Digging into the Theory of Communicative Action

While waiting for my copies of Habermas' Theories of Communicative Action to arrive, I am attempting to get started by reading analyses of his theories in order to familiarize myself with some of the concepts. I am starting with the first chapter of Language and Reason by Maeve Cooke, published in 1994.
Moving through the chapter, what caught my attention was the description of a dialogue between Habermas and Walter Benjamin where Habermas addresses the difficulty of Benjamin's concept of "secular illumination," which is closely intertwined with the "redemption of tradition" (17).

The quote goes on to say,
<em><blockquote>"Now it is true that hte liberation of culture is not possible without overcoming the repression anchored in institutions. Yet, for a moment, one is beset by suspicion: wouldn't it be just as possible to have an emancipation without happiness or fullfilment as it is to have a relatively high standard of living without the abolition of oppression" (18). </blockquote></em>

This is exactly the sort of quandary I have been contemplating with my dissertation pilot exploring attitudes of immigrants to multi-media technology. First, why is technology intertwined with a belief that it will only do good things for people who are exposed to it? Second, how does this new technology, which has already steam-rolled over traditions of western, "developed" nations (and in fact to use "steam-rolled" is rather deterministic isn't it? We have, for the most part welcomed technological progress, embraced it for all that it does for humanity, and turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the resulting complications our new technologies bring.

And what is most troubling is that very few people question the machine. As a designer and instructional technologist, the hardest thing to get people to really hear is that machines are NOT going to solve problems or save money necessarily. The larger system, the process for how things are done is the whole sum of technology, and without carefully taking into account people, throwing a bunch of hardware and software at a problem is essentially useless.