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C00002 00002	TECHNOLOGY AND IDEOLOGY - AD HOMINEM REMARKS
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TECHNOLOGY AND IDEOLOGY - AD HOMINEM REMARKS


	For those who know even less Latin than I do, an ad hominem
argument is aimed at the man rather than his case.  Ad hominem
arguments are traditionally regarded as bad since attacking a person
does not refute his position.  However, they have become more popular
lately, because Marxists say, "You disagree with me, because you
are a lackey of the bourgeoisie", psychoanalysts say, "you disagree
with me, because you have a neurotic block", and J. K. Galbraith
sometimes says, "they disagree with me, because their tastes have
been formed by advertising".  A case that relies entirely on ad hominem
arguments should be dismissed without further thought, because it is
an appeal to your dislikes rather than to your reason.

	In this book so far, I believe I have managed to avoid
ad hominem remarks almost completely, but now I would like to
try to account for anti-technological views so that the reader who
is inclined to such views for non-rational reasons will be able
to avoid them and so that he will be able to detect these
irrationalities in others.

	Anti-technological and anti-modern views have a long history.


	1. The liberal arts fraud.

	2. Lawyers and two sides to every question.

	3. Manipulation of guilt and its conversion into hate.

	4. Those who took the easy way in college wish to
denigrate their betters.

	5. Snobs and effete snobs.

	6. Usually a cynical view of the motives of some group will
dominate a conversation compared to a favorable view.  If a listener
is offended by the view, he is more likely to counterattack against
a rival group than to defend the group attacked.  This response is
especially prevalent among young people and working class people.  So
far as I know, this is not a recent phenomenon.

	7. Fashionable pessimism and archaism dates back at least to 
the eighteenth century.  Voltaire (I think) has dialogues on whether
the ancients were better than moderns.  As far as I can see the arguments
that the world is deteriorating had then a similar psychological basis
to the present ones, although I must admit I can't specify what this
basis is.

	9. The main source of human unhappiness is the shortness of life.