Postman -- Huxley, Havel, Capek, Einstein, Emerson, H. Miller, etc., etc.

This article submitted by Dr. Walter Cicha on 12/16/98.

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Neil Postman should not be taken lightly. In fact, it would be a grave injustice to the future of our society if his ideas, observations, and suggestions were ignored, or worse, mocked. He is the most current of a long line of profound thinkers that dates to the beginning of the industrial revolution. His central idea, that all major paradigms transform our collective thoughts and attitudes, should be obvious to anyone whose IQ contains three digits (no decimal). The paradigms with which he is most concerned are that of technology and media mass communication. Needless to say, the latter could not exist without the former. His concern that we will over-amuse and over-communicate ourselves to death has been visible to the astute observer for almost two centuries, if not much longer. Aldous Huxley wrote about it with some prophetic precision already in 1932 ("Brave New World"). Karel Capek, the Czech writer who coined the word "robot", already warned us of technology's potential grave effects in his 1923 play "R.U.R". Henry Miller, the American "bad boy" writer who by many is thought to be this country's most brilliant novelist of the century, made his views about technology's effects on the human soul quite clear in his 1961 book, "Tropic of Capricorn" and others. Albert Einstein himself believed that technology will only cause humankind more problems than it solves, unless we as a species somehow transform toward the wiser end of the spectrum. Waldo Emerson and his Transcendentalist disciples wrote volumes about the unfortunate consequences of industrial progress on the human spirit, a century and a half ago! There have been many more enlightened individuals looking at our modern society objectively over the past decades, and trying to keep the concept of technological progress in perspective. I am not saying that technology has no value, which would be a very foolish statement. What has no value is its elevation to the status of holiness, as has been done in American society. Holiness can lead to fanaticism, which in fact already has happened here in the US and in other priviliged parts of the world. Unfortunately, the strength of the bond between technology and the dollar (American and now Euro...) will make any changes along the line of Neil Postman's suggestions virtually impossible, until THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO OTHER CHOICE.
Finally, I would like to point out that I am a Ph.D. Chemist by occupation who works with technology every day. In fact, I spent five years carrying out research for the DuPont Company earlier this decade. I understand both sides of the fence exceedingly well...

W. V. Cicha, Ph.D.

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