Basic circumstances of new technologies

Criticism of technology is nothing new. For some years, however, this criticism has had a new quality. A brief look back demonstrates this. The development of road, rail and air traffic did not trigger any fundamental political debates, but rather occurred within the framework of administrative guidelines. Mass vaccination for numerous diseases, chlorination of drinking water and pasteurization of milk were introduced in a similar way, without any significant public debate concerning the advantages and disadvantages, which might have endangered these projects. In contrast, plans for the fluoridation of drinking water in the USA in the 1960s provoked intense public controversy, which already contained important elements of later disputes concerning nuclear power. This is true both for the structure of the conflict – the appearance of citizens' action groups who mustered their own experts, the turning of their actions into a current topic by the mass media, and the shifting of decisions to political institutions – and also for the type of arguments – the assertion that there was an invisible threat, that the whole population was in danger, and that there was a possibility of unrecognized long-term effects, etc. (Sapolsky 1968).

One fundamental reason for the changes mentioned may be the existence of social groups who intervene in politics in an unconventional manner and who find a platform for their criticism and demands in the mass media.