What are the ramifications of the rationalization of society?

The answer to this depends upon your perspective.  The
most famous perspective on this issue is that of Max Weber.  Weber believed that the
rationalization of society put people into "iron cages" and robbed them of their
freedom.

When a society rationalizes, more and more of its
institutions become based on knowledge and rules.  The institutions become less personal
and much more bureaucratized.  This, he says, takes away some amount of personal freedom
and also robs people of their connections with other
people.

For example, in a rationalized society, a dispute
between a husband and wife will be resolved through the application of rules in a
setting like a divorce court.  This is not a very natural thing -- it simply goes by the
rules without really trying to understand the personal relationships that are at play. 
By contrast, a traditional society might have solved this dispute through mediation by
community members.  These mediators would have known the couple and known about their
lives and about what was best for them.  This would have been a much more personal and
much less rule-bound solution.

So, to Weber, a rational
society is one where there are all these set rules that take away people's freedom and
robs a society of its interpersonal interactions.  This is the ramification of the
rationalization of society -- it creates this sort of more bureaucratized and impersonal
society.