Power-Dissipating Organisms, There is a rule in ecology called the maximum power principle formulated by Lokta in 1925. It can be summarized as follows: “The systems that survive in competition are those that develop more power inflow and use it best to meet the needs of survival.”
Wait. What is this economy? Is not just fraud all the way down? Paper acquiring resources and paper is debt and resources are real? Central Banks of putative nation states are doing everything in their power to loot for oligarchs-irrespective of ideology of a given governmentality? Ellul argues this is due to the triumph of technique.
His book The Technological Bluff published in US in 1990. such a society. Ellul argues that technology presents fundamental threats to society. His concerns are not what we typically take to be the problems raised by technology such as pollution, deskilling of work, or exhaustion of resources. He acknowledges that these issues do, indeed, create real problems—real dislocations of ways of living and destructions of eco-systems, for example—yet because each of these challenges appears amenable to (or, perhaps require) a technological solution, none constitute a primary threat to humanity. The true threats technology poses to humans are, according to Ellul, its ability to drive out or erase the mystery that animates our “humanness” and to create a general cultural condition—a background for all we do—that technology will provide the solution or the way(s) forward (a concept he refers to as the technological bluff). TechniqueCentral to understanding Ellul’s view is an explication of the concept of “technique.” Ellul (1962) believed that “Technique has become the new and specific milieu in which man is required to exist, one that has supplanted the old milieu, viz., that of nature.” In The Technological Society (1964), he defined technique as “the totality of methods rationally arrived at and having absolute efficiency (for a given stage of development) in every field of human activity” (p. xxv). Technology, then, is not only, or even primarily, artifacts or objects—although it included those, to be sure—it is systemic and incorporates processes, rules (or codes), and institutions as well. Technique is a totalizing system of methods that has become the new environment, or milieu, for all of human existence. Ellul wrote: “Modern technology has become a total phenomenon for civilization, the defining force of a new social order in which efficiency is no longer an option but a necessity imposed on all human activity” (1964, p. 17). In a technological society, technique shapes everything—not only transportation and communication, but also politics and religion, economics, science, and education, even love and sex—all of these are comprehended as component processes aimed at clearly identifiable and quantitative goals that can be rendered more efficient. In this way, mystery is pushed out of human experience, and replaced with benchmarks, comparison groups, and measurable outcomes. The concept of technique closely parallels Weber’s (1930/1992) notion of “rationalization” (Kalberg, 1980; Ritzer, 2013). What Ellul deemed the fundamental characteristic of the technological society—the application of technique to all aspects of life—Weber identified as the complete triumph of the process of rationalization. In lamenting the lack of resources for critical reflection and engagement in modern society, Marcuse’s (1964) text, One-Dimensional Man, also stakes a claim similar. degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/huma…
Thank you for being thoughtful, Stegial. I have seen this thesis before, and it has a lot of merit. "Technology" includes spoken language and symbolic communication foremost, and things we do with our fingers and thumbs, like make fire. Our social nature and social technologies of organization have to be seen as the main thing.
That being said, some of us can actively use technologies as tools, and others are merely compliant with the new technological rituals.
A scientist can be a spiritual human, as Newton and Einstein were.
I’ve found a video apparently showing the small nuke blast on Yemen, I can’t seem to embed it on here but it’s on dailymotion.com entitled ‘Israeli - Saudi Arabian tactical nuclear strike on Yemen (neutron bomb) ‘. I don’t know if it is what it’s said to be,,,
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2rzz85 Lots of heat in that persistent fireball, and a strong shock wave reached the camera shortly after detonation. Several videos of the event 8-9 years ago.
Mulling this over, I have to wonder if that was a large thermobaric, "fuel air bomb". That seems more likely. There was not a blinding flash, but a big and sustained fireball.
Thanks for posting this. Somebody should remind Austin that they’ve spent over 10 years trying to beat the Houthi’s already, hasn’t done them much good.
We exist in a post-rhetorical society and are subject to laws of language and language which is truly international is math based. A curious culture globally has come about in recent times due largely to “progress.” And normal language is not expert speech. And experts explain that which is.
I’m not sure what you’re smoking, but the navy of Russia and China are both total jokes! Watch any of Peter Zeihan’s YouTube videos. The US Navy could shut off China’s critical oil and food imports in a matter of days, and stifle their economy by stifling their exports.
The power we fear is the power we give to others to be used against us.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vRsEC65NTA
The Greatest Capital of Humanity is Humanity itself
https://fritzfreud.substack.com/p/the-greatest-capital-of-humanity
Hello? (Hello, hello, hello)
Is there anybody in there?
Just nod if you can hear me
Is there anyone home?
Come on (Come on, come on), now
I hear you're feeling down
Well, I can ease your pain
And get you on your feet again
Relax (Relax, relax, relax)
I'll need some information first
Just the basic facts
Can you show me where it hurts?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrWZNAQrkf4
Thanks Fritz. I am NOT "comfortably numb", myself.
;-(
For you it was the Bob Seger song...
Against the Wind... Brother.
You nailed it Fritz! Thanks for the lyrics and the link!
Wait. What is this economy? Is not just fraud all the way down? Paper acquiring resources and paper is debt and resources are real? Central Banks of putative nation states are doing everything in their power to loot for oligarchs-irrespective of ideology of a given governmentality? Ellul argues this is due to the triumph of technique.
Excerpt From
Perspectives on Our Age
Jacques Ellul
https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=0
This material may be protected by copyright.
His book The Technological Bluff published in US in 1990. such a society. Ellul argues that technology presents fundamental threats to society. His concerns are not what we typically take to be the problems raised by technology such as pollution, deskilling of work, or exhaustion of resources. He acknowledges that these issues do, indeed, create real problems—real dislocations of ways of living and destructions of eco-systems, for example—yet because each of these challenges appears amenable to (or, perhaps require) a technological solution, none constitute a primary threat to humanity. The true threats technology poses to humans are, according to Ellul, its ability to drive out or erase the mystery that animates our “humanness” and to create a general cultural condition—a background for all we do—that technology will provide the solution or the way(s) forward (a concept he refers to as the technological bluff). TechniqueCentral to understanding Ellul’s view is an explication of the concept of “technique.” Ellul (1962) believed that “Technique has become the new and specific milieu in which man is required to exist, one that has supplanted the old milieu, viz., that of nature.” In The Technological Society (1964), he defined technique as “the totality of methods rationally arrived at and having absolute efficiency (for a given stage of development) in every field of human activity” (p. xxv). Technology, then, is not only, or even primarily, artifacts or objects—although it included those, to be sure—it is systemic and incorporates processes, rules (or codes), and institutions as well. Technique is a totalizing system of methods that has become the new environment, or milieu, for all of human existence. Ellul wrote: “Modern technology has become a total phenomenon for civilization, the defining force of a new social order in which efficiency is no longer an option but a necessity imposed on all human activity” (1964, p. 17). In a technological society, technique shapes everything—not only transportation and communication, but also politics and religion, economics, science, and education, even love and sex—all of these are comprehended as component processes aimed at clearly identifiable and quantitative goals that can be rendered more efficient. In this way, mystery is pushed out of human experience, and replaced with benchmarks, comparison groups, and measurable outcomes. The concept of technique closely parallels Weber’s (1930/1992) notion of “rationalization” (Kalberg, 1980; Ritzer, 2013). What Ellul deemed the fundamental characteristic of the technological society—the application of technique to all aspects of life—Weber identified as the complete triumph of the process of rationalization. In lamenting the lack of resources for critical reflection and engagement in modern society, Marcuse’s (1964) text, One-Dimensional Man, also stakes a claim similar. degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/huma…
Thank you for being thoughtful, Stegial. I have seen this thesis before, and it has a lot of merit. "Technology" includes spoken language and symbolic communication foremost, and things we do with our fingers and thumbs, like make fire. Our social nature and social technologies of organization have to be seen as the main thing.
That being said, some of us can actively use technologies as tools, and others are merely compliant with the new technological rituals.
A scientist can be a spiritual human, as Newton and Einstein were.
I’ve found a video apparently showing the small nuke blast on Yemen, I can’t seem to embed it on here but it’s on dailymotion.com entitled ‘Israeli - Saudi Arabian tactical nuclear strike on Yemen (neutron bomb) ‘. I don’t know if it is what it’s said to be,,,
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2rzz85 Lots of heat in that persistent fireball, and a strong shock wave reached the camera shortly after detonation. Several videos of the event 8-9 years ago.
Mulling this over, I have to wonder if that was a large thermobaric, "fuel air bomb". That seems more likely. There was not a blinding flash, but a big and sustained fireball.
Here is something from December 2016, about US bombs used in Yemen under the Obama administration, which was hush-hush, so thermobaric bombs may have been tried. Cluster bombs and satellite guided bombs were documented. https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/12/08/yemen-us-made-bombs-used-unlawful-airstrikes
Thanks for posting this. Somebody should remind Austin that they’ve spent over 10 years trying to beat the Houthi’s already, hasn’t done them much good.
We exist in a post-rhetorical society and are subject to laws of language and language which is truly international is math based. A curious culture globally has come about in recent times due largely to “progress.” And normal language is not expert speech. And experts explain that which is.
Physicists and lawyers mean different things when they use similar words.
;-(
I’m not sure what you’re smoking, but the navy of Russia and China are both total jokes! Watch any of Peter Zeihan’s YouTube videos. The US Navy could shut off China’s critical oil and food imports in a matter of days, and stifle their economy by stifling their exports.