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5.0 out of 5 stars
The technetronic era has come and gone., February 23, 2010
ZB sites a lot of Daniel Bell's work on `Post-Industrial Society':
Author also sites the dissolution of the Nation State. (This is interesting at this point because there seems to be at the moment a slight rise in nationalism around the world in particular in Russia and Venezuela.)
"The technetronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities." (This was an excellent prediction although it is slightly worse now.)
'In the technotronic society the trend would seem to be towards the aggregation of the individual support of millions of uncoordinated citizens, easily within the reach of magnetic and attractive personalities effectively exploiting the latest communications techniques to manipulate emotions and control reason." (Fox CNN and facebook?)
"Today we are again witnessing the emergence of transnational elites ... [Whose] ties cut across national boundaries ...It is likely that before long the social elites of most of the more advanced countries will be highly internationalist or globalist in spirit and outlook ... The nation-state is gradually yielding its sovereignty... Further progress will require greater American sacrifices. More intensive efforts to shape a new world monetary structure will have to be undertaken, with some consequent risk to the present relatively favorable American position."
"Marxism represents a further vital and creative stage in the maturing of man's universal vision ... Marxism is simultaneously a victory of the external, active man over the inner, passive man and a victory of reason over belief ... Marxism, disseminated on the popular level in the form of communism, represents a major advance in man's ability to conceptualize his relationship to the world."
Interesting on page 57 'By the year 2018, technology will make available to the leaders of the major nations, a variety of techniques for conducting secret warfare, of which only a bare minimum of the security forces need be appraised. One nation may attack a competitor covertly by bacteriological means, thoroughly weakening the population (though with a minimum of fatalities) before taking over with its own armed forces. Alternatively, techniques of weather modification could be employed to produce prolonged periods of drought or storm..."
(Has the world already gone way beyond this?)
Continuing on page 57
"a system that would seriously impair the brain performance of very large populations" (page 57):
"In addition... future developments may well include automated or manned space warships, deep-sea installations, chemical and biological weapons, death rays, and still other forms of warfare--even the weather may be tampered with.*
"In addition, it may be possible--and tempting--to exploit for strategic-political purposes the fruits of research on the brain and on human behavior. Gordon J. F. MacDonald, a geophysicist specializing in problems of warfare, has written that timed artificially excited electronic strokes could lead to a pattern of oscillations that produce relatively high power levels over certain regions of the earth.... In this way, one could develop a system that would seriously impair the brain performance of very large populations in selected regions over an extended period.... No matter how deeply disturbing the thought of using the environment to manipulate behavior for national advantages to some, the technology permitting such use will very probably develop within the next few decades."
(Has this occurred? Why is the earth being bombarded with some much EMF energy? What is up with the bees?)
Brzezinski also site for the individual worker a "fear of personal obsolescence." (One must continue to worry about there job skills?)
The New global consciousnesses will emerge out of fragmentation and chaos but from this A global human consciousness.
"The Emergence of transnational elites. Intellectual elites who think of global problems." This elites will overcome "backwardness to eliminate poverty ...prevent over population ...develop peace keeping machinery.
(The UN has fallen out of favor. Yes everyone get a lap top?)
Absolutely fascinating and although a dated book it is still very relevant.
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