Musings on the Luddite Renaissance

Exactly as the title suggests--with help from the articles I sourced.

The words I use in the recording may not match the words in the transcript.

Transcript

Recently--thanks to a post on a Discord server I'm a part of--I was apprised of an article on the website/blog Blood in the Machine, declaring
(in its title) 'The Luddite Renaissance is in full swing.' At first, I mentally panicked when I saw that--mostly because of what society at 
large assumes Luddites are, and thus the negative connotations that come with the label--but, upon further research, I realized I'm more or less
on the same page philosophically as the article and its author, Brian Merchant--as well as so many of the others who call themselves
Luddites, in that we all realize that though technology, in general, makes our lives easier, so we can focus on, among other things, creative pursuits, we need to not let Silicon Valley and other tech bros run amok. Technology--in all of its forms--needs to be better regulated than it is at present, but it isn't, because governments benefit just as much as corporations do from the status quo. The Luddite Renaissance is at the intersection of technology and politics--it blends concern for the planet and all of its inhabitants, and protests tech giants, corporations, and governments pushing forward new tools and technologies without consulting anyone these new innovations affect in any way, shape, or form. The Luddite Renaissance, according to this article, is a protest against a society, and a future, dictated by Silicon Valley tech bros and authoritarian governments.


First, let me explain what a Luddite actually is, and what Luddism actually stands for. According to the Medium article, 'The Luddites: Technophobia, Turbulence, and the Tapestry of Industrial Revolution': 'Contrary to popular belief, the Luddites were not entirely against technology. Rather, they opposed the way it was being used to undermine their livelihoods and destabilize their communities. The Luddite rebellion was a plea for fairness, a cry against the exploitation of the working class by profit-driven manufacturers.' From where I stand, there are parallels between the original Luddite movement, the Luddite Renaissance, and socialism, in that all of the aforementioned movements challenge the capitalist status quo and take the owners of the means of production to task for the decisions they make willy-nilly without any thought as to how it will impact the world we live in. As stated in the article, 'I Am a Luddite. You Should Be One, Too,' 'Luddism was a working-class movement opposed to the political consequences of industrial capitalism. The Luddites wanted technology to be deployed in ways that made work more humane and gave workers more autonomy. The bosses, on the other hand, wanted to drive down costs and increase productivity.' (And, I'll add, control the populace, what with government spyware such as Palantir Technologies.) According to 'The Luddites: Technophobia, Turbulence, and the Tapestry of the Industrial Revolution,' some key lessons we can learn from the story of the Luddites are: 'the idea that society should scrutinize the ethical and social implications of technological advancements,' 'the importance of balancing technological change with social responsibility,' and, 'The Luddite movement also serves as a cautionary tale about the potential consequences of suppressing dissent.'

But the Luddite Renaissance has its critics; one of them is Peter G. Hall, former vice-president and chief economist of Export Development Canada (EDC), who wrote the article, 'Beware of the Luddite Revival,' in which he states, '(Ned) Ludd’s actions touched off a movement that reckoned that the only way to preserve economic order was to summarily wipe out the factory machinery that was upending methods of production. The Luddite movement did not ultimately prevail, as humans found ways to reorganize industrial activities that clearly made everyone better off – eventually.' While acknowledging, 'Left to itself, the capitalist system does create enormous dislocations, and unaided, does not have a great record of rectifying them,' he also claims that 'Straight-line projections of outcomes thus lead to cataclysmic predictions that ultimately prove fantastically wrong. Why? They almost always forget that the same ingenuity that is revolutionizing production is applied to economic reorganization in a way that has proven over time to raise everyone’s standard of living,' and declares, 'A key adversary to adaptation is misinformation.' But given Hall's former position with the EDC, and the fact that he once served as president of the Canadian Association for Business Economics and the Ottawa Economics Association, and served as a volunteer board and committee member for two Ottawa-area private schools, I can't help feeling he has some interests and biases for this point of view.

But Peter Hall isn't the only critic of the Luddite Renaissance. Barbaria.net has an English-language article titled 'Criticism of Neo-Luddism,' which begins by stating, 'One of those experiences that marked the history of the working class, coming with the birth of capitalism as a mode of production, was that of Luddism' and ' The Luddite movement, as an object of study, has been distorted by bourgeois historians, most of whom see it as a reactionary movement, as well as by misguided admirers, who subtract it from the universal experience of the workers’ movement or who contrast it with its later development,' then continues with, 'In general, neo-Luddites see the Luddites as having been able to realize the practical critique of the industrial system which they will deepen theoretically. They also see this movement as expressing the disregard of the authorities for what the introduction of machinery meant for the craftsmen and workers themselves, who were not consulted and could not really express their opinion, as they should have had the right to decide on its introduction'; according to this article, 'The neo-Luddite movement...has its antecedents in the environmental movement,' which, unfortunately, is known for hosting the ideology of turning the clock back to times before technology and machines, and those who subscribe to said ideology--who the author of the article calls 'primitivists' and describes as 'being those who would take the anti-technological conclusions to the ultimate consequences or to the extreme, their model being that of primitive humanity'; society at large already sees Luddites as anti-technology, anti-progress, and backwards in their thinking, and the anarcho-primitivists and their ideology don't help in dispelling that bias. As stated in 'I Am a Luddite': 'What would Luddism look like today? It won’t necessarily (or only) be a movement that takes up hammers against smart fridges, data servers and e-commerce warehouses. Instead, it would treat technology as a political and economic phenomenon that deserves to be critically scrutinised and democratically governed, rather than a grab bag of neat apps and gadgets.' In short, anyone who subscribes to the Luddite Renaissance, or neo-Luddism, should learn about Luddism and the Luddites, the mindset and philosophy behind their actions, and what they were trying to accomplish.

Giving the matter some thought, the mindset that brought about the Luddite movement in the first place is very much needed now, given that corporations, and the governments and other entities who enable them, are running roughshod over society and depleting the planet, and the people who run them are fiddling while watching the world burn--all in the name of making themselves wealthier than they already are. So, instead of panicking, I am now--especially after learning about the subject--feeling hopeful for the present and future.

Sources:

https://www.bloodinthemachine.com/p/the-luddite-renaissance-is-i
n-full

https://patrickkarsh.medium.com/the-luddites-947c0ca10360

https://www.edc.ca/en/weekly-commentary/the-luddite-revival.html
https://www.edc.ca/en/bio/peter-hall.html

https://barbaria.net/2024/07/01/criticism-of-neo-luddism/

https://theconversation.com/im-a-luddite-you-should-be-one-too-163172

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/06/llm-free-all-organic/678670/

https://socialistworker.co.uk/in-depth/the-real-luddites/