Technology as Magic

If you've ever seen the "punk" magicians, Penn and Teller, you know that a lot of their act is about showing you how the trick is done, then, as a topper, finishing the trick in some new way that takes the trick to some new level of mystification. TECHNOLOGY AS MAGIC is a lot like that, but this final topper is your own recognition that you've been a mark and a sucker, and that you will continue to be a mark and a sucker until you turn off the TV, throw away the paper, and start spreading the word about empty incantationsof the government, media, and marketers that have robbed us of clarity in thinking and blurred our moral sensibilities. If you've ever had to write administrative tripe and felt queasy doing so, if you've ever had to devise an apologia to convince management to proceed with some new action system and knew all along that you were only supplying a rationale to make the powers-that-be breathe easier, if you've ever had to generalize about a heterogenous population -- for instance, turning them into a "target market" knowing full well that everything you're saying is a lie and is based on the most abusive forms of instrumental rationalism, and only perpetuates the pseudo-sociology, pseudo-psychology, pseudo-statistics, and pseudo-trends of the media and the "research" that justifies their colonization of yet another group of consumers, this book offers a clear structure for thinking through how you got to such an impasse.Jacques Ellul, who I haven't read but now feel I must based on Stivers' description of his synopsis of the three historical eras, is the guiding spirit behind TECHNOLOGY AS MAGIC. Showing how magic has always been with us from prehistory through to the present day, Stivers using his basic model to show how the magic of numbers and images have supplanted critical thinking in our time. The only shortcoming, perhaps, is Stiver's using statistics to demonstrate some of his points. And one of his major points is that statistics is the favorite instrument of administrative magic. But other than that, this an inisightful, bracing work which deserves wide readership. Among other tricks, plastic words -- the empty incantations of administrative magic -- are herein revealed. Use them vigorously, use them prolifically, and you will go far! Also revealed the basic structure of all advertising communications (based on Neil Postman's insights): discontent => contentment => ecstasy. Indeed in the wrong hands this books is a gold mine of strategies for the cynical and unscrupulous in media, government, and business, as it clearly explains how all of this bogus magic works. But will they be more dangerous if they know what they're doing? Probably. Because then their cynicism will be all the more complete, they will be all the more dangerous. We can only hope Stivers' pungent, stinging prose and death(-state) defying criticism is strong enough to scare them off!

This book illuminates a half dozen crucial trends in the contemporary world: Technology, Corporate Management fads, New age thought patterns, Self improvement programs, and (most trenchantly) the form and content of Electronic Mass Media, by showing how they fit into a new 'magical' way of thinking about reality. Stivers finds our acceptance of technological, cybernetic change destructive to genuine scientific, humanistic, and ethical thought and action. He explains this acceptance as the results of a series of successful manipulations of public opinion, feeling, and the shaping of the self in the modern-techno world. His main claim -- that while technology obviously 'works', and accomplishes certain practical tasks marvelously, its main contribution to the modern world -- and its main attraction for people -- is the magical qualities that people are learning to impute to it. Nature as a sacred powerful milieu has been replaced by Technology as our sacred powerful milieu.Stivers is most heavily influenced by Jacques Ellul, and his great contribution is to carry Ellul's terrific insights forward and bring them right up to the present wild techno-ride we are on. I expect this book to be of great help to me in my teaching on Computers & Society, and it has already helped me put into better perspective several themes I have been working on.