Neo-Luddism
Neo-Luddism or new Luddism is a
Neo-Luddism is a leaderless movement of non-affiliated groups who resist modern technologies and dictate a return of some or all technologies to a more primitive level.
Neo-Luddism is based on the concern of the technological impact on individuals, their communities, and/or the environment,[4] Neo-Luddism stipulates the use of the precautionary principle for all new technologies, insisting that technologies be proven safe before adoption, due to the unknown effects that new technologies might inspire.
Philosophy
Neo-Luddism calls for slowing or stopping the development of new technologies. Neo-Luddism prescribes a lifestyle that abandons specific technologies, because of its belief that this is the best prospect for the future. As Robin and Webster put it, "a return to nature and what are imagined as more natural communities". In the place of industrial capitalism, neo-Luddism prescribes small-scale agricultural communities such as those of the Amish and the Chipko movement in Nepal and India[5] as models for the future.
Neo-Luddism denies the ability of any new technology to solve current problems, such as
In 1990, attempting to found a unified movement and reclaim the term Luddite,
Vision of the future without intervention
Neo-Luddism often establishes stark predictions about the effect of new technologies. Although there is not a cohesive vision of the ramifications of technology, neo-Luddism predicts that a future without technological reform has dire consequences. Neo-Luddites believe that current technologies are a threat to humanity and to the natural world in general, and that a future societal collapse is possible or even probable.
These predictions include changes in humanity's place in the future due to replacement of humans by computers, genetic decay of humans due to lack of natural selection, biological engineering of humans, misuse of technological power including disasters caused by
Types of intervention
In 1990, attempting to reclaim the term Luddite and found a unified movement, Glendinning published her "Notes towards a Neo-Luddite manifesto". In this paper, Glendinning proposes destroying the following technologies: electromagnetic technologies (this includes communications, computers, appliances, and refrigeration), chemical technologies (this includes synthetic materials and medicine), nuclear technologies (this includes weapons and power as well as cancer treatment, sterilization, and smoke detection), genetic engineering (this includes crops as well as insulin production).[8] She argues in favor of the "search for new technological forms" which are local in scale and promote social and political freedom.
Movement
Contemporary neo-Luddites are a widely diverse group of loosely affiliated or non-affiliated groups which includes "writers, academics, students, families,
One neo-Luddite assembly was the "Second Neo-Luddite Congress", held 13–15 April 1996, at a Quaker meeting hall in
Relationship to violence and vandalism
Some neo-Luddites use vandalism or violence to achieve social change and promote their cause.[11]
In May 2012, credit for the shooting of Roberto Adinolfi, an
Adinolfi knows well that it is only a matter of time before a European Fukushima kills on our continent [...] Science in centuries past promised us a golden age, but it is pushing us towards self destruction and slavery [...] With our action we give back to you a small part of the suffering that you scientists are bringing to the world.[12]
Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, initially sabotaged developments near his cabin but dedicated himself to getting back at the system after discovering a road had been built over a plateau he had considered beautiful. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski engaged in a nationwide bombing campaign against modern technology, planting or mailing numerous home-made bombs, killing three people and injuring 23 others. In his 1995
The kind of revolution we have in mind will not necessarily involve an armed uprising against any government. It may or may not involve physical violence, but it will not be a POLITICAL revolution. Its focus will be on technology and economics, not politics.
In August 2011 in
Sale says that neo-Luddites are not motivated to commit violence or vandalism.[14] The manifesto of the "Second Luddite Congress", which Sale took a major part in defining, attempts to redefine neo-Luddites as people who reject violent action.[9]
History
Origins of contemporary critiques of technology in literature
According to Julian Young,
One of the first major contemporary anti-technological thinkers was French philosopher Jacques Ellul. In his The Technological Society (1964), Ellul argued that logical and mechanical organization "eliminates or subordinates the natural world". Ellul defined technique as the entire totality of organizational methods and technology with a goal toward maximum rational efficiency. According to Ellul, technique has an impetus which tends to drown out human concerns: "The only thing that matters technically is yield, production. This is the law of technique; this yield can only be obtained by the total mobilization of human beings, body and soul, and this implies the exploitation of all human psychic forces."[17] In Industrial Revolution England, machines became cheaper to use than men. The five counties of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cheshire, Derbyshire, and Nottinghamshire had a small uprising where they threatened those hired to guard the machines.[18] Another critic of political and technological expansion was Lewis Mumford, who wrote The Myth of the Machine. The views of Ellul influenced the ideas of the infamous American neo-Luddite Kaczynski. The opening of Kaczynski's manifesto reads: "The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race."[13] Other philosophers of technology who have questioned the validity of technological progress include Albert Borgmann, Don Ihde and Hubert Dreyfus.[5]
See also
- Neo-Luddites (category)
- Ned Ludd
- Anarcho-primitivism
- Antiscience
- Butlerian Jihad
- Environmentalism in The Lord of the Rings
- Green conservatism
- CLODO
- Development criticism
- Earth liberation
- Green anarchy
- Hardline (subculture)
- John Zerzan
- MOVE
- Pentti Linkola
- Radical environmentalism
- Reactionary
- On the Origin of the "Influencing Machine" in Schizophrenia
- Ted Kaczynski
- Technological Singularity
- Traditionalist Workers Party
- Why The Future Doesn't Need Us – by Bill Joy, published in Wired
References
- ^ ISBN 978-0-415-97868-2.
- ^ Brosnan, M.J. (1998). Technophobia: the psychological impact of Information Technology. pg 155. London: Routledge.
- ^ a b Sale, Kirkpatrick (February 1997). "AVOWEDLY LOW-TECH: America's new Luddites". mondediplo.com. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-7619-2598-9.
- ^ a b c d e Basney, Lionel. Questioning Progress, Books and Culture magazine, 1998
- ISBN 978-0-415-19749-6.
- ISBN 0865717044, 464 pp.
- ^ a b c Glendinning, Chellis. Notes towards a Neo-Luddite manifesto. Utne Reader, 1990.
- ^ a b c d e Doresa Banning, Modern Day Luddites, 30 November 2001, [1] Archived 7 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Postman, Neil (Winter 1993). "Of Luddites, Learning, and Life". Technos. 2 (4).
- ISBN 978-0-335-21326-9.
- ^ Tom Kington (11 May 2012). "Italian anarchists kneecap nuclear executive and threaten more shootings". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 May 2012.
- ^ a b The Washington Post: Unabomber Special Report: Industrial Society and Its Future by Theodore Kaczynski
- ^ Interview with the Luddite, Wired magazine, Issue 3.06, Jun 1995
- ^ Young, Julian. Heidegger's Later Philosophy, p. 80. Cambridge University Press, 2002.
- ^ a b c d Wheeler, Michael, "Martin Heidegger", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2013 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.)
- ^ Ellul, The Technological Society p. 324
- S2CID 144450752.
Further reading
- Huesemann, M.H., and J.A. Huesemann (2011). Technofix: Why Technology Won’t Save Us or the Environment, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, Canada, ISBN 0865717044.
- Kaczynski, Theodore (2020) ISBN 978-1-944228-02-6
- Kaczynski, Theodore (2022) ISBN 978-1-944228-03-3
- Marshall, Alan (2016) Ecotopia 2121: Our Future Green Utopia, Arcade Publ, New York, ISBN 9781628726008
- Postman, Neil (1992) ISBN 0-394-58272-1
- Pynchon, Thomas (28 October 1984). "Is It O.K. To Be A Luddite?". The New York Times.
- Quigley, Peter (1998) Coyote in the Maze: Tracking Edward Abbey in a World of Words University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, ISBN 0-87480-563-5
- Roszak, Theodore (1994) The Cult of Information: A Neo-Luddite Treatise on High-Tech, Artificial Intelligence, and the True Art of Thinking (2nd ed.) University of California Press, Berkeley, California, ISBN 0-520-08584-1
- Sale, Kirkpatrick (1996) Rebels Against The Future: The Luddites And Their War On The Industrial Revolution: Lessons For The Computer Age Basic Books, ISBN 978-0-201-40718-1
- Tenner, Edward (1996) ISBN 0-679-42563-2
- Mueller, Gavin (2021) Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Are Right About Why You Hate Your Job; ASIN: B07ZN3MFL4