Postman on Technopoly

Although in his analysis of the techno-cultural movement Postman is careful to say that technologies, and the changes they bring both benefit society and take away from society, he is much more interested in a negative assessment of technology on our culture than in a positive one. The computer, Postman argues, is a singularly powerful weapon in the conquest Technopoly has already achieved in America and will soon achieve in the rest of the post-industrial world. Technopoly is not a specific technology, but a whole technological mindset. Postman fears technology will redefine all aspects of our society, such as art, religion, family, politics, history, truth, intelligence, and privacy, so that our definitions will fit into its new requirements. "Technopoly, in other words, is totalitarian technocracy" (Postman 48).

We live in a Technopoly, a self-justifying, self-perpetuating system wherein technology of every kind is cheerfully granted sovereignty over social institutions and national life.

Neil Postman