to envisage
some of the future of technology and not to be able to discern the future
of the psychological changes that would be wrought.
A century later, however, we have witnessed many brilliant applica–
tions of technology which have been used by an apparently unchanged
human nature, including well-known instances of aggression and behav–
ioral regression.
There is no need to enter into a survey of the great historical events
of the twentieth century that provide the evidence for this dichotomy
between technological progress and institutional regression. Even in
terms of the everyday environment in which we find ourselves, techno–
logical improvement does not consistently lead to institutional improve–
ment.
It
can be argued that despite technological improvements that
solve some problems, most American cities when evaluated by using
reasonable criteria are not better than they were fifty years ago and
major American universities, particularly in the humanities, are not as
good as they have been.
It
is not strictly relevant but it need not be intel–
lectually harmful to take note of the fabulous technological improve–
ment in the reproduction of artwork and musical performance which
exists alongside, what seems to me, a significant drought or impover–
ishment in artistic and musical creativeness.
This suggests some skepticism on the role of technological change
(such as the revolution in communications and in facilities for publica–
tion) as the crucial causal factor in the breakdown of the Soviet Union.
Even with the widespread distribution of telephones or Xerox machines
to dissident populations, there is no substitute for traditional political
wisdom in the formation and implementation of public policy. Similarly,
technological change does suggest challenges for a totalitarian or
authoritarian regime in China, but it would be illusory to believe that
the new technology could not be made to coexist with political repres–
sion. The technological development of "smart" missiles certainly did
reduce American casualties and turn the tide of war in Kosovo. Yet this
does not resolve the issue of whether an alternative diplomacy which
would have negotiated an expansion of the civilian observer force (pre–
viously accepted and functioning), which had to be withdrawn at the
