IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2017 - 87

technological faithful. The rising profiteering bubble, due
to the huge transfers of public wealth to a few private
hands is not only accompanied by exploding debt, but
also aggressive nationalism, which justified bottomless
spending on security. The threat of a disenfranchised populace left outside the "profiteering bubble" has prompted
the need for aggressive surveillance. As a result, the evolving global security culture has intensified our ontological
insecurities. To cope with this "insecure" world, we adopt
a "survivalist mentality" seeking safety, which implicitly
ingrains passivity. In contrast to this desired state of existence (passivity), dissent, resistance, and autonomy have
become security concerns that have warranted surveillance and control on an unprecedented scale.
Finally, the discussion of these challenges brings two
points to the fore: 1) a new economy of fear that fuels an
emerging security culture, and 2) an intensified ontological insecurity that fuels the need for more security. The
new global economy [13, p. 133] with its dynamic change
from fixed geopolitical conflicts to a constantly changing
war on terror, ensures that our demand for security is continually reinvented, where the supply of fear and security
are continually changing, and thus self-perpetuating and
inexhaustible. This paradox of a new global economy that
is powered by the neoliberal prescriptions of faster innovation ensures that the supply of the security technology,
or any other technology for that matter, can never satisfy
the "self-consuming passion" for its demand. Hence, capitalism will forever be preserved in our existence.

Submitting to the Tyranny of the Machine
The societal and institutional obsession with efficiency in
the new economy is a reality that privileges control over
resource allocations through accounting and information
technologies. This paper raises concerns about our ontological predilections, which confound the objective-subjective divide in resolving resource allocation tensions - in
so far the notional measurement and determination of
"scarcity" and "abundance" of resources. This structural alternation serves only to neutralize any dialectical
opposition between the scarcity-abundance nexus, which
leaves us feeling uncertain about the reality of the crisis.
The momentum, frequency, and speed by which
those alternations of crises or spectacles occur in the
global financial markets not only leave us uncertain
about the reality of the crises, but they inhibit (unattainable and arbitrarily) set "goals" and our ability to meet
our "responsibilities," which would (undermine and)
smear our "reputation." This instigates an innate sense
of fear of failure due to the real threat of humiliation
and loss of livelihood. Information technology intensifies this powerful emotional coupling of smear and fear,
because it further obfuscates the complex moral technology of accounting measurement.
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This leaves us no choice but to submit to the tyranny
of the "machine," because the tyranny of the tribe
reigns supreme and we have no choice but to conform
to the "norms" of the tribe, else we risk being a pariah.
The smear and fear coupling certainly destabilize our
personal and professional psyche and intensify our
ontological insecurity. This new economy of fear fuels a
security culture, where the supply can never satisfy the
demand, and so capitalism will forever be preserved in
our ontologically insecure existence.
The spectacle of this new stress economy does not
only overwhelm their observers to disorient them and
disconnect them from the powers that control their lives
at an inflated premium, but also ensures the pacification
of the disenfranchised populace with the modus operandi of smear and fear. The spectacle and its euphoria continues to go on unchecked, but away from the
perpetrators of exploitation and injustice. This paper is
only a small step to focus attention on some of those
injustices of a provincial and xenophobic economic ideology that is exploitative of Information Technology, and
its complicit perpetrators.

Author Information
George Mickhail is Senior Lecturer, School of Accounting,
Economics & Finance, University of Wollongong, Australia, Visiting Professor, IAE Ecole Universitaire de Management, Université d'Orléans, France, and Visiting Professor,
IESEG School of Management, France. Email: george@
uow.edu.au.

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - September 2017