Kenny's Technopoly

Kenny Fox

10/3/11

Period 7

Dominguez

Technopoly

The chapter being analyzed from Neil Postman's Technopoly draws a very close correlation to the society in the book Brave New World. To begin; Postman defines the term Technocracy as “a society only loosely controlled by social custom and religious tradition and driven by the impulse to invent.” This statement in itself makes only a moderate relation to Brave New world. Throughout the book there is little to no tradition, as it is actually discouraged. Additionally they are relentlessly thriving to better their production of a work force, thriving to better themselves, and thriving to invent. Furthermore Postman describes what he calls Technopoly in a much different way. It doesn't eliminate traditional influences in a normal way; it “does not make them illegal. It does not make them immoral. It does not even make them unpopular. It makes them invisible and therefor irrelevant.” Postman goes on to state that “Technopoly is totalitarian technocracy.” Therefor the difference between the two is very easy to spot. They are very much the same thing as they have the same goals and such. Although on the other hand a Technopoly manages to eliminate what it feels to be negative to progress in a much better fashion than that of a technocracy. Frederick W. Taylor's work was a key component of the scopes case and eventually spread elsewhere. He was thought of as the “originator of scientific management.” His book displayed the first outlined assumptions of the thought-world of Technopoly. Taylor believed that the key of labor is efficiency; that technical calculations are superior to human judgment, that human judgment cannot be trusted because it is corrupted by many other influences. Taylor wrote that people should be ruled by experts, not themselves, meaning other people should make their decisions for them. This thought process is very similar to that presented in Brave New World.