terror,paranoia,hilarity and calculated madness on the way to the transit of Venus- tone in chapters 456

[Joseph Tracy]

No I agree that it powers both possibilities. So this passage is just one side of the ledger. There are many benign technologies of healing, of  sustainable food cultivation, of observation, transportation etc., but there is also this dark attraction of power  over others that seems inherently connected to technology and the kind of social arrangement that accompany technology. This self serving nature of social power effectively blinds humans to the health, the sacredness, and wisdom of a complex, species rich  and reasonably unpolluted natural world. The rich appreciate nature enough to live in manicured gardens and sun themselves on pristine beaches, consider this their right as the strong and well born. It isn't that a tool makes you monstrous but that tools allow the world to be seen and dealt with as a monopoly game. We all know how games excite extreme egoistic competition. Nature becomes a gaming board and parts of a winning strategy.
On Jan 27, 2015, at 7:02 AM, alice malice wrote:

> Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
>> Yes. Poignant example. Also how technology is an extension of human lusts, fears, addictions, competing  world views.
> 
> Isn't it the other way round? So Technology Extends human lust, fear,
> addiction, ideology, and not only these negatives but also love,
> security, generosity, cooperation, magnanimity, hope.
> 
> Our boys are taking measurements to draw a boundary, an extension of
> law, of agreement and settlement of a bloody conflict.
> 
> But there is a problem with such arguments no matter how we make them.
> 
> Heidegger, who waxes poetically into mystical poetic engineering and
> seems a positive on humanity's capacity for wonder, for we can still
> live well if we ally ourselves with forces beyond our control and
> beyond our grasp, beyond our comprehension. But this doesn't work.
> Look at China! India! Look at the postmodern human society. It doesn't
> remain fixed and as it evolves its view of Nature shifts. The view of
> Nature as a place, as a sacred space, as ineffable spirit, as garden,
> as home, as dwelling....and as an unruly and hostile beast that must
> be defeated, tamed, exploited...are in flux, and our position to
> Nature is also not fixed and so we may long to dwell in the pristine
> forest or we may long to cut the forest down and toil in the Good
> Earth. Each age in each region responds differently to the call of the
> wild. The coal age, now blackening the lungs of the Chinese is not the
> coal age of English Industrialization because the technology and more
> importantly, how Nature is perceived is different.  Where is the Earth
> that is not subjected to this human view, that is not reshaped and
> transformed by the extension of our evolving desires and needs? Where
> is it that I may dwell in it poetically.
> 
> Dwight Eddins wrote a unique and beautiful book with an unfortunate
> name and a difficult introduction, _The Gnostic Pynchon_, and in it he
> defines what he calls Pynchon's Orphic Naturalism. I think Eddins is
> on to something.
> 
> In any event, Mumford and McLuhan, Pynchon sources, perform magic too,
> and are much better reads than Heidegger, let alone those unreadable
> D&G guys, and each, in the end puts a positive spin on Technology, but
> if you read only the history of what Mumford provides and not hos more
> positive view of the future, it seems about right and GR, I've always
> thought, takes much from Mumford.
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l

-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l