---
title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: We have created an industrial order…"
description: "\"We have created an industrial order geared to automatism, where feeble-mindedness, native or acquired, is necessary for docile productivity in the fact..."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/947/lewis-mumford-2870_automatism_we-have-created-an-industrial-order-gear_1014646.jpg"
---

#  We have created an industrial order geared to automatism…

![“We have created an industrial order geared to automatism, where feeble-mindedness, native or acquired, is necessary for docile productivity in the factory; and where a pervasive neurosis is the final gift of the meaningless life that issues forth at the other end.” quote by Lewis Mumford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/947/lewis-mumford-2870_automatism_we-have-created-an-industrial-order-gear_1014646.jpg)   [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/947/lewis-mumford-2870_automatism_we-have-created-an-industrial-order-gear_1014646.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/947/lewis-mumford-2870_automatism_we-have-created-an-industrial-order-gear_1014646.jpg)

> “We have created an industrial order geared to automatism, where feeble-mindedness, native or acquired, is necessary for docile productivity in the factory; and where a pervasive neurosis is the final gift of the meaningless life that issues forth at the other end.”

[Lewis Mumford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-mumford/)

## About This Quote

This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.

Industrial systems prioritize automation and conformity, reducing workers to docile, unthinking cogs, leading to a pervasive sense of emptiness.

**In simple terms:** Automation makes workers passive, creating a meaningless life.

Key Takeaway

Resist dehumanizing automation.

Themes

industrialization automation alienation productivity meaninglessness

Mood

cynical critical reflective

Type

philosophical social commentary

When to use this quote

- factory work
- modern office
- gig economy
- education systems
- urban planning

Key Concepts

mechanical efficiency psychological impact social control

Questions to Reflect On

- How does automation affect personal fulfillment?
- What alternatives preserve humanity in work?

A Different Perspective

Automation can increase efficiency but may erode creativity and autonomy.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★   No ratings yet

[Automatism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/automatism/) [Issues](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/issues/) [Life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life/) [Meaningless life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/meaningless-life/) [Neurosis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/neurosis/) [Order](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/order/) [Productivity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/productivity/)

## Related quotes

> [in modern society, fear of unemployment remains the darkest of the shadows thrown by the past. In an industrial order, a man out of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/barbara-ward-baroness-jackson-of-lodsworth/in-modern-society-fear-of-unemployment-remains-the-darkest-of-the/)

[Barbara Ward, Baroness Jackson of Lodsworth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/barbara-ward-baroness-jackson-of-lodsworth/)

> [Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express -- verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/andr-breton/psychic-automatism-in-its-pure-state-by-which-one-proposes-to-express/)

[Andre Breton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/andr-breton/)

> [“The real importance of automatism lay in the fact that it led to a different relation between the artist and the creative act. Where…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-richardson/the-real-importance-of-automatism-lay-in-the-fact-that-it-led-to-a/)

[Michael Richardson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-richardson/)

> [“Machines produce only machines. The texts, images, films, speech and programmes which come out of the computer are machine products, and they bear the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/machines-produce-only-machines-the-texts-images-films-speech-and/)

[Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/)

> [“They say that, if we manage to live without too great an effort, it is entirely owing to the automatism which makes us unconscious…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alberto-moravia/they-say-that-if-we-manage-to-live-without-too-great-an-effort-it-is/)

[Alberto Moravia](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alberto-moravia/)

> [Surrealism, n. Pure psychic automatism, by which it is intended to express, whether verbally or in writing, or in any other way, the real…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/andr-breton/surrealism-n-pure-psychic-automatism-by-which-it-is-intended-to/)

[Andre Breton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/andr-breton/)

> [It would appear that the traditional parliamentary democracies can offer no fundamental opposition to that automatism of technological civilization and the industrial-consumer society, for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vaclav-havel/it-would-appear-that-the-traditional-parliamentary-democracies-can/)

[Vaclav Havel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/vaclav-havel/)

> [“The automatism of man is overcome, in the words of Dhun'Nun, by aiming for 'being as you were, where you were, before you were'.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/idries-shah/the-automatism-of-man-is-overcome-in-the-words-of-dhun-nun-by-aiming/)

[Idries Shah](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/idries-shah/)

> [“The more of the details of our daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the more our higher powers…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mason-currey/the-more-of-the-details-of-our-daily-life-we-can-hand-over-to-the/)

[Mason Currey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mason-currey/)

> [“Every man whose business it is to think knows that he must for part of the day create about himself a pool of silence.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-lippmann/every-man-whose-business-it-is-to-think-knows-that-he-must-for-part/)

[Walter Lippmann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-lippmann/)

> [We must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can. . . . The more of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-james/we-must-make-automatic-and-habitual-as-early-as-possible-as-many/)

[William James](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-james/)

> [“It sometimes seems to me that a pestilence has struck the human race in its most distinctive faculty - that is, the use of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/italo-calvino/it-sometimes-seems-to-me-that-a-pestilence-has-struck-the-human-race/)

[Italo Calvino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/italo-calvino/)

> [“Study institutions may become visible when the head is more emptied of imaginings.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/idries-shah/study-institutions-may-become-visible-when-the-head-is-more-emptied/)

[Idries Shah](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/idries-shah/)

> [“In my opinion, what will be troublesome for you in all this is chiefly that in childhood there was implanted in you—and has now…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-i-gurdjieff-2/in-my-opinion-what-will-be-troublesome-for-you-in-all-this-is-chiefly/)

[G.I. Gurdjieff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-i-gurdjieff-2/)

> [Where is automatism in the work of Chirico or Tanguy? Even Dali had to renounce it in order to be able to organize the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dumitru-tepeneag/where-is-automatism-in-the-work-of-chirico-or-tanguy-even-dali-had-to/)

[Dumitru Tepeneag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dumitru-tepeneag/)

## More by Lewis Mumford

> [Restore human legs as a means of travel. Pedestrians rely on food for fuel and need no special parking facilities.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-mumford/restore-human-legs-as-a-means-of-travel-pedestrians-rely-on-food-for/)

[Lewis Mumford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-mumford/)

> [Mechanical instruments, potentially a vehicle of rational human purposes, are scarcely a blessing when they enable the gossip of the village idiot and the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-mumford/mechanical-instruments-potentially-a-vehicle-of-rational-human/)

[Lewis Mumford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-mumford/)

> [However far modern science and techniques have fallen short of their inherent possibilities, they have taught mankind at least one lesson; nothing is impossible.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-mumford/however-far-modern-science-and-techniques-have-fallen-short-of-their/)

[Lewis Mumford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-mumford/)

> [Iron and coal dominated everywhere, from grey to black: the black boots, the black stove-pipe hat, the black coach or carriage, the black iron…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-mumford/iron-and-coal-dominated-everywhere-from-grey-to-black-the-black-boots/)

[Lewis Mumford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-mumford/)

> [The self holds both a hell and a heaven.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-mumford/the-self-holds-both-a-hell-and-a-heaven/)

[Lewis Mumford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-mumford/)

> [By his very success in inventing labor-saving devices, modern man has manufactured an abyss of boredom that only the privileged classes in earlier civilizations…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-mumford/by-his-very-success-in-inventing-labor-saving-devices-modern-man-has/)

[Lewis Mumford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-mumford/)

> [Each person is a temporary focus of forces, vitalities, and values that carry back to an immemorial past and that reach forward into an…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-mumford/each-person-is-a-temporary-focus-of-forces-vitalities-and-values-that/)

[Lewis Mumford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-mumford/)

> [Adventure is humdrum and routine unless one assimilates it, unless one relates it to a central core which grows within and gives it contour…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-mumford/adventure-is-humdrum-and-routine-unless-one-assimilates-it-unless-one/)

[Lewis Mumford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-mumford/)

> [Safety razors make it hard to grow beards in America: America would be a better place if there were a few bearded, savage, terrible…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-mumford/safety-razors-make-it-hard-to-grow-beards-in-america-america-would-be/)

[Lewis Mumford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-mumford/)

> [A society that gives to one class all the opportunities for leisure, and to another all the burdens of work, dooms both classes to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-mumford/a-society-that-gives-to-one-class-all-the-opportunities-for-leisure/)

[Lewis Mumford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-mumford/)

> [Without leisure there can be neither art nor science nor fine conversation, nor any ceremonious performance of the offices of love and friendship.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-mumford/without-leisure-there-can-be-neither-art-nor-science-nor-fine/)

[Lewis Mumford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-mumford/)

> [Not sense data or atoms or electrons or packets of energy, but purposes, interests, and meanings, constitute the underlying facts of human experience.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-mumford/not-sense-data-or-atoms-or-electrons-or-packets-of-energy-but/)

[Lewis Mumford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-mumford/)

> [When cities were first founded, an old Egyptian scribe tells us, the mission of the founder was to 'put gods in their shrines.' The…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-mumford/when-cities-were-first-founded-an-old-egyptian-scribe-tells-us-the/)

[Lewis Mumford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-mumford/)

> [“Forget the damned motor car and built cities for lovers and friends .”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-mumford/forget-the-damned-motor-car-and-built-cities-for-lovers-and-friends/)

[Lewis Mumford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-mumford/)

> [Western society has accepted as unquestionable a technological imperative that is quite as arbitrary as the most primitive taboo: not merely the duty to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-mumford/western-society-has-accepted-as-unquestionable-a-technological/)

[Lewis Mumford](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-mumford/)

[Explore all 146 Lewis Mumford quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-mumford/)

## More Automatism quotes

> [Psychic automatism in its pure state, by which one proposes to express -- verbally, by means of the written word, or in any other…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/andr-breton/psychic-automatism-in-its-pure-state-by-which-one-proposes-to-express/)

[Andre Breton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/andr-breton/)

> [“In my opinion, what will be troublesome for you in all this is chiefly that in childhood there was implanted in you—and has now…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/g-i-gurdjieff-2/in-my-opinion-what-will-be-troublesome-for-you-in-all-this-is-chiefly/)

[G.I. Gurdjieff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/g-i-gurdjieff-2/)

> [“Study institutions may become visible when the head is more emptied of imaginings.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/idries-shah/study-institutions-may-become-visible-when-the-head-is-more-emptied/)

[Idries Shah](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/idries-shah/)

> [“It sometimes seems to me that a pestilence has struck the human race in its most distinctive faculty - that is, the use of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/italo-calvino/it-sometimes-seems-to-me-that-a-pestilence-has-struck-the-human-race/)

[Italo Calvino](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/italo-calvino/)

> [We must make automatic and habitual, as early as possible, as many useful actions as we can. . . . The more of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-james/we-must-make-automatic-and-habitual-as-early-as-possible-as-many/)

[William James](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-james/)

> [“Every man whose business it is to think knows that he must for part of the day create about himself a pool of silence.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walter-lippmann/every-man-whose-business-it-is-to-think-knows-that-he-must-for-part/)

[Walter Lippmann](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walter-lippmann/)

> [“The more of the details of our daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the more our higher powers…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mason-currey/the-more-of-the-details-of-our-daily-life-we-can-hand-over-to-the/)

[Mason Currey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mason-currey/)

> [“The automatism of man is overcome, in the words of Dhun'Nun, by aiming for 'being as you were, where you were, before you were'.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/idries-shah/the-automatism-of-man-is-overcome-in-the-words-of-dhun-nun-by-aiming/)

[Idries Shah](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/idries-shah/)

> [It would appear that the traditional parliamentary democracies can offer no fundamental opposition to that automatism of technological civilization and the industrial-consumer society, for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vaclav-havel/it-would-appear-that-the-traditional-parliamentary-democracies-can/)

[Vaclav Havel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/vaclav-havel/)

> [Surrealism, n. Pure psychic automatism, by which it is intended to express, whether verbally or in writing, or in any other way, the real…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/andr-breton/surrealism-n-pure-psychic-automatism-by-which-it-is-intended-to/)

[Andre Breton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/andr-breton/)

> [“They say that, if we manage to live without too great an effort, it is entirely owing to the automatism which makes us unconscious…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alberto-moravia/they-say-that-if-we-manage-to-live-without-too-great-an-effort-it-is/)

[Alberto Moravia](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alberto-moravia/)

> [“Machines produce only machines. The texts, images, films, speech and programmes which come out of the computer are machine products, and they bear the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jean-baudrillard/machines-produce-only-machines-the-texts-images-films-speech-and/)

[Jean Baudrillard](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jean-baudrillard/)

> [“The real importance of automatism lay in the fact that it led to a different relation between the artist and the creative act. Where…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-richardson/the-real-importance-of-automatism-lay-in-the-fact-that-it-led-to-a/)

[Michael Richardson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-richardson/)

> [Where is automatism in the work of Chirico or Tanguy? Even Dali had to renounce it in order to be able to organize the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dumitru-tepeneag/where-is-automatism-in-the-work-of-chirico-or-tanguy-even-dali-had-to/)

[Dumitru Tepeneag](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dumitru-tepeneag/)

[Browse all 15 Automatism quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/automatism/)

```json
{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "Quotation",
            "text": "We have created an industrial order geared to automatism, where feeble-mindedness, native or acquired, is necessary for docile productivity in the factory; and where a pervasive neurosis is the final gift of the meaningless life that issues forth at the other end.",
            "creator": {
                "@type": "Person",
                "name": "Lewis Mumford"
            },
            "isPartOf": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website"
            },
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-mumford/we-have-created-an-industrial-order-geared-to-automatism-where-feeble/",
            "about": {
                "@type": "Thing",
                "name": "Automatism"
            },
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-mumford/we-have-created-an-industrial-order-geared-to-automatism-where-feeble/#quotation",
            "image": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/947/lewis-mumford-2870_automatism_we-have-created-an-industrial-order-gear_1014646.jpg",
                "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/947/lewis-mumford-2870_automatism_we-have-created-an-industrial-order-gear_1014646.jpg",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/947/lewis-mumford-2870_automatism_we-have-created-an-industrial-order-gear_1014646.jpg",
                "width": 1080,
                "height": 1080,
                "caption": "“We have created an industrial order geared to automatism, where feeble-mindedness, native or acquired, is…” — Lewis Mumford",
                "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                "creator": {
                    "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                }
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "name": "Home",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "name": "Quotes",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 3,
                    "name": "Lewis Mumford",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lewis-mumford/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "name": "We have created an industrial order...",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-mumford/we-have-created-an-industrial-order-geared-to-automatism-where-feeble/"
                }
            ],
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lewis-mumford/we-have-created-an-industrial-order-geared-to-automatism-where-feeble/#breadcrumb"
        },
        {
            "@type": "WebSite",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "Organization",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "logo": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png",
                "width": 512,
                "height": 512
            }
        }
    ]
}
```
