Date: Sat, 27 May 1995 04:13:00 -0400
From: Sean Noonan <SEANNO@KSUVM.KSU.EDU>
To: PROGRESSIVE SOCIOLOGISTS NETWORK <psn@csf.colorado.edu>
Subject: Techno Rebels
In response to Perry Seymour's post regarding "The Nation" article about
techno rebels by Kirpatrick Sale, "localism" not only fails to grasp human
exploitation on a global level but also the global context and consequences of
environmental degradation as well.
Rather than providing critical insights I found the article to be premised on
sloppy sentiment instead of critical reasoning. Sale wants to blame
technology, anthropocentrism, and western civilization for the deeds of
industrial capitalism; they are not synonymous! In my view a rational
anthropocentrism would promote biodiveristy in the interests of a sustaining
humanity. We should eat low on the foodchain,not because cows have souls,
but because it is more efficient, and could promote a more equitable
distribution of finite resources.
Although no technology is absolutely neutral, the
organization and implementation of a technology accounts for many of its
negative effects. Sale's own examples (Bhopal, Chernobyl, Love Canal, PCB,
Exxon Valdez) demonstrate this quite succinctly. The real problem with
technolgy is they are most frequently developed and employed (forced down
our throats) either in the interests of accumulating more capital or finding
more efficient means of killing people. Even internal combustion is not
intrinsically evil; but the practical necessity of owning an automobile
in a capitalist nation-state is.
Conversely the bicycle is one of humanity's greates technological
inventions. It's an efficient means of transportation, depletes resources
relatively slowing and is good brain food too. I am not a gear head. I am
extremely sceptical of next weeks techno-fix. However, I am simply incapable
of "spiritual identification of the human with all living species and systems."
Is this a joke? To belabor the obvious, a virus is a species too.
Holding the Old Order Amish up as a model to be emulated is a completely
inadaquate mechanism for throwing off the yoke of industrial capitalism.
Retreatism is only resistance in the most minimal sense. Also, I am very
sceptical of the notion that the tyranny of tradition in an Amish community
is a sufficient improvement over the estrangement of technological overdrive.
The romanticism of techno-rebels keeps them from being able to identify, and
hence effectively combat, the real causes of our environmental catastophes and
needless subjugation. Unless something is done to at least seriously curtail
capitalism, eventually every amish community or green-hippie commune wil have
to confront a massive oil spill, poison water, an incinerator, a nuclear power
plant or some other tragic effect of capital accumulation.