Technological rationality has grown stronger while society grows more irrational

Evidence

The scientific and technological rationalities that Marcuse describes are even more powerful today with the emergence of computerization, the proliferation of media and information, and the development of new techniques and forms of social control. And yet the society is more irrational than previously. — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 47

Categorization

• XREF: Note: this is the editor’s commentary asserting relevance, not Marcuse himself. Pairs with the reader’s attention-economy bridging purpose. — connects to: Technologically educated masses paradoxically exhibit readiness to accept despotism; Technological and social progress produces psychological regression and instinctual fixation.; Technological rationality erodes individual critical reason and produces mechanical conformity — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 23 (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• Technical rationality makes irrational social control appear reasonable and rational #expands (0.92) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 124
• Scientific rationalism becomes an instrument of social domination #expands (0.88) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 141
• Technological rationality neutralizes guilt and conscience under reification #corroborates (0.86) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 346
• The rationality of art grows as society’s irrationality grows #qualifies (0.85) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 832
• Mass culture’s technical rationality masks class domination as consumer demand. #exemplifies (0.84) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 94
• Technological progress legitimates capitalism as the best possible system #expands (0.82) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 122
• Industrial society appears rational precisely because it perpetuates the danger #expands (0.80)