Date: Fri, 11 Nov 1994 08:17:44 EST From: tgs-AT-cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu Subject: RE: Planning, socialism and the executed engineer Louis, Your post is wonderfully informative about history. But I find its political conclusions disturbing; its contribution to planning theory, not as valuable. With all due respect, the idea that your engineer could have made a difference is sort of a coulda' woulda'. We need to figure out what institutional safeguards there must be toward bureaucratic degeneration. Study groups don't cut it, I'm afraid. I wish they would have. Your hero's life (and nothing wrong with heros in my book, even if they're not "fresh"), andd the lives of God knows how many millions of others, might have been spared. I do think however, that we need to examine the critical role that engineers must play in the planning process. The problem is that, with the thinkers that try to deal with this problem seriously (rather than wishing or repressing it away, a la the Bolsheviks), like Veblem, Mumford, etc., they fall into the trap that you have in this posting of yours: they substitute engineering know-how for institutional safeguards. ------------------
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