but he was also FASCINATED and even a bit ENAMORED by the machines. they captivated him. they were cruel and mechanistic, but they were also incredible devices. he wanted to crawl around in them and risk death to explore them.

"modernity" to a large degree is the creation and deployment of systems which are capable of entrancement.

that, too, has been noted a lot, but i would add that the demise of these systems does not "free" people to "return" to their prior selves, or to what would have been their selves in the absence of those systems.

the evidence from recent times is that it actually unmoors and depresses them, and does not cause the spontaneous/organic reformation of things like social ties.

it's more like a bunch of transmission towers whose cables fell down, rising together in an untouching file of monoliths.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3279618&forum_id=2ГѓЖ’#30886256)