In “From Technocracy to Technopoly” postman discusses how mankind began using knowledge to further progress as a society through machines and eventually allowed ourselves to be completely subdued by technology. in a technocracy the ideology of Francis Bacon began to see life and brought about an urge to invent just because we could. There began a rise of machines which brought about increased proficiency in productivity. Products where now manufactured faster, cheaper and more conveniently and there saw less of a need for the expertise in physical labor by man. This threatened the old world as a faster society was causing greater independence. Through science, humans began to break away from old faiths and traditions but did not completely abandon them. Society in a technocracy was still loosely controlled by social and religious traditions. As postman states, “technocracy does not have in its aim a grand reductionism in which human life must find its meaning in machinery and technique.”
Technopoly however, which postman describes as “the submission of all forms of cultural life to the sovereignty of technique and technology” means to reduce human life to finding meaning in machines. Humans no longer needed to think, the machines would do the thinking for us. Where technocracy attempts to uncomfortably coexist with the old world, technopoly aim to completely dominate it. For every “old world belief, habit, or tradition” technopoly provided an answer. Some of the alternatives postman mentions as an example are “to reading, the alternative is television”, “to prayer, the alternative is penicillin.”
The thin blue line is a burning fuse speaks of how every struggle is a struggle against the police. That although you may not be able to see those who are truly being unjust with you, you can see the police who are pining you to the ground, beating you and robbing you of your dignity. Crimethinc speaks up on the unfortunate truth that the police will always be protected by a grand jury. In a way one can compare the current police state to technopoly and even consider it a direct cause of it. Like technopoly’s dominance over culture, the police force is seen as an overwhelming presence on society. Once again we can not help but be subdued and submit to this greater power. Technopoly has called for a profit driven economy, further increasing the gap between the rich and the poor. This of course creates greater tension between the classes and through the invention of “white privilege” divides races of equal income class making whites of lower middle class feel somewhat superior to those of color. Once again we see a conflict of two worlds and those of power and of the “chosen race” use the police as that great wall between them and people of color. That wall has been seen to time and time again to take advantage of their power and wrongly end the lives of fellow American citizens such as Michael Brown. It is as crimethinc called it “the militarization of police”, advanced weaponry brought about through the unstoppable progress of technology that was once meant to protect us is now used against us.
