tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post5900811635485795413..comments2024-03-17T07:11:44.454-04:00Comments on John Kenneth Muir's Reflections on Cult Movies and Classic TV: Johnny Byrne Thought of the Day #4:John Kenneth Muirhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15629979615332893780noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-50933453114030889792008-04-10T13:19:00.000-04:002008-04-10T13:19:00.000-04:00You should check out Neil Postman’s “Technopoly.” ...You should check out Neil Postman’s “Technopoly.” In it he classifies technological evolution into three distinct stages. 1) Tool using cultures, where early human cultures invented tools for two primary reasons: to address the problems of physical life, (e.g. windmills, plows etc.) and to serve the symbolic world of art, politics, and religion. 2) technocracies, which describe cultures in which tools play a central role in altering consciousness by essentially attacking the culture; and as a consequence, tradition, social mores, myths, politics, rituals, and religion had to fight for their lives, and then finally 3) Technopolies, or a totalitarian technocracy, or what I like to call the Matrix, where technology becomes the omnipresent dominant ideology. <BR/><BR/>In the social sciences, computer technology has rapidly increased our reliance on statistically driven quantitative analysis which in turn influences policy in every institution of the modern world. When all culture is quantified through polling in politics, IQ or standardized testing in education, or a quantifiable rating system in terms of gross sales in the music industry or number of viewers when it comes to renewing a TV show, then those subjective qualities that may give birth to art and magic are lost and culture is diminished. <BR/><BR/>-rcAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12380553.post-59670947362717797302008-04-10T08:57:00.000-04:002008-04-10T08:57:00.000-04:00I completely agree, and offer a supporting quote: ...I completely agree, and offer a supporting quote: "Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men." - Martin Luther King, Jr.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com