Uncritical Approaches to Postman's Technopoly

This article submitted by Kathleen on 8/7/01.

Topic:

Thoughts:

While it is important to critique the social and cultural
impact of an overadherence to technology and science as the
underpinnings of our moral and social thought, Postman
basically poses a return to traditional epistemology and
medievalism as a solutionn to the problem of "culture
surrendering to technology." in Technopoly. He sees
the medieval world- a world wherein the Great Chain of Being
defined the social & spiritual relations of man- as a
plausible alternative to a culture which he sees as dictated to and
driven by its 'reification' of technology. It is no wonder
Postman is forced to avoid such cultural-historical aspects as
gender and race in constructing his case against Technopoly,
instead relying upon a traditionalist argument that never
addresses the social gains of post-Enlightenment Europe
for women and those perceived as culturally 'different' How
comforting it would be to return to bloodletting as a
medical practice; a return to papal rule such as in the
Holy Roman Empire would be a wonderful relocation of authority
from Science back to Church. In essence, the world of divine
monarchy was a certain, decent, and practical one in which men knew
their place, had meaning and epistemological 'truth,' and
were less alienated (a recapitulation of Marx but with much
less historical rigor).
I have followed Postman's thread of logic from "Amusing Ourselves
to Death" to "Conscientious Objections" and now to "Technopoly."
He is saying nothing new, and in recapitulating the traditionalist view of culture, he
illumines only an obvious and well-discussed fact: modern
American culture is in a moral and intellectual crisis as
manifested in its fanatical love and trust of new
technologies in medicine, consumer electronics, etc. But
perhaps the deeper questions is how can a technologically
advanced society that sees its traditions as rooted in
rationalism retain cultural values of sexism, racism, and
institutionalized economic disparity in light of what
promises to be new intellectual and social horizons for the poor,
the socially disenfranchised, and the culturally ignored?
Precisely because our "cultural critics" are not truly
polemicizing our culture with their discourse, instead
codifying age-old witticisms through boring anecdotes and
bad metaphors such as the immune system. I am sorely
disappointed in Technopoly's tragic failure to penetrate
deeper cultural issues, such as how archaic social
constructions of mastery percolate into new ideologies
such as Postman's in such a way that nothing really ever
changes.

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