The Luddites were a loosely organized band of rabble rousers in England, mostly textile workers whose jobs were being replaced by more advanced and efficient weaving machinery. Instead of doing the difficult work of learning to co-exist with the new and emerging technology, they simply smashed the expensive new looms.
They had no leader but claimed allegiance to Ned Ludd, a weaver from Anstey, near Leicester.
They protested and rampaged and claimed that manufacturers were using machines in a fraudulent and deceitful manner to circumvent standard labor practices.
The rebellion lasted from 1811 to 1816. Mill and factory owners took to shooting protesters and eventually the movement was suppressed with legal and military force.
Over time, the term Luddite has come to mean one opposed to industrialization, automation, computerization, or new technologies in general.
Neo-Luddites are alive and well and living amongst us!
We are probably most familiar with Ted Kaczynski, who killed three people and injured 23 others in his violent opposition to technology and progress.
Neo-Luddites believe that current technologies are a threat, and they promote a dystopian vision of the future and the eventual collapse of society as we know it.
Today’s anti-vaccination nut jobs are neo-Luddites. Rather than embrace the new and emerging anti-viral technologies that are saving so many lives, they are attacking the science and seeking to de-rail our progress. Reprehensible!
Anti-Vaxxers, live and die by your own decisions, but stop telling lies about what the future of technology holds for the rest of us.
“The collective is the corrective,” said a recent Intersectional comrade on NPR.
The nut jobs are the proletarians with false consciousness. They must be re-educated. The needs of the many are greater than the needs of the few.
Who should control technology: greedy private profiteers or public servants of the People?
When we win a social-political-economic-environmental-health-educational-equity-justice system, we will have Progress. People and Planet Before Profits. The Ted Kaczynskis will then have meaningful work instead of striking out alone.
See cpusa.org for more on many issues.
No thanks, Leon. No one around here is interested in the Communist Party or anything they have for sale.
Leon: You asked, “Who should control technology: greedy private profiteers or public servants of the People?”
The problem is that no-one seems to control technology, and that is why we still have neo-luddites to content with. Ask HAL, another frequent contributor on this site.
Also, Ted Kaczynski was a knucklehead who killed and injured many people for no apparent reason. His manifesto was horsefeathers and bullcrap.