Technocrats, she argues, try to impose straitjacket plans on society, stifling experimentation. The result is to reduce the range of choices to people, to freeze progress in its tracks. Stasists come in many ideological colorations, according to Postrel. The end of the Cold War upset political boundaries that had held for almost half a century. These allies differ, of course, on why they oppose corporate globalization.
Technology is another dynamist-stasist flash point.
Computers and the Internet are bashed from the right as carriers of pornographic infection. Progressives like Jeremy Rifkin view biotechnology, particularly in agriculture, as a reckless and potentially cataclysmic roll of the genetic dice, while some among the religious community condemn it for usurping the will of God. But she notes a parallel between critics of corporate mass culture who argue that a Disney-fication of the planet will homogenize culture and those who wish to clamp down on expression they find offensive. She makes a credible case that both camps underestimate the richness of cultural processes. It's easy enough to dismiss the cultural bluenoses who want to censor rock lyrics and boot Jerry Springer off the air.