Review: Technopoly
Redaktioneller Bericht - Kirkus ReviewsPostman (Conscientious Objections, 1988, etc.) once more cuts across the grain as an important critic of our national culture, this time arguing that America has become the world's first ""totalitarian technocracy""--otherwise known as a ""Technopoly."" Postman starts out from the long view, showing that while every human culture becomes ""tool-using,"" the use of those tools doesn't necessarily change that culture's beliefs, ideology, or world view. In ""technocracy,"" however (for us, this stage began to burgeon in the industrial 19th century), there's a change: tools (they're now called ""technology"") begin to alter the culture instead of just being used by it: ""tools...attack the culture. They bid to become the culture."" And technocracy becomes Technopoly when tools win the battle for dominance and become the sole determiners of a culture's purpose and meaning, and in fact of its very way of knowing and thinking--or of not thinking. The tools, in other words, come not only to use us but to define what we are--which is ""why in a Technopoly there can be no transcendent sense of purpose of meaning, no cultural coherence."" So desolate a view of generalized inversion and ideological collapse fails to subdue either Postman's humane and faithful energy or his unflagging quickness of mind as he travels from Copernicus, Descartes, and Francis Bacon on through discussions of modern bureaucracy, concepts of worker ""management,"" the intellectual hollowness of social ""science"" and its monster-children of poll-taking and IQ testing--these and others (schools, TV, the computer ""culture"") all being ""technologies"" that in fact are ""without a moral center,"" yet ones that we insistently revere and haplessly measure ourselves by, because ""we have become blind to the ideological meaning of our technologies."" Amusing, learned, and prickling with intelligence, Postman easily outclasses the Allan Bloomians in the grave work of showing how it is that we've now stumbled our way into 1984--and offers, at end, some modest suggestions as to what to do about it.
Review: Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology
Nutzerbericht - Sean - GoodreadsMan fashions technology; technology fashions man. Required reading with tremendous explanatory power. An extremely helpful account of how technology surreptitiously shapes the way we think, speak and ... Vollständige Rezension lesen
Review: Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology
Nutzerbericht - Melinda - GoodreadsThere is much here to recommend to both those who are disquieted by technology and to those who wonder if we aren't losing our moral compass in our embrace of all things that distract and momentarily ... Vollständige Rezension lesen
Review: Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology
Nutzerbericht - Jason Leonard - GoodreadsThe best critique of our contemporary culture I have read. Insightful, subversive, lucid. It's a tad extreme but this only serves to make it more engaging. Postman journeys through various histories ... Vollständige Rezension lesen
Review: Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology
Nutzerbericht - Theoxeny - GoodreadsBroader in scope than his landmark work, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Technopoly is another healthy dose of sanity in an increasingly illiterate and technophilic age. Postman demonstrates how our ... Vollständige Rezension lesen
Review: Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology
Nutzerbericht - Veronica - GoodreadsAn excellent critique of modern culture, on the same par with Allan Bloom. It's lucid and accessible to the average reader, which is a good thing because its incredibly eye-opening. This book helped ... Vollständige Rezension lesen
Review: Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology
Nutzerbericht - Ben - GoodreadsThough Postman wrote this book in 1992, his ideas remain as relevant as ever in 2012. If he thought Technopoly was running rampant in '92, I can't imagine (well, I can) his disgust at technology's ... Vollständige Rezension lesen
Review: Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology
Nutzerbericht - Greg Linster - GoodreadsThe late Neil Postman's book, Technopoly, is a sobering assessment of a technologically obsessed American culture. The fact that the book was presciently published in 1992, long before the Internet ... Vollständige Rezension lesen
Review: Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology
Nutzerbericht - GoodreadsThere are definitely some interesting questions brought up in this book, eg: * Do we need symbols, and if yes, is the information overflow society really draining most of them from their meaning ...
Review: Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology
Nutzerbericht - Jordan Munn - GoodreadsThere are some good ideas in this book, but only incidentally so- Postman himself delivers almost nothing of merit. Postman tends to come across as a curmudgeon in his writing, but in Amusing ... Vollständige Rezension lesen
