But EJ does not even conjure up an ecological disaster when citing an example in order to help his readers towards understanding what he has in mind. The lesson is taught, he says, by what we all can see whenever stepping out the front door. What do we in fact see? What was it in Wilflingen when starting out on his daily walk that called to his mind that the natural environment is threatened by technology? What made him draw the conclusion that this precarious situation is due to a lack of intellectual cleanliness? In that rural region, sometimes called the Swabian Siberia, nothing very striking. Perhaps on the trunks of the linden trees lining the street the silent spread of a lichen species that thrives on acid rain. Or the stench from the pig farm nearby whose effluents, used as fertilizer, are pushing up the nitrate level of the drinking water in the area--so local doctors will have good reason to warn young mothers against using tap water for preparing food for their babies. Would this provoke you to ponder the relationship between culture and technology? Not me. Terseness of style implies refraining from defining the words used so sparingly. Perhaps we will get a step ahead when looking at the definition that EJ has left out. »Culture« is a very general term, therefore imprecise to many minds, including mine. So let us consult the dictionaries. The ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA defines culture as »behaviour peculiar to Homo sapiens, together with material objects used as an integral part of this behaviour. Thus, culture includes language, ideas, beliefs, customs, codes, institutions, tools, techniques, works of art, rituals, and ceremonies, among other elements.« MEYERS ENZYKLOPÄDISCHES LEXIKON of 1975 offers a similar definition and expressly includes technology, »Technik«, among the ingredients of »Kultur«. So culture is understood here as a complex entity in which technology plays an integral part among other elements. However, in many of EJ's writings, particularly in SIEBZIG VERWEHT, it is evident that he sees a global tendency towards regarding technology, its spread and perfection, as the most worthwhile and supreme aim of human endeavours. Accordingly, the other elements of culture are overwhelmed by technology. They tend to become mere embellishments if they are not ignored and destroyed. In an Asian temple he found to his horror a prayer wheel driven by an electric motor. To his mind, this is the perverse symbol of a universal trend towards the hypertrophy of technology to the detriment of the other elements of culture, particularly of the sacred. Elsewhere EJ writes that electricity should never have been admitted inside the walls of churches. The sacred is repulsed or suffocated in our minds by the demystifying power of technology, he believes. But most people are not at all as sensitive as EJ when looking at the role of technology in our world. Even when technology is perceived as a danger the general opinion is that its problems can be solved by more and better technology. To be sure, EJ does not pose as a Luddite here. He does not tell us to get rid of technology in order to find salvation. Instead, he asks us to become aware of an imbalance in our lives caused by the unreflected adoption of anything that is technologically feasible. How to correct that imbalance he leaves to our judgment. So by »Abgrenzung zwischen Kultur und Technik« EJ could mean a maxim like this: »See to it that technology remains in a subservient role among the various elements that constitute culture«.
Markup © John King, 2008. Web archive generated Tue, 21st August 2007.