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Mass Production Quotes

Browse 54 quotes about Mass Production.

Mass Production Quotes

“School is about creating loyalty to certain goals and habits, a vision of life, support for a class structure, an intricate system of human relationships cleverly designed to manufacture the continuous low level of discontent upon which mass production and finance rely.”

SchoolLoyaltyMass ProductionClass StructureSlave To The System
Book:The Underground History of American Education: An Intimate Investigation Into the Prison of Modern Schooling
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“I do not believe that there is anything inherently and unavoidably ugly about industrialism. A factory or even a gasworks is not obliged of its own nature to be ugly, any more than a palace or a dog-kennel or a cathedral. . . . But in any case, though the ugliness of industrialism is the most obvious thing about it and the thing every newcomer exclaims against, I doubt whether it is centrally important. And perhaps it is not even desirable, industrialism being what it is, that it should learn to disguise itself as something else. As Mr Aldous Huxley has truly remarked, a dark Satanic mill ought to look like a dark Satanic mill and not like the temple of mysterious and splendid gods. Moreover, even in the worst of the industrial towns one sees a great deal that is not ugly in the narrow aesthetic sense. A belching chimney or a stinking slum is repulsive chiefly because it implies warped lives and ailing children. Look at it from a purely aesthetic standpoint and it may have a certain macabre appeal. I find that anything outrageously strange generally ends by fascinating me even when I abominate it.”

FactoriesUglinessAestheticsMass ProductionIndustrialism
Book:The Road to Wigan Pier
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“What is a hobby anyway? Where is the line of demarcation between hobbies and ordinary normal pursuits? I have been unable to answer this question to my own satisfaction. At first blush I am tempted to conclude that a satisfactory hobby must be in large degree useless, inefficient, laborious, or irrelevant. Certainly many of our most satisfying avocations today consist of making something by hand which machines can usually make more quickly and cheaply, and sometimes better. Nevertheless I must in fairness admit that in a different age the mere fashioning of a machine might have been an excellent hobby... Today the invention of a new machine, however noteworthy to industry, would, as a hobby, be trite stuff. Perhaps we have here the real inwardness of our own question: A hobby is a defiance of the contemporary. It is an assertion of those permanent values which the momentary eddies of social evolution have contravened or overlooked. If this is true, then we may also say that every hobbyist is inherently a radical, and that his tribe is inherently a minority. This, however, is serious: Becoming serious is a grievous fault in hobbyists. It is an axiom that no hobby should either seek or need rational justification. To wish to do it is reason enough. To find reasons why it is useful or beneficial converts it at once from an avocation into an industry–lowers it at once to the ignominious category of an 'exercise' undertaken for health, power, or profit. Lifting dumbbells is not a hobby. It is a confession of subservience, not an assertion of liberty.”

LeisureHobbiesMass ProductionAnachronism
Book:A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There
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“The publicists of mass-production economics have successfully altered public taste to believe it doesn’t make sense to repair something old when for the same price you can have something new.”

EconomicsManipulationMass Production
Book:The Underground History of American Education: An Intimate Investigation Into the Prison of Modern Schooling
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“If you accept mass production, you accept that a small number of people will supervise the daily existence of a much larger number of people. You accept that human beings will spend long hours, every day, engaged in repetitive work, while suppressing any desires for experience or activity beyond this work. The workers' behaviour becomes subject to the machine. With mass production, you also accept that huge numbers of identical items will need to be efficiently distributed to huge numbers of people and that institutions such as advertising will arise to do this. One technological process cannot exist without the other, creating symbiotic relationships among technologies themselves.”

TechnologyCapitalismCommercialismMass Production
Book:Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television
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“Of course the post-war development of cheap luxuries has been a very fortunate thing for our rulers. It is quite likely that fish-and-chips, art-silk stockings, tinned salmon, cut-price chocolate (five two-ounce bars for sixpence), the movies, the radio, strong tea, and the Football Pools have between them averted revolution. Therefore we are some-times told that the whole thing is an astute manoeuvre by the governing class–a sort of 'bread and circuses' business–to hold the unemployed down. What I have seen of our governing class does not convince me that they have that much intelligence. The thing has happened, buy by an un-conscious process–the quite natural interaction between the manufacturer's need for a market and the need of half-starved people for cheap palliatives.”

CapitalismWorking ClassMass ProductionLuxuries
Book:The Road to Wigan Pier
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“In another building, I was shown his [Mr Brunel's] manufactory of shoes, which, like the other, is full of ingenuity, and, in regard to subdivision of labour, brings this fabric on a level with the oft-admired manufactory of pins. Every step in it is effected by the most elegant and precise machinery; while as each operation is performed by one hand, so each shoe passes through twenty-five hands, who complete from the hide, as supplied by the currier, a hundred pair of strong and well-finished shoes per day. All the details are performed by ingenious applications of the mechanic powers, and all the parts are characterized by precision, uniformity, and accuracy. As each man performs but one step in the process, which implies no knowledge of what is done by those who go before or follow him, so the persons employed are not shoemakers, but wounded soldiers, who are able to learn their respective duties in a few hours. The contract at which these shoes are delivered to government is 6s. 6d. per pair, being at least 2s. less than what was paid previously for an unequal and cobbled article. While, however, we admire these triumphs of mechanics, and congratulate society on the prospect of enjoying more luxuries at less cost of human labour, it ought not to be forgotten, that the general good in such cases is productive of great partial evils, against which a paternal government ought to provide. No race of workmen being proverbially more industrious than shoemakers, it is altogether unreasonable, that so large a portion of valuable members of society should be injured by improvements which have the ultimate effect of benefiting the whole.”

ShoesPinsUtilitarianismMass ProductionHealth And SafetyDivision Of Labour1817Brunel
Book:A Morning's Walk from London to Kew
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“I imagined that a better world would be less complicated, less involved, and with less need to mass produce doorknobs and lock sets, electric outlets, power cords, frozen chicken wings, packages of steak, rubber bands, and a million little foam earbuds that slip over the broadcasting end of an iPod. I'd stand staring at Jenna's room, the recycling porch, and imagine what my life would be like if I could squeeze all my worldly possessions into a space like that.”

SimplifyComplicationMass ProductionThe Big Tiny
Author:Dee Williams
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“Soiree in Rome. The women are more attractive than the men - they always are. My first impression is that all the men are ugly (they are producers and film directors) and that all the women are beautiful (they are actresses). On a second view: the men are ugly, but they have character; all the women have something erotic about them, but nothing remarkable - a purely macho society, the world of showbiz. The big scene with the male lead is played out in all its grandeur, from one palazzo to the next in the Roman night. The most beautiful actress I know is marrying a rich director, author of 97 screenplays. This is the rule among the showbiz crowd. As usual I feel alienation from all the men there and solidarity with all the women, whom the men pretend to scorn in order to please them, but to whom they are basically indifferent. It must be nice to live in bodies so beautiful, so ingenuous, and allow the men to dominate you with all their ugliness, wealth and pretensions. It must be marvellous to be a woman. Ultimately, it is this which is fascinating: woman is unimaginable. The more beautiful she is, the more unimaginable.”

ActingBeautyHorrorProducersAlienationMass ProductionPop Culture ReferencesCinematographic Industry
Book:Cool memories
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“The growing complexity of science, technology, and organization does not imply either a growing knowledge or a growing need for knowledge in the general population. On the contrary, the increasingly complex processes tend to lead to increasingly simple and easily understood products. The genius of mass production is precisely in its making more products more accessible, both economically and intellectually to more people.”

PeopleNeedsDoeProcessSimpleTechnologyGrowingProductsGeniusMassUnderstoodOrganizationComplexesPopulationProductionsContraryComplexityScience TechnologyMass ProductionGrowing Knowledge
Author:Thomas Sowell
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“The danger of education, I have found, is that it so easily confuses means with ends. Worse than that, it quite easily forgets both and devotes itself merely to the mass production of uneducated gradtuates - people literaly unfit for anything except to take part in an elaborate and completely artificial charade which they and their contemporaries have conspired to call "life".”

PeopleMeanEndsFoundForgetAtheismDangerMassProductionsArtificialUneducatedMass ProductionCharades
Book:Love and Living
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“We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam Hussein has, and has had for a number of years, a developing capacity for the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction.”

ThinkingYearsNumbersWeaponsMassEvidenceCapacityDestructionDemocraticDemocratIraqProductionsPossessionDevelopingCompellingSaddamHusseinLiedWeapons Of Mass DestructionMass DestructionIraq WarStorageWmdGulf WarWmds In IraqMass Production
Author:Bob Graham
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“In 1905, when you went motoring, you took your mechanic. Twenty-five years later, mass production revolutionized the role of the automobile, but buying a Ford wouldn't have made sense if everyone still needed a mechanic on board. In 1955, when you used your computer, you took your programmer. Twenty-five years later, mass production revolutionized the role of the computer, but buying a micro wouldn't have made sense if everyone still needed a programmer.”

IfsYearsMadeStillsUsedRolesFiveNeededComputerMassTwentiesProductionsBoardsFive YearsBuyingMechanicAutomobileProgrammersTwenty FiveMass Production
Author:Gerald Weinberg
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“Mr. Hillaire Belloc has pointed out that science has changed greatly, and for the worse, since it became popular. Some hundred years ago, or more, only very unusual, highly original spirits were attracted to science at all; scientific work was therefore carried out by men of exceptional intelligence. Now, scientists are turned out by mass production in our universities.”

MenYearsScienceSpiritChangeChangedMassHundredYears AgoScientistOriginalsUniversityProductionsUnusualExceptionalMass Production
Author:Anthony Standen
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“The characteristic feature of modern capitalism is mass production of goods destined for consumption by the masses. The result is a tendency towards a continuous improvement in the average standard of living, a progressing enrichment of the many.”

ResultsProgressModernMassStandardsCapitalismAverageProductionsImprovementTendenciesFeaturesCharacteristicsGoodsConsumptionDestinedStandards Of LivingContinuous ImprovementEnrichmentMass Production
Author:Ludwig von Mises
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“In the 18th century, James Hargreaves invented the Spinning Jenny, and Richard Arkwright pioneered the water-propelled spinning frame which led to the mass production of cotton. This was truly revolutionary. The cotton manufacturers created a whole new class of people - the urban proletariat. The structure of society itself would never be the same.”

PeopleWholeWaterClassCenturyMassStructureProductionsRevolutionaryUrbanSpinningCottonProletariat18th CenturyJennyMass ProductionNew Class
Author:A. N. Wilson
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“Instantly, the noise stopped. The whole room lay in perfect silence. The tire builders stood in long lines, touching each other, perfectly motionless, deafened by the silence.... For the first time in history, American mass-production workers had stopped a conveyor belt and halted the inexorable movement of factory machinery.”

FirstsLongWholeLinesPerfectRoomsSilenceStruggleMovementMassFirst TimeLaysWorkersProductionsNoiseTouchingFactoriesTireMachineryBeltsBuilderInexorableLong LinesMass Production
Author:Ruth McKenney
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“The oil industry is a stunning example of how science, technology, and mass production can divert an entire group of companies from their main task. ... No oil company gets as excited about the customers in its own backyard as about the oil in the Sahara Desert. ... But the truth is, it seems to me, that the industry begins with the needs of the customer for its products. From that primal position its definition moves steadily back stream to areas of progressively lesser importance until it finally comes to rest at the search for oil.”

NeedsImportantSeemsMovingScienceCompanyTechnologyGroupsExamplePositionProductsIndustryTruth IsMassAreasTasksImportanceDefinitionsProductionsExcitedCustomersOilDesertStreamsPrimalBackyardsStunningOil CompaniesScience TechnologyMass ProductionOil IndustrySaharaSahara Desert
Author:Theodore Levitt
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“She is a reflection of comfortable middle-class values that do not take seriously the continuing unemployment. What I particularly regret is that she does not take seriously the intellectual decline. Having given up the Empire and the mass production of industrial goods, Britain's future lay in its scientific and artistic pre-eminence. Mrs Thatcher will be long remembered for the damage she has done.”

LongDoeDoneScienceValuesGivenClassMiddleRegretComfortableMassIntellectualResearchReflectionLaysProductionsIntellectArtisticRememberedDamageBritainMiddle ClassEmpiresGoodsDeclineContinuingUnemploymentGiven UpEminenceMass ProductionMrs Thatcher
Author:John Kenneth Galbraith
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“Capitalism is essentially a system of mass production for the satisfaction of the needs of the masses. It pours a horn of plenty upon the common man. It has raised the average standard of living to a height never dreamed of in earlier ages. It has made accessible to millions of people enjoyments which a few generations ago were only within the reach of a small élite.”

PeopleMenNeedsMadeAgeCommonMillionsGenerationsMassStandardsCapitalismRaisedAverageSatisfactionProductionsPlentyHeightEnjoymentHornsStandards Of LivingCommon ManMass Production
Book:Anti-Capitalistic Mentality, The
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“I've got my laptop, but it troubles me in many ways. I don't have Twitter or Facebook or anything like that. It ruins a romantic idea, which might just be an illusion, a sense of depth or continuity. I know there are lots of positives in the evolution of technology, but I also think it will be responsible for the end of a unique character, of a specific kind of geographical culture. The world is getting so small, and mass production is getting so big. Everything is in danger of becoming the same.”

ThinkingKnowsWorldWayKindIdeasEndsCharacterBigsMightCultureTechnologyTroubleDangerEvolutionBecomingMassUniqueIllusionResponsibleDepthProductionsRuinsContinuityBeing ResponsibleLaptopsMass ProductionEvolution Of Technology
Author:Laura Marling
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“As mass production has to be accompanied by mass consumption, mass consumption, in turn, implies a distribution of wealth ... to provide men with buying power. ... Instead of achieving that kind of distribution, a giant suction pump had by 1929-30 drawn into a few hands an increasing portion of currently produced wealth. ... The other fellows could stay in the game only by borrowing. When their credit ran out, the game stopped.”

MenKindHandsTurnsGamesWealthAchieveMassFellowsProductionsCreditRanGiantsBuyingPortionsConsumptionDistributionBorrowingPumpsDistribution Of WealthMass ProductionBuying PowerMass Consumption
Author:Marriner Stoddard Eccles
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“The movie, like the book before it, is an expertly built machine for the mass production of tears. Directed by Josh Boone 'Stuck in Love', with scrupulous respect for John Green's best-selling young-adult novel, the film sets out to make you weep - not just sniffle or choke up a little, but sob until your nose runs and your face turns blotchy. It succeeds.”

LittlesBookRunningFilmFacesYoungTurnsNovelTearsSucceedMassAdultsBuiltMachinesGreenYoung AdultProductionsStuckSellingNosesYour FaceChokeJoshFilm SetMass Production
Author:A. O. Scott
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“The Second Wave Society is industrial and based on mass production, mass distribution, mass consumption, mass education, mass media, mass recreation, mass entertainment, and weapons of mass destruction. You combine those things with standardization, centralization, concentration, and synchronization, and you wind up with a style of organization we call bureaucracy.”

MediaStyleWindWeaponsMassDestructionOrganizationWaveProductionsEntertainmentConcentrationConsumptionBureaucracyDistributionWeapons Of Mass DestructionMass DestructionRecreationMass MediaCentralizationMass ProductionStandardizationMass Consumption
Author:Alvin Toffler
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“The automobile, practical since 1906, was proceeding to disintegrate and stamp anew the pattern of communication, manners, and city life in the United States, by 1918; before long, men would begin to see that the automobile, and the mass production techniques which made its possible, could alter the national character and morality more thoroughly than could the most absolute of tyrants. As a mechanical Jacobin, it rivaled the dynamo. The productive process which made these vehicles cheap was still more subversive of the old ways than was the gasoline engine itself.”

MenWayLongMadeStillsStatesCharacterProcessUnitedCitiesUnited StatesCommunicationMoralityMassAbsolutesPatternsConservativeProductionsTechniquePracticalsMannersProductiveTyrantsEnginesVehicleStampsAutomobileSubversiveProceedingCity LifeGasolineOld WaysMass Production
Author:Russell Kirk
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