Critique Paz, Octavio
The
Improbable World 
"I mean the world we live in is very nearly incomprehensible to most of us."
p. 58.
"...since we have no comprehensive and consistent picture of the world....We believe because there is no reason not to believe."
p. 58
"with the emergence of technocracies, moral and intellectual coherence began to unravel."
p. 59
"The ways of technology...are awesome and mysterious."
"The world is incomprehensible and has been since 1500s"
There is an information glut for the first time in history.
"Schools were, in short, a means of governing the ecology of information."
"Information without regulation can be lethal."
p. 63
three cornerstone tool complexes
- Telescope -- "eye that gave access to a world of new facts"
- Printing press -- literate nation: First Amendment people control information.
- Telegraph -- "For the first time transportation and communication."
pp. 64-68.
Timing is as important as when something happened.
1. & 2. (above) came during the advent of the Scientific Revolution and the Protestant Reformation 3. (above) came with the unification of US, Japan, Germany and Italy, and European Imperialism in the 1830s-1860s.
- Mechanization has created a world of information devoid of any coherent worldview or theory to make sense of all the meaningless data.
- Too much information with too little context to make intelligent decisions out of the stream of signals, sounds, warnings and indications. What perception of reality is correct?
|
Competing narratives: |
|
| Biblical fundamentalist | Progress |
| God created a cosmos filled with meaning | science and technology discover information |
 |
 |
| information scarcity | information glut |
|
the
soul in an after life, |
the
body in this life, |
|
faith
in divine order. |
faith
in possessions. |
|
God's
grace redeemed sinners. |
Information
will set us free. |
Biblical fundamentalist, things improve with faith and hope. Progress, things improve with information and inventions.
Postman, pp. 59-60.
Axis of modern faith
God
Automation
seemed to have reinforced the widespread and growing power of progress.
- photographs, 1813 - 1822
- telegraph codes, 1831-1837
- phonograph, 1886 -1904
inventions, formative years
The sacred narratives of the Good Shepard, or of David and Goliath, or Christ's parables of the Loaves and the Fishes, or the Good Samaritan were replaced by stories of mechanical power and images of industrial shrewdness.
Information Revolution began to unravel the sacred narratives leaving them devoid of meaning:
Lesson:
Biblical narrative was replaced by faith in machine mediated progress, instruments could now be trusted for advice on how to behave, how to look, when to move, what to do.
