Pockets of irrationality in an increasingly rational world: An effort to simplify unmanageable environmental over-complexity?

Author： Geyer Felix

Publisher： Emerald Group Publishing Ltd

ISSN： 0368-492X

Source： Kybernetes: The International Journal of Systems & Cybernetics, Vol.30, Iss.9-10, 2001-11, pp. : 1155-1178

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Abstract

The transition is described from the "mediated society" (Lachs) to the "network society" (Castells), caused by the increasingly rapid complexification of modern society. On the level of psychic systems, i.e. the individual's consciousness, the modern network society promotes new (non-Marxist and non-psychiatric) forms of powerlessness and meaningless. On the level of social systems, i.e. the system of communications in the network society, the results of this are described. The network society is only partially developed: in some areas more than others, in the economic and political more than in the cultural sphere. As an example, the present-day situation in Yugoslavia is discussed, as well as the chances for the emergence of world-wide minimum norms, both ecological and anti-genocide.