Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life

As I was reading from Albert Borgmann's "Technology and the Character of Contemporary Life" today, a few things stuck out to me.

1) An understanding of excellence: page 126 - "I believe that there still is a vaguely understood and agreed upn notion of excellence. It is embodied in the kind of life we would have liked to lead if only the world had not been mean and oppressive and we had been endowed with a greater strength, more talent, and a richer education.... (1) The excellent person is a world citizen who udnertands the structure and coherence of the universie in its scientific and historical dimensions. (2) The excellent person is gallant as well as good and intelligent adn seeks physical valor as well as inellectual refinement. (3)The excellen person is accomplished in music and versed in the arts... (4) The virtue of charity according to which real strength lies not in material force or cuning but in the power to give and forgive, to help and to heal."

-I find it needless to say that American culture embraces this in very very few places.

2) On pleasure - page 141 - speaking of Tibor Scitovsky's "The Joyless Economy" (I think I need to read this book now) - "Scitovsky finds that American technological culture favors comfort; and that accounts for the dullness and shoddiness of our leisure poossessions and practices. The tendency toward comfort, in turn Scitovsky traces to our Puritan heritage, to our disdain of plesure and our preference of work over play and of production over consumption... Scitovsky often urges engagement, education, and skill as necessary for genuine pleasure, a view that is consistent with his commitment to traditional excellence."

The above 2 points speak to the American love of leisure, but the reciprocal nature of happiness and leisure. As we have more leisure time with we fill with consumption, we are less happy.

3) Page 140 - "Since there are obvious limits to the time and capacity of an individual's consumption, entertainment respects rather than attacks physical boundaries." Maybe this is the reson TV draws us in - we can turn it on and turn it off on a whim. It does not creat boundaries for our time, like many productive activities like wood work or sitting down to play a piece of music. Stopping is not always an option with a craft, but it always is with TV.

There is much depth and insight in chapter 18, and these are a few morsels. They have challenged my perspectives on my life in one afternoon, and I have much to ponder...