Notes Toward A Neo Luddite Manifesto

Cartoon via Luddites (The Industrial Revolution) By betsy r. and rachel b.

In the present climate of technology worship, arguing against technology is not popular. Utter the most minor criticism of technology and you run the risk of being labeled a "Luddite," an accusation meant to equate opposition to technology with mindlessness. The reference is to an important anti-technology movement in nineteenth-century England. Huge numbers of workers in cottage industries went on a rampage against the introduction of mass-production equipment, particularly within the textile trades. They invaded factories and destroyed machines. The movement was deemed a sufficient enough threat that the death penalty was established for the destruction of technology.

Given that history, it's little wonder people are not eager to be called Luddites, but Langdon Winner has no such resistance. On a recent [1991] radio interview he said, "I am delighted to be called a Luddite. The position of the Luddites was in every way wise and perceptive. They opposed the imposition of a new economic order, which they predicted would destroy their livelihood and traditions, and lead the world in a destructive direction. They were correct. Their resistance should be an inspiration."

Then Santa Fe psychologist and author Chellis Glendinning threw down the gauntlet in a 1990 Utne Reader article titled "Notes toward a Neo-Luddite Manifesto":

Neo-Luddites are twentieth-century citizens who question the pre-dominant modern worldview, which preaches that unbridled technology represents progress. Neo-Luddites have the courage to gaze at the full catastrophe of our century.... Western societies are out of control and desecrating the fragile fabric of life on Earth. Like the early Luddites, we too are seeking to protect the livelihoods, communities, and families we love.... Stopping the destruction requires not just regulating or eliminating individual items like pesticides or military weapons. It requires new ways of thinking about humanity and new ways of relating to life. It requires a new worldview.Source: In the Absence of the Sacred: The Failure of Technology and the Survival of the Indian Nations, by Jerry Mander. [Likely available at your local library.]