Luddites, Neo-Luddites, and Technophobes: Confused by Technology :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

Luddites, Neo-Luddites, and Technophobes Confused by Technology In todays fast-paced society, there are many who wish we could just go prickle to the good ol days, a magical time, possibly in the fantastic cultural memory of the 1950s, where we werent surrounded by computers and pagers and cell ph champions and all manner of control and recording. Many say that these things add hassle to our lives, and that the digital revolution is simply incompatible with our analog minds and souls. Such people are often condescendingly called of age(predicate) fogies when they are, typically, older, confused by technology, and fearful of change of any sort. There are, though, hearty subcultures which embrace a return to a less complicated time with news program and reason, generally known as Neo-Luddites, after the early 19th century English protesters who destroyed industrial machinery. This, however, is a misnomer, as the many groups claiming ideological derivation seldom refer to anythin g other than the popular anti-technology belief. And, while the wealthy industrialists put down the Luddite rebellion, their ideals have survived, and probably will survive as long as technology continues to be so totally complex and separate from nature. The original Luddites were technological guerillas who, from 1811 to 1813, and sporadically in the next three years, broke machines (most often plain stitch machines) throughout Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, and Leistershire, the three Midland counties in England, as well as starting riots and specifically terrorizing machine owners (Bailey 111-114, 18-19). Machine-breaking was not a new form of rebellion, and the Luddites did undersized to modify it there were many copycat breakings, but there were also many unconnected breakings, in the same time (11). The chief distinguishing characteristic of the Luddites was their promise, and that they had one rebelling textile workers in the Midlands and north of England used the invented name Ned Ludd-or General Ludd or King Ludd-in place of a leader, becoming known as followers of that name Luddites (x, 139). Sadly, the growing popularity of this name opened up a new area of problems. The Luddites standard machine-breaking eventually inspired others to commit acts of violence in their name, which Luddite purists apparently despised enough to cease their breaking to prove the distinction (144). Although in the thick of the machine-breaking fervor, though, there were many who took the chaotic opportunity to commit unrelated crimes in their name,