A popular concept used by the mass media to judge the quality of a country’s economy today is the concept of the “tertiary” sector. The tertiary sector refers to those kinds of economic activity concerned with the rendering “services”. Service sector jobs include anything from retail store work to financial planning. In contrast to the tertiary sector, the primary and secondary sector broadly refer to natural resource extraction and manufacturing. The tertiary sector is thus that industry within the economy that seeks to transform the fruits of the primary and secondary industries into financial capital. It is this transformation of raw material into financial capital that constitutes the “value-added” added portion of the economy.
In this context, the most “advanced” economies of today are in those countries that offer the most opportunities for “value-added” production. Perhaps the best example of the “value-added” economy and its ensuing ethos is found in the United States’ Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is a suburban region south of San Francisco in the state of California. It comprises an extremely high concentration of wealth, universities of remarkable repute, and high technology companies such as Google and Apple. These conditions lead many to cite Silicon Valley as the leading example of American achievement in the tertiary sector and thus one of the most “advanced” cultures of the world.
The region is named after the chemical compound silicon. Silicon is the material basis for the vast majority of computers today. Given the high concentration of IT activity in the region, the sobriquet “Silicon” seems apt. The vast majority of computer manufacturing, the transformation of silicon into a functioning computer, takes place in Asia however. Apple inc. Thus claims that its iPod is “designed” in California despite being manufactured in Asia. This distinction between the product’s design and its actual manufacturing constitutes the “value-added” of a product’s production cycle with the “value-added” portion of the cycle biased toward the “design” rather than “manufacture” side of the spectrum. The bias toward the “design” of products is what characterizes Silicon Valley as a service economy. “Value-added” is achieved by “designing” objects in service of a higher good. Such an example is an iPod designed to serve the user of the object. That without such an emphasis on design and service an object would otherwise appear inanimate to human society is certain. This ability to imbue seemingly inanimate objects with a social purpose and utility is the defining marker of an “advanced” society. Such refinement in imbuing objects with a purpose toward servitude is has become necessary for any mature service sector to compete in the global economy.
A status marker of such “advanced” society today is a decline in religiosity. Today, belief in a Judaeo-Christian god is not a status necessary in order to participate in society as a free subject. One thus does not only participate in the “value-added” sector of the economy without any apriori belief in god but is also encouraged to as a marker of one’s status within such “advanced” society.
It is therefore interesting to note the parallels between how modern subjects revere service to others and how Christians do. At Galatians 5:13 is the following passage, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love to serve one another”. Or take the following passage from Acts 20:35, “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Now observe the following passage taken from Google inc’s mission statement. Their first priority, under the heading “focus on the user and all else will follow”, reads:
Since the beginning, we’ve focused on providing the best user experience possible. Whether we’re designing a new Internet browser or a new tweak to the look of the homepage, we take great care to ensure that they will ultimately serve you, rather than our own internal goal or bottom line. Our homepage interface is clear and simple, and pages load instantly. Placement in search results is never sold to anyone, and advertising is not only clearly marked as such, it offers relevant content and is not distracting. And when we build new tools and applications, we believe they should work so well you don’t have to consider how they might have been designed differently.
Google’s position is nicely surmised by the following passage from Romans 1:20, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse”. By taking the away one’s necessity to consider things differently, Google insists that these invisible attributes, the impossibility to see how something could be designed differently, are built into each of their platforms thus assuring, as in Romans 1:20, that god’s, and Google’s, creations are without excuse. In both the bible and the advanced economies, it is precisely the lack of excuse that thus renders a service to others necessary.
In this context, the most “advanced” economies of today are in those countries that offer the most opportunities for “value-added” production. Perhaps the best example of the “value-added” economy and its ensuing ethos is found in the United States’ Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is a suburban region south of San Francisco in the state of California. It comprises an extremely high concentration of wealth, universities of remarkable repute, and high technology companies such as Google and Apple. These conditions lead many to cite Silicon Valley as the leading example of American achievement in the tertiary sector and thus one of the most “advanced” cultures of the world.
The region is named after the chemical compound silicon. Silicon is the material basis for the vast majority of computers today. Given the high concentration of IT activity in the region, the sobriquet “Silicon” seems apt. The vast majority of computer manufacturing, the transformation of silicon into a functioning computer, takes place in Asia however. Apple inc. Thus claims that its iPod is “designed” in California despite being manufactured in Asia. This distinction between the product’s design and its actual manufacturing constitutes the “value-added” of a product’s production cycle with the “value-added” portion of the cycle biased toward the “design” rather than “manufacture” side of the spectrum. The bias toward the “design” of products is what characterizes Silicon Valley as a service economy. “Value-added” is achieved by “designing” objects in service of a higher good. Such an example is an iPod designed to serve the user of the object. That without such an emphasis on design and service an object would otherwise appear inanimate to human society is certain. This ability to imbue seemingly inanimate objects with a social purpose and utility is the defining marker of an “advanced” society. Such refinement in imbuing objects with a purpose toward servitude is has become necessary for any mature service sector to compete in the global economy.
A status marker of such “advanced” society today is a decline in religiosity. Today, belief in a Judaeo-Christian god is not a status necessary in order to participate in society as a free subject. One thus does not only participate in the “value-added” sector of the economy without any apriori belief in god but is also encouraged to as a marker of one’s status within such “advanced” society.
It is therefore interesting to note the parallels between how modern subjects revere service to others and how Christians do. At Galatians 5:13 is the following passage, “For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love to serve one another”. Or take the following passage from Acts 20:35, “In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.”
Now observe the following passage taken from Google inc’s mission statement. Their first priority, under the heading “focus on the user and all else will follow”, reads:
Since the beginning, we’ve focused on providing the best user experience possible. Whether we’re designing a new Internet browser or a new tweak to the look of the homepage, we take great care to ensure that they will ultimately serve you, rather than our own internal goal or bottom line. Our homepage interface is clear and simple, and pages load instantly. Placement in search results is never sold to anyone, and advertising is not only clearly marked as such, it offers relevant content and is not distracting. And when we build new tools and applications, we believe they should work so well you don’t have to consider how they might have been designed differently.
Google’s position is nicely surmised by the following passage from Romans 1:20, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse”. By taking the away one’s necessity to consider things differently, Google insists that these invisible attributes, the impossibility to see how something could be designed differently, are built into each of their platforms thus assuring, as in Romans 1:20, that god’s, and Google’s, creations are without excuse. In both the bible and the advanced economies, it is precisely the lack of excuse that thus renders a service to others necessary.
Oddly, many contemporary atheists inhabiting “advanced” economies would presumably favourably champion Google as an example of scientific triumph over superstitious and fetishist religious doctrine. For such people, Google is a pillar of human emancipation from folly. By contrast, consider Marx’s prescient insight on this matter:
But, the attitude of the state, and of the republic [free state] in particular, to religion is, after all, only the attitude to religion of the men who compose the state. It follows from this that man frees himself through the medium of the state, that he frees himself politically from a limitation when, in contradiction with himself, he raises himself above this limitation in an abstract, limited, and partial way. It follows further that, by freeing himself politically, man frees himself in a roundabout way, through an intermediary, although an essential intermediary. It follows, finally, that man, even if he proclaims himself an atheist through the medium of the state – that is, if he proclaims the state to be atheist – still remains in the grip of religion, precisely because he acknowledges himself only by a roundabout route, only through an intermediary. Religion is precisely the recognition of man in a roundabout way, through an intermediary. The state is the intermediary between man and man’s freedom. Just as Christ is the intermediary to whom man transfers the burden of all his divinity, all his religious constraint, so the state is the intermediary to whom man transfers all his non-divinity and all his human unconstraint (Marx, On the Jewish Question).
Thus, by seeking human emancipation and salvation through the medium of the market, so called “advanced” societies re-produce the same “primitive” conditions they believe they have overcome. Atheism and religiosity are thus two sides of the same media & technology coin.
The question here is how should we subjectivize our experience in situations of incomplete information or knowledge? Religion is one answer, the market another. The purpose is to seek other alternatives.
But, the attitude of the state, and of the republic [free state] in particular, to religion is, after all, only the attitude to religion of the men who compose the state. It follows from this that man frees himself through the medium of the state, that he frees himself politically from a limitation when, in contradiction with himself, he raises himself above this limitation in an abstract, limited, and partial way. It follows further that, by freeing himself politically, man frees himself in a roundabout way, through an intermediary, although an essential intermediary. It follows, finally, that man, even if he proclaims himself an atheist through the medium of the state – that is, if he proclaims the state to be atheist – still remains in the grip of religion, precisely because he acknowledges himself only by a roundabout route, only through an intermediary. Religion is precisely the recognition of man in a roundabout way, through an intermediary. The state is the intermediary between man and man’s freedom. Just as Christ is the intermediary to whom man transfers the burden of all his divinity, all his religious constraint, so the state is the intermediary to whom man transfers all his non-divinity and all his human unconstraint (Marx, On the Jewish Question).
Thus, by seeking human emancipation and salvation through the medium of the market, so called “advanced” societies re-produce the same “primitive” conditions they believe they have overcome. Atheism and religiosity are thus two sides of the same media & technology coin.
The question here is how should we subjectivize our experience in situations of incomplete information or knowledge? Religion is one answer, the market another. The purpose is to seek other alternatives.
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