Feb 14, 2023ยทedited Feb 14, 2023Liked by Theophilus Chilton
From where I type, it's bright obvious the trial run landed swimmingly ๐ Reblogging sure works for evergreen content; keep 'em coming, these darlings from foreign country(*) where they do things differently there ๐
I've been thinking about this a lot recently. There must be a way between the horns of anti-tech neo-Luddism and the technophilic embrace of the transhuman. Perhaps part of the solution is to subordinate technique, and scientific enterprise more generally, to a religious worldview: sanctify science and couch its justification and explication in explicitly religious terms (e.g. the exploration of God's creation) grounding the search for truth in that greater Truth. Modernism aims at creating a worldly utopia; perhaps traditionalism might use technique to halt that advance and build a more transcendent order.
That is, we have a ruling class which is โeliteโ in that it occupies high positions in our sociopolitical circles and is able to wield power, but that it is NOT โeliteโ when we consider the intrinsic quality of the individual people involved, who really do not naturally deserve their power and influence.
Before March 2020, I didn't believe this. I thought that the cream naturally rose to the top. But the past three years have taught many of us a lot of things. Some people will always trust authority, but now a huge fraction of the population is permanently scarred. There's some hope for the future.
Even second time through, this a great intro to Ellul and the technical culture. Far too many who comment on our politics today fail to properly understand the true nature of the administrative and managerial state because they fail to grasp the nature of technique as the operating system of our world today.
From where I type, it's bright obvious the trial run landed swimmingly ๐ Reblogging sure works for evergreen content; keep 'em coming, these darlings from foreign country(*) where they do things differently there ๐
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(*) aka BC ie Before Covid
I've been thinking about this a lot recently. There must be a way between the horns of anti-tech neo-Luddism and the technophilic embrace of the transhuman. Perhaps part of the solution is to subordinate technique, and scientific enterprise more generally, to a religious worldview: sanctify science and couch its justification and explication in explicitly religious terms (e.g. the exploration of God's creation) grounding the search for truth in that greater Truth. Modernism aims at creating a worldly utopia; perhaps traditionalism might use technique to halt that advance and build a more transcendent order.
That is, we have a ruling class which is โeliteโ in that it occupies high positions in our sociopolitical circles and is able to wield power, but that it is NOT โeliteโ when we consider the intrinsic quality of the individual people involved, who really do not naturally deserve their power and influence.
Before March 2020, I didn't believe this. I thought that the cream naturally rose to the top. But the past three years have taught many of us a lot of things. Some people will always trust authority, but now a huge fraction of the population is permanently scarred. There's some hope for the future.
Even second time through, this a great intro to Ellul and the technical culture. Far too many who comment on our politics today fail to properly understand the true nature of the administrative and managerial state because they fail to grasp the nature of technique as the operating system of our world today.