Sunday, November 17, 2013

Truth in a technological society

Science is ''the extension of civilisation's technological core. In the scientific sense, 'true' means that which has the chance of being employed in effective technological procedures.'' (Kolakowski 1966)

That makes a lot of sense wherever you look. Whatever/whoever has no technological/productive utility is cavalierly discarded as irrelevant: spirituality, the unemployed,  bees, depth psychology, clean air - until it too get commodified and sold like bottled water these days!

By the same token, things only get noticed when they become properly commodified/monetarised, that is, when a technology of extracting a monetary value becomes apparent, codified and replicable in a way understandable to low-level business management, the inadvertent foot-soldiers of capitalism. Thus, compassion is acknowledged when it can generate profit by way of charity. Love - when it can be sold through a bride catalogue. Whatever does not yield to technological measurement and then market commodification remains on the fringes, and that is truly a blessing!

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