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PARTISAN REVIEW
thus, radically revising the concept of the self upon which the demo–
cratic impetus evolved and seriously eroding traditional notions of
the
polis.
It
posits a rigid, strictly abstract mode of ordering reality
that, in the extreme, results in a bizarre brand of mathematical nar–
cissism- spinning out a world of its own that has no relationship to
reality as it is personally experienced. Encoded in the new tech–
nology, it is able to perform with dazzling speed- producing results
that seem almost "magical"- but the basis of its processes excludes,
for the most part, critical analysis and judgment, reason as tradition–
ally defined, as well as the more elusive category of perceptions re–
lated to emotional response and the senses.
It
places the locus of con–
trol and power- i.e., "authority"- beyond the individual in an
impersonal realm, but remains emphatically utilitarian, usurping
authority and homogenizing intrinsic diversities while violating the
basic prerequisite of the human spirit for a sense of meaning and
legitimacy that transcends banal pragmatism. (The apotheosis of the
prevailing cult of technology is most clearly evident in the new breed
of computerized, nuclear missiles that arouse fear not only because
of the destructive force they embody, but because of the sense they
provoke that the use of these weapons is beyond rational restraint,
that they will go off unpredictably, erupting in a mad, psychotic
apocalypse. As such, they reflect the loss of authority, the insignifi–
cance and futility of the individual's power that is insidiously eroding
the viability of democratic values and infecting Western societies
with an ominous, nihilistic pacificism.)
That the sterile, pseudo-rationality of our advanced-technologi–
cal age should have its mimesis in a revival of the archaic tyranny of
magical views of reality- which represent the individual as a pawn
of inscrutable, supra-personal forces- is, on reflection, no surprise.
But the implications of this contradiction in our culture, in par–
ticular the authoritarian implications inherent in such magical no–
tions of reality, pose critical issues for liberal democracies.
Kathleen Agena is a contributing editor
of
Partisan Review.
