The internet as fearsome cult: a 2000 book on this theme has just been issued in English. The Culture of the Internet and the Internet as Cult: Social Fears and Religious Fantasies (originally Le culte de l’Internet: une menace pour le lien social?, Philippe Breton) apparently considers cyberculture as "a cult offering the promise of a better world."
Unfortunately, according to Breton, that better world is both flawed and founded on a mix of religions. According to the publisher,
global information society [is one] in which social relationships will be founded upon a separation of bodies and a collectivization of consciousnesses. Their vision is one that mixes together the heritage of Teilhard de Chardin, Zen Buddhism and New Age philosophies. It is a vision that mobilizes American cultural values such as Puritanism, manicheism, the quest for social harmony and the cult of the young. It is rooted in a religiosity that celebrates the utopia of transparence in the context of a political crisis and the waning influence of monotheism and humanism.
I haven't read this either in French or English, but am interested.
Comments