Technology as Magic: The Triumph of the Irrational [Hardcover]

Peter Stirk (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0826412114 | ISBN-13: 978-0826412119 | Publication Date: August 1, 2001

What gives the mass media, particularly advertising and television, their extraordinary power over our lives, so that even the most jaded and sophisticated among us are troubled and fascinated by their allure? The secret, according to Richard Stivers, in this brilliant new book, lies in the curious relationship between technology and magic. Stivers argues the two are now related to one another in such a way that each has taken on important characteristics of the other. His contention is that our expectations for technology have become magical to the point that they have generated a multitude of imitation technologies that function as magical practices. These imitation technologies flourish in the fields of psychology, management administration, and the mass media, and their paramount purpose in human adjustment and control. Advertising and television programs, in particular, contain the key magical rituals of our civilization.In a fascinating analysis of television programming, Stivers shows how various genres--news, sports, game shows, soap operas, sitcoms, etc.--have their distinct mythological symbols. Through dramatized information, they symbolically connect consumer goods and services to desired outcomes--the utopian goals of success, happiness, and health--thus enveloping technology, both real and imitation, in a magical cocoon.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this convincing and lucid study, Stivers (sociology, Illinois State) warns against our current veneration of technology. Too many of us, he argues, believe that technology can rationally control nature and alleviate boredom and unhappiness. In reality, he suggests, technology has a lot in common with the irrational and ineffective methods of magic. Likewise, Stivers mourns the increasing reliance on quantitative, statistics-based information instead of meaningful qualitative evaluation and fears that individual creativity, compassion, and freedom are being sacrificed: "Advertising ritualizes happiness (as consumption); therapy ritualizes health (as adjustment)." Persuasive and erudite, this work is recommended for larger public and academic libraries.ASuzanne W. Wood, SUNY Coll. of Technology, Alfred
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Thirty-five years after Jacques Ellul stunned the world with his powerful warning against the dehumanizing effects of technology (The Technological Society), one of his ablest students updates his prophetic message for a generation of Web-surfing New Agers. Stivers exposes both our childish faith in technology's power to fulfill our every wish and our dangerous vulnerability to psychological and managerial methods that mimic technological protocols in order to mask their underlying irrationality. Under the scrutiny of his tough-minded skepticism, the psychobabble of the therapist and the statistics of the efficiency expert betray themselves as species of modern magic, invoked to manipulate people for commercial and bureaucratic ends. But far more than a debunking of the technocratic mystique, the analysis summons us to the cultural struggle essential for a recovery of personal freedom and moral judgment. A profound and sobering work. Bryce Christensen

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Continuum (August 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826412114
• ISBN-13: 978-0826412119
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #886,897 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Analysis of Technology, Media, and Society, February 7, 2000

By 

Bob Mason (Oakland, Ca) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Technology as Magic: The Triumph of the Irrational (Hardcover)

This book illuminates a half dozen crucial trends in the contemporary world: Technology, Corporate Management fads, New age thought patterns, Self improvement programs, and (most trenchantly) the form and content of Electronic Mass Media, by showing how they fit into a new 'magical' way of thinking about reality. Stivers finds our acceptance of technological, cybernetic change destructive to genuine scientific, humanistic, and ethical thought and action. He explains this acceptance as the results of a series of successful manipulations of public opinion, feeling, and the shaping of the self in the modern-techno world. His main claim -- that while technology obviously 'works', and accomplishes certain practical tasks marvelously, its main contribution to the modern world -- and its main attraction for people -- is the magical qualities that people are learning to impute to it. Nature as a sacred powerful milieu has been replaced by Technology as our sacred powerful milieu.

Stivers is most heavily influenced by Jacques Ellul, and his great contribution is to carry Ellul's terrific insights forward and bring them right up to the present wild techno-ride we are on. I expect this book to be of great help to me in my teaching on Computers & Society, and it has already helped me put into better perspective several themes I have been working on.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ancient Secrets of Bureaucratic Magic Revealed!, November 25, 2001

By 

Panopticonman "panopticonman" (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Technology as Magic: The Triumph of the Irrational (Paperback)

If you've ever seen the "punk" magicians, Penn and Teller, you know that a lot of their act is about showing you how the trick is done, then, as a topper, finishing the trick in some new way that takes the trick to some new level of mystification. TECHNOLOGY AS MAGIC is a lot like that, but this final topper is your own recognition that you've been a mark and a sucker, and that you will continue to be a mark and a sucker until you turn off the TV, throw away the paper, and start spreading the word about empty incantationsof the government, media, and marketers that have robbed us of clarity in thinking and blurred our moral sensibilities.

If you've ever had to write administrative tripe and felt queasy doing so, if you've ever had to devise an apologia to convince management to proceed with some new action system and knew all along that you were only supplying a rationale to make the powers-that-be breathe easier, if you've ever had to generalize about a heterogenous population -- for instance, turning them into a "target market" knowing full well that everything you're saying is a lie and is based on the most abusive forms of instrumental rationalism, and only perpetuates the pseudo-sociology, pseudo-psychology, pseudo-statistics, and pseudo-trends of the media and the "research" that justifies their colonization of yet another group of consumers, this book offers a clear structure for thinking through how you got to such an impasse.

Jacques Ellul, who I haven't read but now feel I must based on Stivers' description of his synopsis of the three historical eras, is the guiding spirit behind TECHNOLOGY AS MAGIC. Showing how magic has always been with us from prehistory through to the present day, Stivers using his basic model to show how the magic of numbers and images have supplanted critical thinking in our time. The only shortcoming, perhaps, is Stiver's using statistics to demonstrate some of his points. And one of his major points is that statistics is the favorite instrument of administrative magic. But other than that, this an inisightful, bracing work which deserves wide readership.

Among other tricks, plastic words -- the empty incantations of administrative magic -- are herein revealed. Use them vigorously, use them prolifically, and you will go far! Also revealed the basic structure of all advertising communications (based on Neil Postman's insights): discontent => contentment => ecstasy. Indeed in the wrong hands this books is a gold mine of strategies for the cynical and unscrupulous in media, government, and business, as it clearly explains how all of this bogus magic works. But will they be more dangerous if they know what they're doing? Probably. Because then their cynicism will be all the more complete, they will be all the more dangerous. We can only hope Stivers' pungent, stinging prose and death(-state) defying criticism is strong enough to scare them off!