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The Majority Report had an excellent interview with this author Brian Merchant who wrote the book “Blood in the Machine” about the luddites. It is quite interesting that luddites were not against technology, they were against the owner class using machines to replace skilled workers with unskilled workers using mechanized systems for lower pay and taking all the profits.
The interview went for nearly an hour but is worth a watch. It starts at the 30 min mark. https://www.youtube.com/live/SOsFm5H_M3w?si=KNxbkNnziDdh0l7V
There are also two rather excellent podcast episodes about luddites and the book, one by 99 percent invisible that discusses more about the concept in general and another by Cautionary Tales that is focused on the luddites and what they did.
The interviews on The Majority Report are so good and in depth.
I always feel bad when I tune them out while working. I can’t help that I do that. Sucks.
Alright fine, I’ll be a Luddite now. Every time we ‘upgrade’ or ‘make progress’ it is really about controling the working class and circumventing a previous business model. Capital pays more and more for the inputs: fuel and technology, in order to justify their control. And then once they have it, they use progress to justify poor labor protections. They never use the predicted best solution, or even a compromise, they use the solution that offers them more power.
Don’t be a Luddite: be a socialist.
Because the entire problem with luddites is blaming the wrong cause.
Automation of menial labor is the best possible thing that can happen to humanity, and to the humans working those jobs.
Except our system is so fucked that “no job” = “go die on the streets you worthless layabout”
Every job lost to automation should be celebrated by a socialist society, as it means more of us are moving up Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
You can be both, and a lot of us are. A Luddite wouldn’t be opposed to the automation of jobs in a socialist society, nobody is being exploited in that case.
We question and oppose the tech right now because that isn’t the society we live in. It isn’t really about the tech at all, it’s about who controls it and how they’re using it.
I personally refer the term Butlerian Jihadist, especially when it comes to being against AI generated content.
