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 argon many who wish we could just go back to the good ol days, a magical time, possibly in the fantastic cultural memory of the 1950s, where we werent border by computers and pagers and cell phones and all manner of surveillance 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(prenominal) people are often condescendingly called old 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 intelligence and reason, generally known as Neo-Luddites, after the early 19th century English protesters who destroyed industrial railcarry. This, however, is a misnomer, as the many groups claiming ideological ancestry seldom refer to anything other than the popular anti-technology belief. And, while the wealthy industrialists put down the Luddite rebellion, their ideals have survived, and in all likelihood 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 knitting 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 little 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 name, 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 shake up others to commit acts of violence in their name, which Luddite purists apparently detested 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 higgledy-piggledy opportunity to commit unrelated crimes in their name,