Why are people technophobes? Well, there is no simple answer to this question, there are many answers. One idea that I have come up with relates to romantic vs. classical mindsets. I believe that all people have the capacity to think in both ways, but they might have reasons of thinking in romantic or classical ways.
Some people; like Phaedrus from Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance must think in a classical way when it comes to many things due to his job being such a technical one. But, I noticed while reading the book Phaedrus doesn’t think of all things in such a classical way. He for example sees the trees, mountains, and plains all very romantically. He doesn’t break all parts of the tree into its own very unique category, when he looks at the mountain he doesn’t think or talk about how it was created nor does he talk about its chemical structure. I believe that he looks at these pieces of art (the nature all around him) in a romantic way because he doesn’t know much about them, nor does he want to. He just wants to admire their beauty, much like John does with his motorcycle.
But why would Phaedrus just look at nature as art instead of as something that is broke down into many pieces. Well because when you look at art it is an escape from the work and the constant thinking and breaking things down into pieces. Once someone starts to break these things down, it becomes work and no one wants to work all the time. Everyone needs a break and a time to reflect while staring at something they don’t need to break apart, something to just admire for its beauty. And this is why John never wants to get into how his bike works in my opinion. John doesn’t want his bike to become work; he wants it to remain a piece of art he admires and nothing else.