The Folly of Turning Back the Tide

I vividly remember a story whose moral is about the danger of hubris.  It's the story of King Canute, a  

Danish King who ruled much of England and Gaul.  His courtiers told him he was so powerful that the tides would obey him.  Here's the story from the account of Henry of Huntingdon in his Chronicle.

[Canute] commanded that his chair should be set on the shore, when the tide began to rise. And then he spoke to the rising sea saying “You are part of my dominion, and the ground that I am seated upon is mine, nor has anyone disobeyed my orders with impunity. Therefore, I order you not to rise onto my land, nor to wet the clothes or body of your Lord”. But the sea carried on rising as usual without any reverence for his person, and soaked his feet and legs. Then he moving away said:  “All the inhabitants of the world should know that the power of kings is vain and trivial, and that none is worthy the name of king but He whose command the heaven, earth and sea obey by eternal laws”. 

So, who are the modern Canutes?  Those who believe that their orders can change the course of the universe.

I just read an article bewailing changes in the hotel industry.  More and more accommodations are being run as timeshares, condotels, or vacation rentals instead of full service hotels.  Even "full service" hotels are cutting back on service, changing linens every few days instead of daily and dropping traditional amenities like room service.  The net result of these changes is a reduction in the labor requirements to operate.  The point of this article was that "this has to stop."  We need to go back to an industry of full service hotels.  Unfortunately, the economics are driving investors to change the accommodations landscape.  With timeshares and condominiums, investors can get all of their money back, often even before construction is complete and they make money on the management of the units.  The customer, too, is driving change as people are more willing to co-produce service (or do without) in order to save costs.

Look at all of the changes we're seeing where service is automated or cut back.

•  Reservations for hotels and airlines are mostly online now, with little or no human interation.
• Airline check in has become automated, with kiosks replacing human beings
• Hotel check-out is accomplished through your in-room telephone or television.

I even stayed in a hotel in Europe that had nobody at the front desk.  When you arrived, you approached a vending machine which displayed keys in little windows.  If there was a key in the window, the room was available.  You selected a room, inserted a credit card, pushed a button and the machine "dispensed" a key.  No human was involved.

For certain high end products, automation isn't going to work, but more and more we're seeing people being replaced by machines.  That's reality.  And wishing the world would go back to the way it was won't change things.

There are some poignant examples of people trying to turn back the tide.  As railroads switched from steam to diesel, the unions were able to require that engines still carry a "fireman" ... although a fireman was absolutely unnecessary.  This was a practice known as "featherbedding" and it nearly killed the railroads.

So, as much as some may wish that the world would move back to a time that is more conducive to their world view, it is better to acknowledge the inevitability of change - and move on.