information:classification, information:highlighting, structural:expansion, linguistic:voice_change
Criticism

Post-industrialism is criticized for the amount of real fundamental change it produces in society, if any at all. A mild view held by Alan Banks and Jim Foster contends that representations of post-industrial society by advocates assume professional, educated elites were previously less relevant than they have become in the new social order, and that changes that have occurred are minor but greatly embellished. More critical views see the entire process as the highest evolution of capitalism, wherein the system produces commodities as opposed to practical goods and is determined privately instead of socially. This view is complemented by the assertion that "the characteristic feature of a modern society is that it is a technocracy ". Such societies then become notable for their ability to subvert social consciousness through powers of manipulation rather than powers of coercion, reflective of the "ideology of the ruling class … predominantly managerial". Pope Francis has suggested that "the post-industrial period may well be remembered as one of the most irresponsible in history", although he follows this comment with "the hope that humanity at the dawn of the twenty-first century will be remembered for having generously shouldered its grave responsibilities".