Meandering Musings on the Master's Meaning in #65 his looks to me like another instance of EJ's terseness making the reader grope for a clear meaning. I'll try my hand at tracing tentatively his line of thought and riddle it with my questions and personal views. He starts out from a maxim that is not difficult to consent to: intellectual cleanliness requires an awareness of whether we know or believe when we are sure of something. People, e.g. fundamentalists, who confuse the two alternatives, may indeed be a sad spectacle to the critical onlooker. He proceeds to considering the equally grave error of confusing or even identifying technology with culture. This is similarly deplorable but less evident. Why should imperilled nature open our eyes for it? Difficult to see. Let us choose a drastic example to find out what EJ is driving at. In his eyes, the meltdown of a nuclear reactor would reveal a lack of awareness of the difference between technology and culture. However, many people will see that disaster as an instance of technology gone awry because it was not sufficiently intelligent technology. Others will regard it as the consequence of technology driven by economic motives only and unhampered by ecological considerations. So most readers, including myself, will have difficulties to see why the perils to the environment posed by technology should teach us to distinguish technology from culture. [To be continued]
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