Personal values analysis in World War II cultural context

Personal Values Analysis: write personal values anlysis, centering values . list derived "values" document World

Technique is one of the most essential values defined within the values document for the World War II cultural matrix, because it implies a dominance of technology over all of the conventional virtues that society was based upon. There are numerous examples of how technology's ascendance, particularly during the critical years following World War II, has rendered the value system for contemporary society much different than that of prior societies. There are certainly some advantages to technology's expedience that is found in virtually all aspects of life today. Yet its cultural ramifications are considerably more dubious in terms of beneficence, and in some instances appear to negatively impact people in the modern world.

Technique is defined within the aforementioned document as a crucial effect of reliance on technology and upon what Neil Postman calls "technopoly" -- which is essentially the surrender of culture, its values, its aims and its achievements, to technology (Postman 3). Societies based on technopolies readily subvert traditional mores to those provided for by technology. In such a way, "Human betterment becomes identified with technological advance. Technology itself provides the story-line by which human aspirations and achievements are measured" (No author). Technique, then, is defined as the increasing reliance upon technology for a society in terms of its value system. Moreover, technique is quite frequently firmly opposed to tradition -- which is widely evinced in the fact that numerous applications of technology supplant if not eradicate traditional methods (of operations) and a culture's value system enforced by such methods.

One of the dangers inherently related to an overreliance on technique and the technology that facilitates it is that it creates an unnatural ease which results in a culture of instant gratification. Such instant gratification is oftentimes diametrically opposed to values that are associated with more prolonged temporal elements, such as patience, perseverance, precision etc. Thus, technique is ultimately responsible for hazardously increasing the level of expectations and the accelerating the time frame in which people hope to achieve them in, forsaking traditional values associated with taking one's time and doing something correct the first time around.

A particularly salient example of the dangers of contemporary society's value of technique actually occurred earlier this afternoon, when my vehicle was rear -- ended by another. The critical aspect of this situation which suggests that technique played a direct result in it was the fact that at the time my vehicle was hit, it was actually stopped, innocuously idling. I do not intend to stereotype anyone or anything in general, but the driver of the other vehicle was a young person, possibly still a teenager, and had been preoccupied with her cell phone shortly before he vehicle crashed into mine. This preoccupation is part of the value that present society places upon technique. Because it is now possible to instantaneously communicate with individuals all over the world in real-time, people tend to preoccupy themselves with such a pursuit -- regardless of the reason -- while engaged in other, simultaneous activities. There is no way of telling whether or not this person would have still maligned my 2-year-old car had she not been fondling her cell phone just before she hit me. Yet it is a fact that her cell phone usage certainly did not improve her general cognizance or reaction time in preventing such an accident, and more than likely helped to contribute to it. Despite the fact that there are numerous laws prohibiting phone usage while driving, the general culture of instant gratification facilitated by technique is so powerful that it may be difficult for people to adhere to them.