Page 189 - Contribution To Phenomenology

182 ULLRICH MELLE

forces of violence, despotism and brute repression. The priests of
modernization try to keep the faith alive by contrasting these successes
with a horrifying picture of pre-modern times. The fear of regression is
deeply rooted in the modern mind. For this mind, "modern'' is equivalent
with urban, civilized, enlightened, wealthy and above all with the freedom
of the individual from oppressive traditions and closed collectivities. The
modern age is seen as the only recently reached highest stage of human
history after a long march through dark ages of large-scale misery,
oppression, obscurantism and general primitivism. But in spite of certain
incontestable achievements and the strong attachment to the modern way
of life, once the process of modernization has struck roots, the suspicion
grows as to whether this whole process of modernization may not have
lead the human race into a dead-end or, worse, that the hubris which the
secular faith of modernization involves will not inevitably be punished by
death.
The dynamic of modernization, driven by science, technology and a
capitalist world market has a more and more destructive character.
Paradoxically enough, it is its success in certain respects which is the
cause of large-scale destruction and of growing human misery and
alienation. The fusion of science, technology and capitalism, their gradual
liberation from all culturally determined constraints, the total submission
of the life-world to their autonomous logic, in particular to their most
fundamental imperative—the imperative of efficiency and produc-
tivity—have unleashed a delirious dynamic of growth and change. The
productivity of the capitalist forces of production has reached such levels
that the global unemployment rate is above 50%. The markets are
shrinking because purchasmg power is being destroyed. Whole countries
and regions are being de-industrialized because they are falling behind the
ever increasing global standard of productivity. The battle for the
shrinking markets becomes ever harder. Over-production, suffocation, is
a constant threat for the capitalist production. Marx had already
recognized that the capitalist production-machine cannot wait for the
demand, but has to create and stimulate it. One of the biggest industries
today is the industry which produces the demand for the goods supplied
by this production-machine. The second answer to the threat of
over-production is product-change. Technological innovation makes
possible a rapid product-change which can be sold as product-improve-
ment. The flow of goods is constantly accelerating, the moral waste
increases.