Rationalisation,Disenchantement, Iron cage?

Philosophy Forums Society, Government, and Economics
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Since the enlightenment we have gone through a turbulent period of rationalization of society, politics, religion, intimacy amoung other things, and this has led us to where we are now…

I feel i should define this, by rationalised principles i mean loosely: the turn away from religious values towards more “means-ends” Mentality.

Sociologist Max Weber characterised modern society with rationalization becoming the dominant mode of thought. This principle is embodied in large scale bureaucracy, which regulates and controls human spirit. In this light Weber speaks of a disenchantment of the modern world, in which the world looses its “magic” and the individuals would live in an iron cage of rationality.

And if some people are aware of the trend of McDonaldization which was identified by George Ritzer, which he defines as “The principles of the fast food restaurant are diffusing and beginning to dominate more areas of society – work, consumption, education, leisure, religion, intimacy, and sport” These principle were - efficiency, Calcubility, predictability and control through non human technology (here is a great article about it: derrickjensen.org/ritzer.html)

All of these are feature of the “iron cage of rationality”, where people were disillusioned, disenchanted, alienated, and spiritually deprived.

My topic of debate is whether this is a realistic view of where we are heading into such an era, or are we in one already? or can it all be related to something else

My opinion is there is evidence of such discontent everywhere. There is congested inner city traffic, mind numbing monotonous routines, secularisation, bureaucracy, lifestyles revolved around consumption, the capitalist machine, crime, hegemony of media and politics, fabricated culture, fake religion, violence, war

[b]Am i wrong? is the worst to come, will we overcome this??

Some informed opinions??[/b]

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Hi there, I am currently writing a dissertation on the contemporary influence of Weberian analysis. If you can narrow down the question a little, I should be able to address some the issues you have brought up. It is rather broad at the moment. Weber’s project was not primarily to explain discontent, but rather to account for the origin and development of modern institutions, and to provide a set of methodological principles for future sociological analysis. Projections into the future require a full consideration of what makes the present-day distinct from when Weber formed his analyses. Maybe something more specific could make your post easier to reply to, and aid discussion.

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I think Weber was on the right track with his disenchantment thesis. There seems to be this deep-seated malaise in the West at the moment, and I believe it is a direct result of excess bureaucracy and the so-called happiness that is supposed to lie in the consumer culture.

Excessive rationalized bureaucracy nullifies and stupefies the will. If we take a look at Schopenhauer’s philosophy on the human subject, he states that the will satified leads to contentment (well, temporary contentment anyway). In a rationalized society like ours, there is little room for the will to strive and achieve so it can be satisfied. Our will has been narrowed down, and becomes useless in our full-time jobs. The will hates being constrained, it wants to reach out and explode, it craves to be objectified. Modern life has almost rendered the will useless, it is now as if it is not needed, and that we carry out the daily task of “working for a living” in a mindless job like some piece of machinary in a factory.
The will’s outlet now becomes objectified by “getting drunk”, “consuming goods on the market”, “attempting to get rich” and so forth. This is it’s only outlet it gets outside of the boring repeatitive working week.
Human beings are in their most primordial state when consumed by ecstasy. It is when the emotions become highly aroused. This is when the will is free. To save myself from plagarism, it was Nietzsche who stated human beings need to move to a more impassioned existence, rather than being constrained in some kind of epistemological cage, like Weber’s “Iron cage” theory.

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Thank you Pangloss and Fent.

Fent, you have very well defined and given more force to my argument, thank you very much for that, if i was less lazy i would have liked to explain with the same success as you did.

Pangloss
Thanks for pointing out my lack of specificity of what i was trying to achieve, i assumed i would get a general stream of rhetoric and opinion which i could then glean for good points, but now that i am faced with someone of knowledge, i will try to refine my discussion a little.

I am more familiar with disenchantment of society, rather that his sociology of action, or rather, i find the latter of more interest.

I would like to examine this discontent, I think this discontent can be linked with a spiritual deficit, there is something very basic in today’s society which is lacking, and i think this can explain many of the problems we face. I am young, and when i see my generation i sometimes cringe, many of them think themselves so powerless for having a voice in social change, or even worse, they have been convinced in accepting their position in the ladder of stratification, or simply don’t give a shit.

I want to see to what extent rationalisation can be blamed for the media hegemony, the victory what Gramsci would have called the battle of ideas. Weber identified that with the death of religion we would become, if i may use a Marxist term, Alienated. In this alienated state i can picture people more susceptible to the commodified culture, with features such as commodity fetishism, standardisation and pseudo-individualisation. In this light i see people coming to merely accept where they are as there is no belief in anything more fulfilling.

I wish to assert that rationalisation is so predominant because in economic terms it is the most salient method for convincing people to consume their goods, i will hold that it abuses the human rational concept for consistency, it makes us blind to real aesthetic quality. In doing this it kills the spirit within, and makes us puppets for those who can convince us of what we “need”.

Now for the biggy, because we consume in increasingly rationalised environments, and production is a result of this, do we control how we consume ? Or does the very rationality of consuming in rationalised settings overrule any regard for a more ideal (ideal in the sense of mutually beneficial) environment?

It seems to me that we should have allot of power in a system which bends over backwards to try and tell us who we are, what we need, what we should do, where we should go…It seems to me a simple case of demanding more from the services people provide, make sure they can put on some extra cheese on your burger, feel right in going for a walk in the park rather than feeling that a good time must involve spending of money…as a sidepoint i wouild like to link this pressure of conformity and the drug culture. i see the drug culture as a bunch of disillusioned souls who have the will to flood their minds with copious endorphins as there is no other usefull means of output…

I suppose after my ranting i wish to know who is really in control? Those consuming from the rational system, or those producing this rationalised environment? Is the ideal of rationalism so strong and desirable in a mind void of spirituality that it will overlook negative aspects?

I’m not convinced I have made myself clearer, if this does not spark some debate I will reappraise what im trying to get at here.

Peace

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I agree with what you’re saying there, enlighten, you make some very good points.

There is definitely some kind of spiritual deficiency within the West at the moment. Many people are now looking to the East to satisfy this need.

Also, I like your points on commodity fetishism and psuedo-individualism. It seems every media outlet tells us that we will be an “individual” if we just consume the product they are advertising. Anyone with even the slightest critical thinking ability will know that this is a load of sh*t. Unfortunately, this critical thinking ability is somewhat lacking in many people, and this just perpetuates the current way of things.

The advertising industry has been successful in promoting the idea that happiness and the goal of life lies in consumption, whatever that may be, clothes, cars, holidays, etc.
Billions of individual consciousness over several continents have been made to believe this garbage. Someone living in a small country town in Australia is probably a carbon copy of some one who lives thousands of kilometres away, in say Italy or India.

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Media is a money making machine,
which makes it… so difforent.
Everything is tainted with profit.

Surely this media spreads a national philosophy of materialism and a twisted conformism?

DanMan doesnt have TV anymore :smiley:
Dan doesnt listen to music realy either.
Im just online reading and writing lately.

When one of my freinds told me he wanted to “succeed” in life,
there were two things that seemed paramount.
Sex and money… he wants and has freinds to but…
wow, thats it?