Professions Conspiracies Quote by Neil Postman
““Shaw once remarked that all professions are conspiracies against the laity. I would go further: in Technopoly, all experts are invested with the charisma of priestliness. Some of our priest-experts are called psychiatrists, some psychologists, some sociologists, some statisticians. The god they serve does not speak of righteousness or goodness or mercy or grace. Their god speaks of efficiency, precision, objectivity. And that is why such concepts as sin and evil disappear in Technopoly. They come from a moral universe that is irrelevant to the theology of expertise. And so the priests of Technopoly call sin “social deviance,” which is a statistical concept, and they call evil “psychopathology,” which is a medical concept. Sin and evil disappear because they cannot be measured and objectified, and therefore cannot be dealt with by experts.””
About This Quote
Source Book: Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman, 1992
Expert systems replace moral frameworks with measurable efficiency, erasing concepts like sin and evil.
In simple terms: Efficiency replaces morality in modern expertise.
Key Takeaway
Question the limits of expertise.
Themes
technology
expertise
morality
efficiency
Mood
critical
analytical
Type
philosophical
critical
When to use this quote
- policy making
- healthcare
- education
- corporate governance
Key Concepts
technocracy
secularization
ethical relativism
Questions to Reflect On
- Can all moral issues be quantified?
- What are the risks of ignoring moral language?
A Different Perspective
Experts may argue that quantification improves fairness.
