![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Since then, those who oppose technology or alleged technological “progress” have been called “Luddites.” Whether or not the historical Luddite revolutionaries have been misunderstood, today the term “Luddite” has hardened into a tool we use to brand an individual as irrationally fearful of and overly reactionary to new technologies.Īmong twentieth century thinkers on the subject of technology, the French scholar Jacques Ellul (1912-1994), author of the well-known book, The Technological Society (1954), would seem to be an obvious candidate for the term “Luddite.” Ellul’s obituary in the New York Times quotes Alvin Toffler, author of Futureshock, who described Ellul as “one of the most extreme” of “a generation of future haters and technophobes.” And Ellul does not make it easy to avoid such judgments. ![]() This movement of workers’ protests coalesced under the mythical leader, King Ludd a character inspired by the story of Ned Ludd, an eighteenth century man who apparently destroyed two stocking frames in a fit of rage one day. In the early nineteenth century, groups of British textile workers destroyed the newer power looms and other textile machinery in protest of the working conditions at the time. ![]()
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