Low Tech.

 

             We seemed to be completely hypnotised by modern technology it has swamped our lives, we have become dependent on it throughout our daily life. Each new piece of technology we are lead to believe it will improve our life, make life easier, but does it and at what cost? Modern technology has enmeshed us in one massive surveillance machine, the powers that be and some commercial concerns gather facts about your daily life and can use it to their advantage without your knowledge. Cameras monitor your very movement, your phone is a tracking machine and can pin point where you were at any given moment. Modern technology takes away many of your skills that helped you to be independent. It can isolate you but give you the impression that your are part of a community, social media, where some people have a thousand "friends" but have met very few. A strange world of community in isolation. 

These words from Not Buying Anything must surely provoke some thoughts        

 

Wendel Berry at work... without a computer.

       In 1987 Wendel Berry explained that he did not wish to buy a computer with which to do his writing. He never did relent, preferring the low tech and less flashy pencil and paper combo.
       His goal was always, "to make myself as plain as I can". Towards this goal he shared his standards for technological adoption.

They are as follows:
1. The new item should be cheaper than what it replaces.
2. It should be at least as small in scale.
3. It should do work that is clearly and demonstrably better than what it replaces.
4. It should use less energy than what it replaces.
5. If possible, it should use some form of renewable energy, such as solar or that produced by the body.
6. It should be repairable by a person of ordinary intelligence, provided that he or she has the necessary tools.
7. It should be purchasable and repairable as near to home as possible.
8. It should come from a small, privately owned shop or store that would take it back for maintenance and repair.
9. It should not replace or disrupt anything good that already exists, and this includes family and community relationships.
       Using such standards would mean that much of the technology we use now would no longer be produced or consumed. How much of modern technology advances the human condition, rather than advancing surveillance, control, and profit-making? Maybe we need less technology, not more, or perhaps the answers we need can only be addressed by low tech rather than high. But talk that way and most people will think you are insane. We have accepted high tech unconditionally as a good that always makes life better.
        Berry says, "The Luddites asserted the precedence of community needs over technological innovation and monetary profit. The victory of industrialism over Luddism was overwhelming and unconditional. It was undoubtedly the most complete, significant, and lasting victory of modern times.
        To this day, if you say you would be willing to forbid, restrict, or reduce the use of technological devices in order to protect the community, or to protect the good health of nature on which the community depends, you will be called a Luddite, and it will not be a compliment.

Technological determinism has triumphed."

         In an insane world, the sane will be seen as the ones who have lost their minds. Some would say that Wendel Berry was not thinking straight to consider that using a pencil for writing, and editing on paper with his wife, could not be improved upon by the purchase and use of a computer. And yet, he still resisted.
        "The individual", Friederich Nietzsche said, "has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe." He thought that if you tried it, you would often be lonely, and sometimes frightened. But, he thought, "no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself".
         You could say that Berry was off his rocker for not being an enthusiastic cheerleader for high tech. But you couldn't say that he didn't own himself. We would do well to consider his standards for technological adoption, and seriously question all new innovations before we choose to adopt them in our own lives. Contrary to what the tribe believes, new technologies are not always improvements that benefit humanity.

Visit ann arky's home at https://spiritofrevolt.info    

Open Prison.

      We should have learned by now that in this manipulative system the state doesn’t always need physical constraints, a conditioned mind is prison bars enough, to make the individual feel they are free and part of a free and normal society. To the conditioned mind the prison walls are invisible, the illusion of freedom appears so real it is accepted. To keep the illusion alive, the system has its prison warders in the shape of the education system, the media, corporate advertising and state propaganda, that is usually enough to keep the majority of the population reasonably content in their illusion of freedom, and to shape their needs and desires. For those who don't accept this illusion of freedom, then there is always the more brutal loaded judicial system and prison cages of repression.
     We have in most cases willingly assisted in our own enslavement by the embracing modern technology. Not that the technology itself is inherently enslaving, but our acceptance of the belief that the corporate world’s control and development of such technology is progress. Progress, an ambiguous word that can conceal an illusion. Technology has bound us to the owners and developers of that technology. One example, in the not too distant past, games were usually very simple and also very enjoyable. All they required was a ball, a couple of sticks, something to throw, a bat etc. nothing complicated, but enjoyed my millions across the planet. Today games are complicated apparatus that we could never make on our own, to enjoy the new “games” we have to put ourselves in the hands of the corporate bodies that own and control that technology, and with their dictate of progress they will be outdated and you will need to buy into the new and much more sophisticated model. You are on the technology gravy train, not as an enjoyer of the gravy, but as the producer of the gravy, for the few in control to lap up.
     As long as growth is seen as progress, increase in consumption will be necessary, and the powers that be will devise, through their usual conditioning endeavours, ways and means to put new and costly products as symbols of happiness, success and status. A quote from Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World”, encapsulates that line of thought. When asked why are the works of William Shakespeare are banned, the controller replies, ‘Because it’s old; that’s the chief reason. We haven’t any use for old things here’. ‘Even when they’re beautiful?’. ‘Particularly when they’re beautiful. Beauty’s attractive, and we don’t want people to be attracted by old things. We want them to like the new ones’”. I think Huxley has thrown us a warning there, as did Orwell, we ignore them at our peril.

Visit ann arky's home at https://radicalglasgow.me.uk