6 Michael Stroh

6 enn) MICO ION eet

the Internet will reduce this phenomenon. It is, more likely, to increase it.

Martin Heidegger , philosopher and unrepentant Nazi , is quite negative to technology. He says we live in a culture in which everything is a tool; we relate to everything functionally. When we encounter the world, we encounter it as a resource for use. We are incapable of encountering the natural world as it is, in itself; everything is perceived and related to as a tool. In a notorious comparison, he compared the concentration camps to modern factory chicken farming. The one produces chicken meat in the most efficient manner with no regard for the welfare of the chickens, the other produces death in the most efficient manner with no regard for the welfare of the victims. It is the modern mind set that sees all reality and all truth in the same way. I hate to say it, but he might have been on to something. Let us remember that technology, in general and the Internet, in particular, have no values, but they do shape the way we perceive reality. Perhaps, we should say that technology does have one value, the efficient use of matter. A decision not to use matter in the most efficient way is a violation of political and economic wisdom, and in our culture is a sin. Maybe, it is the only sin.

Let us now look at Ferdinand Toennies . He coined the terms Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft . Gemeinschaft , or community, is an organic world in which people relate to one another, speak the same language, share values and care about each other. Gesellschaft , or society, is a world in which people relate functionally, and it is held together by business. Gemeinschatft is the medieval world; Gesellschaft was created by the Enlightenment and we live in it. When we read Toennies on Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft , we think of Martin Buber ’s distinction between the 1-Thou world and the I-It world and his philosophy of community. The I-It world is a world in which we