HIGH TECHNOLOGY AND HUMAN FREEDOM

by Lewis H.--Ed. Lapham ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 15, 1985

In December 1983, a symposium convened by the Smithsonian tackled the omnipresent questions posed by Orwell's 1984. This volume is a compilation of papers read on that occasion. It would seem, reading current essays, that had Orwell and Alexis de Tocqueville not existed, it would have been necessary to invent them. These two are used (and misused) repeatedly by modern writers too unimaginative to create their own quotations; these professional symposiasts might deteriorate into writer's block were it not for Bartlett's. Take out the two essays by Lapham, who, in ""The Easy Chair"" at Harper's, has been writing some of the most insightful prose of our times, and this collection is a hollow repetition of platitudinous thinking. Some of the essays leave one wondering just what they are doing here-such as a discussion of authority in Iran, or of tolerance in the Dutch Republic. The book seesaws between dreary pessimism, epitomized by David Burnham's ""The Rise of the Computer State,"" in which the author sees an evil government agent lurking behind every automated teller machine, and cautionary optimism, such as when Eliot D. Chapple, in ""Red Tape Unraveling,"" writes that despite high-tech capabilities, ""modern managers are. . .recognizing freedom of initiative is the primary requirement for. . . high productivity."" If Orwell himself had attended the symposium, he would probably have gravitated toward the pessimists, as would befit one who warned that ""the logical end of mechanical progress is to reduce the human being to something resembling a brain in a bottle.

Pub Date: Dec. 15, 1985

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Smithsonian Institution

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1985

Categories: NONFICTION