Rózsa, George: Some Considerations of the Role of Scientific Libraries in the Age of Scientific and Technical Revolution. An Essay and Approach to the Problem (A MTAK kiadványai 50. Budapest, 1970)
24 sets a perspective before the library. And this is the ultimate objective of library and documentation work in these fields. However, catching up with the world standard also has its own perspective or ultimate objective which is not merely the raising of the per capita production of steel or butter, etc. to a certain level in order to attain an abundance of products in the last resort and which of the "two cultures" in accordance with what have been discussed above in order to develop the individual to the full, in other words, the competition is going on not only for the increase in the "per capita" production of steel, butter, etc. but also for what might be termed as ''per capita kind feeling'' or "per capita consciousness" or even "per capita human dignity". And this is not easier or simpler than the "material" competition by a long way. The interdependence between economy and consciousness is just as obvious as the complexity of this interdependence and the ambiguity of interactions. Thus, among other things, no one may assume that wealth by itself can automatically cause an increase in the "kind feeling" or can raise human dignity to a higher level or can make us happier. He who takes his lunch two times or has twice as many clothes or has twice as big an apartment, does not necessarily have twice as great an awareness of the quality of life. If wealth, personal or social, were automatically to increase "the kind feeling", or to imply more culture or to involve more "sublime activities", this would certainly appear so in the historically "luckier" and richer nations of the West. "Alienation" and various signs of crisis in the "kind feeling" do not refer to this. The reverse of what has been stated above is not true, either, at least in society, namely that in the long run "one may dream of beauties even kneeling on peas". 1 4 Without a high level material culture and production and without an abundancy of products there is no free time and its use in the Marxian sense; there is no possibility of eliminating narrow specialization and of developing citizens with many-sided personalities. This might be possible for the individual or for groups with a high degree of consciousness but not for society as a whole. It is however, highly probable or rather necessary — that the countries which have started their development with underveloped productive forces and under less favourable circumstances, will yield more as regards the "per capita kind feeling", human dignity or educational opportunities than the economically more developed bourgeois countries. This is true in many respects and much has come true by now, particularly in the field of education and culture. What we have in mind, then, is that the term "peaceful competition" is taken to mean not only an economic competition but considering its final objective and its possible approach also a competition for the increase in "kind feeling", both socially and individually. Following from the contemplation 1 4 Reference to A passage in Imre MADÁCH'S classical work "The Tragedy of Man". Scene 12. ". . . To keep you wide awake, you'll kneel on peas. FLATO: I'll dream of beauties even on my knees , , ,"
