The 'Invisible' Effects of the Telegraph

After reading Carey's "Technology and Ideology: The Case of the Telegraph," I was surprised to discover that the telegraph, a device that is definitely overlooked in this time, had so many effects on the world. I was even more intrigued to find out that this machine impacted people's religious outlooks as it related to what Carey and Quirk called "the electrical sublime." The way that Carey explained this phenomenon portrayed it as a mysterious and somewhat religioius view of electricity/telegraph that resulted from the unknown source, or "invisibility," of electricity's power. The religious figured that there must be some godly force behind the telegraph, for how else could it be achieved? They were fascinated with the "mind-body dualism" that was achieved through the telegraph. Your physical self is in one place while your thoughts are traveling through cables with the force of electricity to another place. As the religious viewed the telegraph in the context of the electrical sublime, there came the controversy of the 'fact' that we had linked the spiritual world with the material world. Branching out from this notion, religious folk who believed in the electrical sublime began to hold different views of the telegraph. Some viewed it negatively like Reverend Gannett who said through the telegraph, we harness this mysterious spiritual force "to do our errands," treating it "like a very slave." Those who held that view saw the telegraph as something very dangerous and even blasphemous, trying to play the role of God. Others saw it as a God-given tool for missions. Whether the telegraph was a blessing or an abomination, however, it was still viewed by many as a spiritual device.

Throughout history, humans have attributed the unknown to the spiritual. I believe this is another case of that. Because people did not understand the nature of protons, electrons, and neutrons at the time, they figured electricity must have been some godly force. I believe that this could be true but not in the sense that these people believed. Just because they did not understand it, they automatically considered it to be another one of God's 'magic tricks' (or 'illusions'). This is flawed thinking in my opinion.

If you would like me to ellaborate on my opinion, let me know. It's noon already, so I should probably submit this now.