Still can't go along with you, Neocon. Perhaps my problem is primarily with your use of the word "unsettlement", which, in my mind, is connected with subjective psychological distress, dislocation, disorientation.
As a 20th century American, I have lived through all sorts of changes wrought by technological innovations of one sort or another, without feeling any distress whatsoever. Frankly, I didn't even notice half the time that they were happening. First there were no PCs, say; then people started buying them; eventually, I bought one too. Seemed natural. No distress, no alienation (just fear that I would never be able to master the thing!). And so forth.
To put it another way: most of us in THIS country, in the later half of our century, experienced the "benign" side of the industrialization and/or technological innovation that began in the 19th century. In the last century, people here and in Europe experienced more of the down side: the "dark satanic mills," the dreadful working conditions, the growth of ever-more polluted slums, bitter labor struggles, the real uprootedness, despair, and alienation, -- the "unsettlement," in short. And the impact of Darwinism on religious belief? Many people at the time were simply traumatized by what looked to them like the total disjunction of science & religion. (Remember "Dover Beach.") And the growth of nationalism? And the spread of colonialism in the 19th century? That sure "unsettled" a lot of people around the globe!
In the 20th century, I will admit that the peoples of the former Russian Empire, to take only one example, experienced plenty of the "downside" of "modernization."
I guess I would conclude by saying that I do not see "unsettlement" (that word!)as a peculiarly 20th century phenomenon.
P.S. And I even forgot to mention two major and similar 19th century events: emancipation of the slaves in the United States, and the abolition of serfdom in Russia. Both had an "unsettling" effect, as well as a positive effect. |
