Problemen en crisis van de opgezweepte Westerse technologische cultuur

Abstract

Western culture is in its kernel a technological culture. This culture is speeded up by technology and is characterized by a lot of problems, such as pollution and labour problems, the growing distance between developed and underdeveloped countries and the one-sidedness in the normative orientation. This culture is in a crisis because there is no agreement about the cause of and the way to solve the problems. At the bottom of the spiritual-historical background of Western culture the 'hidden' ideology of technology is active. The contents of this ideology implies that man pretends to be an autonomous master of reality, that he can therefore manipulate everything, that he can solve all old and new problems by scientific-technological control, and that he can guarantee the progress of material welfare, ideology as a driving force ensures a ‘technological paradise ', in which the perspective of eternity has been lost. The ideology of technology is strengthened by the ideology of science and economy. Together they are the cause of cultural problems.