But what Mailer loathes most of all is technology's brute presence in the sacred bond of men and women.
War is traditionally depicted as tactics, moves on a chessboard, the collision of brute power and military technology.
That the underground network of activists was able to help Mr. Chen evade his captors and move around the capital undetected for days has undoubtedly shaken Chinese leaders, who have become increasingly determined to suppress dissent through technology and brute force.
The first wave of experimentation with social media in business took place by brute force, using search technology to find conversations of interest and then to get involved.
As technology has advanced, brute force has become less and less a priority.
Its military, sitting across the region's most vital sea-lanes, would combine the mainland's brute numbers with Taiwan's technology and training.
Although the funky new space planes being developed, such as Britain's Skylon or Virgin's SpaceShipTwo, will slash the costs of getting into space, they are still based on rocket technology – using sheer brute force to escape the clutches of gravity.
Facebook is not just spending big on lobbying lawmakers (and it sure is doing that), it's using technology and the brute force of its platform to pound on and roll over the rule of law by deforming foundational tenets of society.
It will take sheer innovation, not brute-force extensions of existing technology, to observe any features at the Planck scale.
The language used to describe possible negative consequences of hydraulic fracturing is quite strong and frightening, e.g. when "fracking" risks are compared to nuclear catastrophes or the technology is depicted as brute, dirty, forceful, and toxic per se.
