Give the man a Break

This article submitted by Heavin311 on 3/19/01.

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First of all Mr. Postman informs people of how technology has changed our society and how people have become totally emersed in technology as a way of life. Technology today has become a culture within our society and Postman explains how people have lost touch with our past cultures. He makes it apparent by explaining how people take pyschological experiments as truth. Postman elorborates on the idea that social science is similiar to a novel in which they both tell a story. He explains how social science will generate specific principles which can be used to organize society on a rational and humane basis. Postman goes into some detail of how a man named Stanley Milgram developed and ran a test with actors to prentend like they were being shocked. People off the streets were then asked to be in his experiment and they were told to shock the "actors." The people had no idea that they were actors and nearly 65% of the people involved shocked the "actors" with a fatal dose of electricity. Eventhough the whole thing was only a show, the experiment tried to prove that people will obey an upper authority. I and Postman alike both disagree with this proposterous experiment. All Milgram showed was what these certain people would do in a laboratory environment. Who knows what these people would have done in a different situation. Therefore, the experiment proves absolutely nothing. Well, before I digress any further I just want to explain that my main point is that Postman believes social science is controlling the minds of humans in which they believe and live their lives according to certain "laws" that pschologists have "proven." To put my idea in simple context I will use an analogy. It's like buying a new car and relying on the Consumer Reports on it's reliablity. Machines are machines and they will break down, no matter if they are cars or roller coasters you are putting your faith in someone else's word that you are doing the right thing. Postman sums up this argument beautifully by leaving the answer to this dillema open ended. Is this going to serve the human interest or prove most deadly in the Age of Technopoly.

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