Defining Politics and Technology

Politics:
Aristotle defined Politics as the process by which many people make decisions. In other words Political decisions are based on what the masses decide rather than a singular individual or group of individuals. But Aristotle also warned of Politics “devolving into democracy,” which in the classical sense meant that rule would be governed by demos or common people. In this sense Aristotle was suggesting that people in power should collaborate with the demos in order to make decisions for the greater good of the community but the powerful should always remain distant from the common people. Who better to make the decisions than the ones with the most power?
The trouble with this line of thought, in modern times, is that the people in charge no longer have a vested interest in the ultimate satisfaction of the demos. In Ancient Greece the “common” people exercised much of the power within the political system because they were the communal lubricant that kept society moving and if they were not satisfied then the city, and the people in charge, suffered. Today, however, there is a growing void between the people in charge and the common people Aristotle referred to as the demos. Investors, corporate executives, and government agencies have been treating people more like sheep in recent years than essential parts of any healthy society and this is largely due to the public’s perception of Politics. To them the demos is a means to an end and as people become increasingly detached from the Political world this trend will only continue.
In M. T. Anderson’s novel “Feed” characters are subjected to a constant flow of information that often times overwhelms them from contemplating meaningful thoughts about life, love, society and Politics. By overwhelming their senses with Information rather then Knowledge the powers that be in “Feed” can use the flood of information as an opiate designed to subliminate social deviants and garner support for their self-serving policies. If people remain apathetic towards Politics and entrenched within a sea of Information rather than Knowledge how can they ever begin to close the void between self-serving policy makers and themselves? Therefore, my definition of Politics refers to the policies and practices implemented by people in positions of power that are deemed socially acceptable on the basis of mass appeal despite the lack of Knowledge existent within a sea of Information.

Technology:
Technology can be a hard concept to grasp for some people. Some think that technology is something tangible that makes life easier or less complicated. Others think that technology is something that benefits the entire human race. I personally believe that there is some truth to both of these interpretations. Tactile Nuclear Warheads (TNW’s) for example certainly make war easier but they do not benefit the human race.
The problem with defining the term “technology” is that people often have different views on what makes life easier and what benefits the human race. Using the TNW example illustrated earlier we can infer that there are often two sides to the same coin. The technology that was created to combust the atom was created to destroy human life, yet, the technology developed to fly the Nuclear Warhead to an enemy also was implemented to help man venture into space which might lead to untold benefits for the entire species. So how does one define “technology?” Webster’s House Dictionary defines technology as something that someone uses to cope with his or her environment but in the Cynthia Crossen’s book “Tainted Truth” she illustrates how technology is actually making it more difficult for us to adapt to our environment. “[Data gathered] by new technologies bring a sense of rationality to complex decisions- the ones once made with common sense, experience, and intelligence (Crossen 14).” The Internet is full of information and that is giving us the sense that we know a lot more than we used to but in reality it is just a false blanket of security that can blind us from making meaningful decisions that might actually make life easier or less complicated.
Take the Information versus Knowledge debate discussed earlier; technology has created a sea of information that anyone from across the globe can access directly, yet, along with this vast body of information comes ambiguity. How are we to know if Barak Obama’s fiscal plan is more efficient than John McCain’s if there are 40,000 different websites emphasizing different information that caters specifically to private interests? In M.T. Anderson’s book “Feed” technology has actually become a social hindrance that some characters attempt to forcibly expel from their lives thinking it will result in a sense of clarity in a world where a sea of information clouds their vision. The flood of cheap, readily accessible, and for the most part useless technology that has swelled in recent years, much like The Feed in Anderson’s book, is quickly clouding us from advancing the meaningful technologies that could be revolutionizing the world. Useful technologies like a 3G network should not be venerated because they allow wealthy upper-class college kids to download Cliff Notes in class when they should be being used to bring wireless technologies to rural populations or cheap computers to inner city schools. I define technology as something tangible that has a useful application in making someone’s life better in a meaningful way, not as something meaningless that caters to the lazy.