The Broken Defense By Neil Postman Technopoly Summary

Neil Postman’s “The Broken Defenses'' from his book Technopoly argues modern information proliferation is destroying crucial social institutions drawing humanity toward a new comprehensive ideology he calls “Technopoly.” He defines Technopoly as a glorification of technology: finding authority, satisfaction, and purpose in technology. He questions the sentiment that “information is an unmixed blessing,” contending that it is destroying our current culture leading to a new society lacking order, purpose, or justice(71). He reasons that the key function of our current social institutions is to serve as information control systems; without them, our modern societal ideology will fade into Technopoly surmounting reason and order with chaos and

For example, in the court of law, we control information to temper judgment bias in a jury. This strict control of information prevents injustice against defendants in our legal system. He believes that, “if [all information was] permitted entry, there could be no theory of due process, trials would have no end, [and] the law itself would be reduced to meaninglessness”(74). When a postman observes the education system, he regards a course catalog and syllabus as forms of information control as well. They function as a tool, deeming what information is relevant for a standard student to achieve a coherent understanding of their studies. Furthermore, he sees the political party as a key information monitor, instructing people what they should regard worthy of consideration, and making the world comprehensible for a party’s

Although he has diagnosed a ghastly course our culture follows, he pins the problem on the wrong issue. Postman is concerned with information control while the true concern is information order. The crux of his misstep occured when he equated religion and ideology. Although both often give followers rules, purpose, and order, there is a difference in where that authority is placed. Men will always question the authority of rules they believe to be created by other men. Without a belief in something beyond material reality most humans cannot rationalize a reasonable higher purpose. Ideologies like Marxism aim to understand and explain everything; that is why they consistently crumble quickly. In nearly any long-standing religion a key tenet is accepting that many things are beyond human comprehension. This is not the kind of information control that Postman discussed. This is an understanding from every follower that they should accept a philosophy by faith and understand the world around them through that perspective. With a consistent religious worldview, anyone can rationalize most of the information that comes to them. The problem with Postman’s Technopoly is not an abundance of information or injust information control but rather in putting the authority to determine morality in the hands of