Dude , you do n’t use Instagram ? What are you , some kind of Luddite ? trust it or not , Luddites are n’t just hoi polloi who bilk their limb at , lag behind of , or turn up their nozzle at tech . Originally , they smashed it apart .
The Luddites were violent free radical . Only or else of attacking people , as is the case with most trigger-happy radical , their foeman was the machine . The Luddites , nominate after the mythic English folk hoagy Ned “ King ” Ludd , were terrorize of what Industrial Revolution tech meant for their lives . For many of them , it meant the destruction of their lives — the personnel casualty of their vocations . strait familiar ?
Like those autoworkers who watch robotlike arms replacing their craftsmanship , countless English manpower and women who sour in the cotton barter — elaborate it for sales agreement — go out factory technology usurping their labor . The jobs they did , machine could do faster and cheaper . And that ’s exactly what the motorcar did . So the labourer decided to destroy these machines .
Using hammers and incendiarism , Luddite armies of furious laborers destroyed the motorcar that encroached on their career — induce a stupefying £ 100,000 worth of damagebetween 1811 and 1812 . They go away factories in ruin , and make a reputation as hero sandwich of the work on class — an “ unprecedented ” “ character of hardiness and furiousness , ” write the Annual Register in 1812 .
The British Empire , which saw a ascent in riches unprecedented in the whole of human chronicle through the manipulation of industrial machinery , naturally , was n’t going to take this . They off the military against Luddite groups , quashing , sensational , imprisoning , and executing them . Laws were passed to make the destruction of equipment a serious crime . Force was used until worker were too scared to reject the progress of history and technology .
It ’s a struggle that ’s still felt in this state and every country across the world — and a job all of us grapple with . What hands did once , geared wheel replaced . What gears did once , machinelike branch replace . What composition did once , screens do now . Though we all love modern life too much to ever smash it aside or burn down the local Best Buy , the battle of the Luddite stay , at least in abstract . So next time you ’re called one because you do n’t need to upgrade your smartphone , tell your protagonist to kindly exclude up and show a history Koran . Whether it ’s a Kindle or a soft-cover is your trouble .
History
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