Man and Machine | Social Issue Essay, Article, Paragraph for Class 12, Graduation and Competitive Examination.

Man and Machine

Scheme of the Essay

Exposition: This is the age of machines.

Rising Action: The machine’s relation with man is complementary and contradictory.

Climax:

(1) Goods have been standardised.

(2) There is competition between man and machines.

(3) Mass-scale production has resulted in unemployment.

(4) Man has developed a mechanical attitude,

(5) Man is virtually replaced by machines.

Ending: Machines should be slaves of man and not his master.

This is the age of machines. Every activity of man has become mechanised. The daily routine of life is not only dependent upon machines, it is also guided by the machines. Machines help us to work, to increase production, to transport the goods from place to place to do odd jobs for us, and also to make us to live a better and more comfortable life. The work has become easier and it is done with a greater speed and with better precision. Machines help us to overcome a number of hindrances and a number of problems which may not be overcome by us so easily. With the help of machines, mountains are blown up and roads are laid. With their help rivers are tamed, planes are observed and education aids are employed. In other words, machines have become the most important part of our daily life. That is why the relation of man and machine has become complementary but sometimes it is contradictory.

One of the most important achievements of machines is that goods have been standardised. The qualities of the goods can never fall and it is possible to produce them in large quantities. As a result of its artisans and craftsmen have almost been replaced by machines. It seems that the artistic skill of man is fast fading even out of the memory. Every good can be manufactured according to certain specifications and as a result of it, they can be sold with much care and confidence.

This has given rise to competition between man and machine and it seems that sometimes the competition is quite unhealthy.

Mass-scale production of the goods has resulted in the unemployment of a large number of artisans. It is also responsible for competitive spirit which in its turn has given rise to many other problems and malpractices. It is because of mass production that a huge amount of money is spent on publicity and the people are cheated of their hard-earned money. Some of the countries because of over-production indulge in certain practices, like dumping of the goods, which are very dangerous for the economy of a country. Mass-scale production many times leads to wastage of the national resources.

Machines have in an unknown manner developed mechanical attitudes in the case of man. Man looks at things as objects to be experimented upon and he does not have that sense of appreciation which he used to have in the earlier times. The appreciation of beauty is not as spontaneous, as it used to be. Moreover, machines have made man time-conscious and he does not want to waste even a single minute. This attitude has resulted in a strain upon his mind. He is all the time worried about the proper utilisation of time. He wants that time should be the deciding factor in his life. This mechanical attitude is not good for the overall development of man.

One of the worst features of this mechanical age is that man is slowly replaced by machines. It is feared that man will be completely subordinated to machines. Tagore with his sensitive mind has expressed fear as well as horror of machines in his famous one-act-play Mukt Dhara. No denying the fact that the large-scale unemployment is because of machines. Machines can do the work of a large number of the manual workers, that is why a number of people are rendered jobless.

Total despondency upon machines is definitely harmful. That is why Gandhiji was opposed to the craze for machines. He did not want that man should become the helpless tool of machines. It is wrong to say that Gandhiji was opposed to machines, rather he considered excessive mechanisation harmful. He objected to labour saving machines for a country like India.

He said, “The use of machinery should cease just at the point where it ceased to help man and when it began to encroach upon his individuality.” It is not good to allow machines to dominate man’s life. If man is to work with the help of machines for man to remain in his normal self. Machines, when they become masters, crush the very spirit of man and bring an end to all good qualities of man as a creature of God. Man has moral sense which animals don’t have and machine makes man indifferent to all the higher values of life: we become earthly and earthy.