Ideas/Technology conflicting with Democratic ideals

Technology conflicting with democratic ideals

"Many of the artifact/ideas prevalent in our time stand in flagrant contradiction to the ideology of modern democracy."

One of the main points that Winner emphasizes is that

"a technological society is unique . . . in . . . that it presents new . . . domains . . . in which the ends of democratic freedom, equality and justice must somehow be recognized and realized. I take it to be the fundamental failure of modern civilization to have ignored again and again how such questions present themselves in the guise of what appear to be 'neutral' technologies."

Freedom and justice depend "on the existence of suitable . . . environments - the creation and maintenance of arrangements in which the goal of becoming free, self-determining individuals is nurtured rather than destroyed."

What kinds of environments does technology create? Winner states that all too often, developments are of the following type:

communications technologies employed in attempts to control people's thoughts, desires and behaviors;
computer technologyes used to whittle away people's privacy and erode freedom;
information technologies that eliminate what were formerly places of community life;
energy systems that make people dependent upon, or even hostage to, sources of fuel over which they exercise no control;
systems of manufacturing that seek control by eliminating as much human intiative and creativity as possible.

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