Technocommercialism and Its Pernicious Effects - Johnathan Franzen

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ohnathan Franzen writes in this article what we have been writing here all along, though with less clarity, we guess.

We have railed and ranted against technocommercialism and how the media in collusion with technocrats were destroying our lives. He has based the above-mentioned article on a satirist of Austria named Karl Kraus, whose criticism of the society around him got him the moniker of "The Hater." We like this. He absolutely hated everything. He didn't live to see the Third Reich and what followed, or, he would have dipped his pen in vitriol and probably obviated the need for World War II.

Today we think of nothing else but the latest mobile phones and gadgets and how to get them. We sit and watch sports for hours but won't lift a finger to avoid a crime. We would go on a holiday to a sea resort but wouldn't visit our aged relatives. All this, we say, is the result of technocommercialism.

And the perpetrators are there for all to see. They address the company's annual sales meetings with great fanfare and drama. They reward their salesmen with drink parties that last well into the night.

In the end what is achieved? We have become insular, we have become withdrawn, and we complain when something drastic happens in the neighbourhood.