the Technetronic Era

[iro]

This article has fundamental links to 9/11 even if it may not seem so at the outset. This book, reviewed below, is a unique and brutally honest insight into the mind of the political elite and the measures they are prepared to take to ensure their world vision. The author, the academic and national security adviser to Jimmy Carter and founder of the Trilateral Commission - Zbigniew Brzezinski, wrote this as an academic targetted thinkpiece in 1970 and shortly buried the book afterwards. I have obtained a copy and embarked on sharing its contents with the truth community as it is almost completely unrepresented on the net and alternative literature. This is not a cut and paste, an original article. Iro.

Between Two Ages, America’s Role in the Technetronic Era.

Various things have been said and written about this book on the internet, mostly to my annoyance by persons who clearly have not read it. It has taken on a somewhat shady and mythical persona, one that is supposed to hold many revelations and conspiracies. True to the spirit of accuracy and honest commentary I decided to get hold of one of the few copies of the book and review and summarise it myself in full in the peer review academic format.

The Technetronic age is that which is created by the Technetronic Revolution. This is described as the third revolution in society following the agrarian and then industrial revolutions. The Technetronic Era is therefore for Brzezinski an age beyond that of the industrial age and industrial capitalism. Talent becomes the new power; wealth is a mere side issue as innovation and progress dwarf social status and prestige. This revolution takes place at a time when mankind is simultaneously more unified and more fragmented creating the friction for change. In short ‘a society that is shaped culturally, psychologically, socially and economically by the impact of technology and electronics – particularly in the arena of computers and electronics.’(9)

What does this mean for the inhabitants of such an age? How will life be in the technetronic era? Brzezinski wastes no time in painting the picture for us. All aspects of life are influenced and controlled by computerized databases and scientific intervention; ‘the increasing availability of biochemical means of human control augment the political scope of consciously chosen direction, and thereby also the pressures to direct, to choose, and to change.’ (10) A statement almost so dystopic to individual freedom that it defies the eye of the reader expecting it to reside in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, not from a geopolitical analyst. Further ‘In the Technetronic society the trend seems to be toward aggregating the individual support of millions of unorganized citizens, who are easily within the reach of magnetic and attractive personalities, and effectively exploiting the latest communication techniques to manipulate emotion and control reason.’ (13) ‘In addition, it may be possible – and tempting – to exploit for strategic-political purposes the fruits of research on the brain and on human behaviour.’ (57)
Not only do the elite decide the political direction by outward manipulation of politics using extreme propaganda, but there is an additional subversive manipulation of the public through what could be construed as genetic manipulation and/or brainwashing. It is frighteningly accurate to relate the current generation of politics and politicians brought into consciousness by Clinton and Blair and the age of ‘spin’ and style over substance. Perhaps we are already in Brzezinski’s technetronic dictatorship…

The result of the processes mentioned above on any individual resident in the technetronic era is that they become ‘changed human beings’ (16) remoulded from their natural state to become citizens of this new scientific age. With mankind’s advances in science and technology therefore it is perfectly feasible for Brzezinski to prescribe the need for biological matter to be developed to fit the world created. This is a war cry for libertarians, but fits in with Marx, for example, who supposed mankind was malleable and perfectible. The difference is that Marx hypothesised that mankind would find perfection in the artificially created communist state and mentions nothing about the suppression of emotion and brainwashing by the political elite. Brzezinski expresses a notable admiration for Marx, devoting a substantial chunk of the book to commentary on the communist question. It would seem logical to assume that Brzezinski is somehow attempting to modernise elements of Marxist doctrine to accommodate the advances society has made.

Brzezinski professes elegantly that a ‘planetary consciousness’ is developing. The nations of Earth are uniting for reasons of collective strength, such as in Europe. This process is exacerbated and possibly caused by the strength and dominance of the USA. Rivals want to compete with America, but can only do so by working together. This will cause an eventual union of man as the class of ‘Transnational Elites’ who are ‘highly internationalist or globalist in spirit and outlook’ network the world together. (59) This is the philosophical New World Order that entered the academic literature some years later in the form of a neo-liberal order encompassing the globe based on the mutual acceptance of the marketplace and ‘liberty’.

Of course, in a trait that marks Brzezinski’s career output, his ethnocentrism towards his adopted homeland – America is ever-present and overstated. He acknowledges that the nation is in a deep cultural malaise, noting that it has only been able to survive intact as its success has ‘obscured its social blemishes’ (198) This is where the technetronic revolution is beginning, in the new frontier industries of science and technology based in America’s cutting age infrastructure. As ever, what happens in America happens in the world, and the technetronic revolution will export automatically on this premise. In 1970 when this book was written, America was still considered a socialist country in many aspects and socialism was dominant in the westernised world. Brzezinski hails socialism as a Janus faced beast caught in a paradox; it could be a threat due to 1) fragmentation without it, or 2) be the root of excessive state control over its citizens. Socialism for Brzezinski has been directionless and the technetronic revolution will enable the scientific elite to steer the society effectively without the meddlesome presence of unions and diversity of thought and action. ‘The active shaping of the future passes into the hands of a socially somewhat conservative but technologically innovative elite.’ (248) Imagine a society operating like NASA on a space mission…focused, determined and highly specialised guided by a hierarchical control structure.

‘Persisting social crisis (terrorism), the emergence of a dramatic personality, (Osama Bin Laden) and the exploitation of mass media to obtain public confidence would be the stepping stones in the piecemeal transformation of the United States into a highly controlled society’ (253) My emphasis in brackets above should alert the reader to the fact that this happens repeatedly – and most disturbingly as a result of 9/11. Brzezinski is a seasoned and savvy political operator and he is merely outlining how the game is played on the public honestly… of course this was 35 years ago. People are sadly however just as gullible today, if not even more.

In conclusion, in the technetronic era, constitutional measures are to be reappraised, democracy is to be forever altered and possibly eliminated, and liberty is to be rewritten for a new phase of society based on genetic engineering, mind control and subversive social steering by charismatic political elites. The technetronic revolution is not, contrary to wide belief, a prescription for a globalised dictatorship – but rather for a conglomerate of individual devolved units comprising of developed nations who have ascended through their own triumph in technology and innovation to technetronic status. The poorer areas of the Earth are presumably left out of the equation… in fact the third world is dubbed the victim of the technetronic revolution! Unfortunately someone has to lose and for Brzezinski who is a political realist, that’s just the law of the jungle. All in all, taken as a 35 year old thesis that has not been in print for 23 years (I will leave that for others to assume why) it is frighteningly accurate in painting a picture of the worlds as witnessed at the beginning of the 21st Century. The phrase ‘Technetronic Era’ many not have cemented its place in posterity, but we are living in large elements of it nonetheless.

© Iro

all page references: Between Two Ages, America’s Role in the Technetronic Era, by Zbigniew Brzezinski, (1970).

[Leiff]

If the 'law of the jungle' were in effect, the grey men in suits would have been eaten long ago!

[iro]

[iro]

*UPDATE*

usually with a book length thesis like this there is a predating article in a scholarly journal where the author tests his ideas and develops them into a later book. So i followed the path and found out Brzezinski did indeed write an article 2 years before the book called "America in the Technetronic Age" 1968 in an obscure publication called 'ENCOUNTER' which is no longer published.

A bit of further investigation into this dug up this article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,3604,1222311,00.html

a brief abstract;

[Mark Gobell]

That is an amazing discovery Iro.

However did you come across it ?

[iro]