A new history of the Luddites, "Blood in the Machine," argues that 19th century fears about technology are still relevant today. It's the latest in a long line of attempts to reclaim the label.
Although, Marx’s critique still stands, in that the Luddites, while they generally correctly noticed the problem that within capitalism new technologies generally serve to further disempower workers and devalue their labor even further, didn’t have a shred of an answer. As it turns out, solving problems is more complicated than smashing things that are pissing you off.
Hence why the Luddites are a fondly-remembered image but the march of technology hasn’t slowed down literally at all.
Sorry, who are we talking about here? If you’re trying to say Marx had more sophisticated answers, true, but I was saying the Luddites didn’t have an answer. If the Luddites had a more sophisticated answer, they never acted on it.
Although, Marx’s critique still stands, in that the Luddites, while they generally correctly noticed the problem that within capitalism new technologies generally serve to further disempower workers and devalue their labor even further, didn’t have a shred of an answer. As it turns out, solving problems is more complicated than smashing things that are pissing you off.
Hence why the Luddites are a fondly-remembered image but the march of technology hasn’t slowed down literally at all.
Except he did have an answer, people just misunderstood it as “smashing things that are pissing you off”.
Sorry, who are we talking about here? If you’re trying to say Marx had more sophisticated answers, true, but I was saying the Luddites didn’t have an answer. If the Luddites had a more sophisticated answer, they never acted on it.