2001, The Continuum Publishing Company, New York
Introduction: The Paradox of Technology and Magic
Our expectations for technology have become magical and our
use of it is increasingly irrational. Magic in turn has acquired a rational
facade and is used like technology for purposes of efficiency.
Magic begins historically in the attempt to influence
nature, which was experienced as sacred.
Technology is perceived to be a force greater than that of
nature, for it is successfully used to exploit the resources of nature and to
re-create nature. If the sacred is ultimately that which is experienced as
absolutely powerful, then it was inevitable that technology would replace
nature as the object of tacit veneration.
In the past century magic has come to imitate technology,
acting to fill the gap that technology cannot – the psychological manipulation
of humans. Technology, then, extends its control over human society by the magical
control of human beings.
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