forked from logenkain/criticalsarcasm
222 lines
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HTML
222 lines
13 KiB
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<meta name="generator" content="LibreOffice 6.0.5.2 (Linux)"/>
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<meta name="created" content="2018-01-05T14:03:39.991112897"/>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0.2in; line-height: 100%">POSTMAN
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FREUD <sdfield type=PAGE subtype=RANDOM format=PAGE>0</sdfield></p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Technobabble
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and Civilization</font></p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Postman
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and Freud</font></p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Joseph
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J. Green</font></p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Northern
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Arizona University</font></p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><br/>
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</p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%; page-break-before: always">
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<font face="Times New Roman, serif"> Sigmund Freud and Neil Postman
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have many theories relating to civilization and technology. In Neil
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Postman’s “The Judgement of Thamus in his book Technopoly: The
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Surrender of Culture to Technology has quite a bit to say on the
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relationship between civilization and technology. Sigmund Freud in
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his book Civilization and Its Discontents, discusses much about the
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growth of civilization and also touches on how technology has an
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effect on civilization.</font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"> In
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“The Judgement of Thamus,” Postman touches on the idea that
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technology is neither good nor bad for society, but that it is both
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good and bad. It adds as well as detracts from culture. This chapter
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opens with him discussing the story of the king Thamus talking to the
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god Theuth, an inventor. Theuth had creating writing and he was happy
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to expose how amazing the technology is and how much it will benefit
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man kind. Theuth spoke of the wonders of storing and sharing wisdom
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and memory through this invention. Thamus countered him by stating
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that an inventor doesn’t know that his technology is good or bad,
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that an inventor is inherently biased towards his invention. Thamus
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specifically discredited the idea of writing by stating that he
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believed that this invention of writing will encourage people to stop
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practicing memory and become more forgetful, and that it will cause
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people to depend on external things as a device to aid in
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recollection. He further complains that writing will help wisdom and
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memory spread, which isn’t inherently bad, but by doing so, people
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who do not fully understand the wisdom of the words without proper
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instruction, they will be “filled with the conceit of wisdom
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instead of real wisdom” (Postman, 1993). As we know, writing has
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opened up an incredible amount of opportunity for humanity, but it is
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also clear that we have lost some things, such as memory, but the
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gains have been immense. Postman also claims that technology really
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needs to be looked at from both sides. He even admits that he often
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looks for the dissenting opinion when looking at new technologies,
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but feels that it is important to show reasonable counter to
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optimism. Furthermore, he finds that technologies are often adopted
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without much realization and results in new technologies, the
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winners, beckoning people of old technology, the losers, to join in
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with them. Espousing all the benefits of the new versus the old.</font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"> In
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Civilization and its Discontents Freud tries to explain some of the
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actions of why people do what they do, how people have come to how
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they are, and, especially, how to obtain the happiness that people
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seek. Throughout this work Freud makes many claims. He finds that
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people evolve much like cities. Over the course of time, cities are
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demolished, burned down, or simply destroyed and rebuilt slowly over
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time during peace. He specifically mentions how ancient cities that
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still exist are largely built upon ruins of itself. Some of these
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things go away completely, but most stay either hidden or adapted
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into the works and buildings that go on in the city. These things
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become something new, yet maintain something old. He says this in
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human memories and physiology. He explains how puberty results in the
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loss of the thymus gland and that it is replaced by connective
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tissue, and how an adults completed bone contains the child hood bone
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that had been there before it, and how new experiences and,
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specifically, memories of experiences merge and form new thoughts
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that bring people to who they are at the present. Much like cities.
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Freud also found that, however civilization is defined, protections
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are sought from dangers that come from the suffering that comes from
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its own civilization. This seems particularly interesting given the
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fact that we know it is true, at least at a basic level. For example,
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civilization started herding animals that lead to the creation of,
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and increased spread of, new diseases which we then needed to protect
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ourselves against ("Humans Change the World", 2016). Freud
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also, like Postman, found that technology doesn’t so much bring
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happiness as it brings change to humanity where good and bad both
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take place, not simply one or the other. Specifically, Freud mentions
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how if certain technology didn’t get created, other technology
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wouldn’t be needed to maintain happiness. If the locomotive never
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carried people across continents, people would likely have stayed
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closer to home more often which would remove the need for long
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distance communication in order to solve the anxiety about distant
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friends and family. One thing Freud seemed especially insistent about
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is that technology brings people closer to godlihood. To make a
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primal example, the discovery and control of fire brought <font face="Times New Roman, serif">the
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human race from being weak creatures struggling to survive, to a
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species with the ability to see the world burn. </font><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Freud
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also found beauty to be fascinating because of how utterly useless it
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is. It does not assist in survival in any obvious way, so our desire
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for beauty is a bit of a mystery. He also claims that cleanliness is
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also not found in nature, yet humans seem to have a passion for that,
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but he did find that order is certainly a part of nature. He finds
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order to be incredibly useful for everything that humans do, yet
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paradoxically, it’s one of the hardest things to teach people to
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pay attention to due to their natural carelessness.</font></font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"> These
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two writers are certainly very opinionated and clearly have thought
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about the issues at hand that they discuss. Both Freud and Postman
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seem to agree that technology isn’t a “good or bad” issue, but
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a “good and bad” issue. This, to me, is clearly obvious. We see
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it today with the introduction of the Internet. I’m one of those
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strange kids who was born in the mid 80’s. Born just early enough
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to grow up during the transition of the world to the Internet and for
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computers to go from things only hobbyists and businessmen used, to
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every family having a computer, and finally to every person having an
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overpriced super restricted computer they carelessly put in their
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pockets. I was particularly interested in computers from a young age,
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so I was able to see the transition of society from the eyes of a
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person who understood what was actually going on. This alone could be
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a paper of its own, but to keep my example brief I will restrict it
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to one thing that the Internet has done. It has given us access to a
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huge database of jobs where we can find anything we want, anywhere in
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the world, and, if we desire and have the ability, take that job and
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move to wherever it is. Wonderful, but a huge drawback is the
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increased competition. A company may have settled for a local worker
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looking to get his start back in the early 90’s, but now many
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companies are hoping for talent from anywhere in the country can come
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serve them which makes it much harder for people without much
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experience to gain it when competition is so steep. I’m also fully
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in agreement with much of what Postman has said about technology
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sneaking in, taking over, and changing who the winners and losers
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are. I don’t believe anyone could have expected the computers or
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the Internet to change the world in the profound ways that it has.
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Heck, Marion Zimmer Bradley in his book, The Colors of Space,
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predicted a futuristic world run by advanced civilizations who fly
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around in spaceships, but still use books to navigate space along
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side computer that take punchcards and spit out information on paper
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(Bradley et al., 2007). At the time the novel was written, this was
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the current state of computers, considering other technologies that
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existed at the time, I’m surprised the author didn’t think of
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something considering other technologies that existed at the time,
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such as televisions, but it goes to show that it is incredibly hard
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to foresee the future and the effects technology will have on it.
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Now, I must disagree with Freud's insistence that beauty is useless.
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If we think of its direct practical non-emotional value, it does seem
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rather useless. However, when we consider that humans are creative
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artful creatures, and that beauty inspires us, it seems to have a
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very practical value. Humans see beauty which inspires them for
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everything from creating great thing, to reproduction. Even some
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animals flaunt pretty colors in an effort to attract mates.</font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"> Freud
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and Postman certainly have many great, well thought out, theories.
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Postman fantastically lays out some of the effects of technology and
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civilization and poses the warning that we must look at things from
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more than one side. Freud seems to share some thoughts with Postman,
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but also finds a lot more specific to humans and civilization than
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such focus on technology. Both of these men have many theories that
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are both agreeable and disagreeable to myself, but to go through
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every theory we could write a book. In any case, many great ideas
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emanate from great people and we should consider them all to the best
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of our ability.</font></p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%; page-break-before: always">
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<br/>
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</p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">RESOURCES</font></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Bradley, M.,
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Simão, A., Smallheer, J., Nelson, M., Savage, K., & Rose, L.
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(2007). <i>The Colors of Space</i> [Audio Book]. Retrieved
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from
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https://librivox.org/the-colors-of-space-by-marion-zimmer-bradley/</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Freud, S.
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(1930). <i>Civilization and Its Discontents</i> (pp. 1-99).</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Humans Change the
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World. (2016). Retrieved from
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http://humanorigins.si.edu/human-characteristics/humans-change-world</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Postman, N.
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(1993). <i>Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to
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Technology</i> (1st ed., pp. 1-17). New York: Knopf.</font></font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><br/>
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</p>
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</body>
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</html>
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