Chapter 3: From Technocracy to Technoploy

In Chapter 3 Postman discusses the shift from technocracy to technopoly. He describes Adam Smith’s aggressive transformation, “money, not land, was the key to wealth. . .” (40-41). In the beginning family was everything, and in my eyes still is, my father always says “without your family you have nothing”. Later Postman said, “Technocracy gave us the idea of progress, and of necessity loosened our bonds with tradition. . .” (45). I believe this way of thinking was the beginning of the decline of religious tradition and of the family centered world. Postman also describes technolpoly as “the submission of all forms of cultural life to the sovereignty of technique and technology…” (52). In the technocracy era, people could part with their culture and traditions, people still clung to their beliefs.
Postman believes the transition between technocracy and technopoly began close to the Henry Ford era. There are also four interrelated response for the dominance of Technolopy within America: 1) America provided many opportunities with no limits, 2) the genius and audacity of American inventors, nothing was worth preserving if it stood in the way of technological innovation, 3) the convenience, comfort, speed, hygiene, and abundance was so promising there was no reason to explore anything else, and 4) there is nothing left to belief in but technology. (53-55).
“Alfred North Whitehead summed it up best when he remarked that the greatest invention of the nineteenth century was the idea of invention itself . . . the idea if something could be done, it should be done was born” (42). This idea contributed to the technolopy way of thinking. Postman also states “Time became an adversary over which technology could triumph” (45). You would think that this would leave move time for the working person to spend with their family, but it had the opposite effect. People learned if they still work the same amount of they could get more done/make more money. I believe this led people to become more greedy, since we already know money, not land gave people more power. And with this people spend even less time with their family and worshiping god. Technopoly was delved to make life easier, now it is used to make more money. Why have we allowed our society to get so far out of control and our priorities so messed up?