technical-organization

This chapter critiques the widespread belief that machines save human labor and thereby grant leisure and free activity. Jünger argues that leisure is not simply freed time but requires a cultivated spiritual and mental life, which most people lack, leading to harm rather than benefit when work is lost. Furthermore, he contends that technical progress has not reduced the total amount of work but rather increased it, as machine labor depends on an extensive technical organization that demands more manual labor overall, often shifting burdens to less privileged populations.

This chapter critiques the widespread belief in the limitless power of technical organization, emphasizing its dual nature and inherent limitations. It argues that technical organization primarily functions to manage and distribute scarcity rather than create abundance, leading to an expansion of bureaucracy and exploitation as resources dwindle. The chapter uses the example of whaling to illustrate how technical rationalization intensifies resource depletion and spreads poverty, highlighting the paradox that increased organization coincides with growing scarcity and human distress.

The chapter argues that technological progress inherently leads to the expansion of bureaucratic organization, as individuals become integrated into complex technical systems that regulate and control their actions. It highlights how mechanization not only automates production but also imposes rigid, repetitive structures on human labor and daily life, fostering dependence on centralized technical management. Additionally, the chapter critiques the rise of statistical thinking as a tool that supports this organizational expansion, while cautioning against its potential misuse and the growth of bureaucracy and administrative personnel.

The chapter critiques the encroachment of technical organization on traditional legal and property structures, emphasizing how technology imposes a mechanical rationality that undermines the human-centered state and the organic development of law. It highlights the technician's ambition to replace state authority with technical norms, eroding the permanence of law, property rights, and individual autonomy in favor of flexible, technical regulations that serve utilitarian ends.

The chapter discusses the transformation of science into a servant of technology, where scientific disciplines become auxiliary to technological and industrial applications, prioritizing exploitation over pure understanding. It critiques the mechanization of biology and medicine, highlighting the reduction of living organisms to mere machines and the problematic role of physicians within a technical organization that often opposes genuine healing. The chapter also questions the efficacy of modern medical institutions, suggesting that they may perpetuate rather than cure diseases like cancer due to their mechanistic mindset.

The chapter critiques the impact of technical progress on nutrition, arguing that food has been transformed into standardized, artificial products subject to technical organization, losing their inherent quality. It highlights how biology and nutrition sciences have become extensions of mechanistic and technical thinking, promoting standardized minimum nutrition rather than natural or instinctual eating. The chapter also connects this trend to the increasing scarcity of food and the rise of synthetic substitutes, illustrating a broader failure of technology to sustain authentic human needs.