Past & Present

I try to work into any relevant history class some mention of the lovable Luddites, the working-class radical movement that emerged in the North England area around Nottingham in the 1810s. The luddites were mostly a type of textile worker called a cropper who used giant scissors to trim the edges of woven cloth. It’s this trade that no doubt gave its name to what we call cropping a photogaph.

The luddites broke into factories with sledges and crowbars to destroy the new-fangled shearing frames that did the same job cheaper and faster. Besides being a fascinating story, the history of the luddite is useful because the term is still heard from time to time when someone is referring to a person resisting technological change. Like I used to be, many people are probably aware of the antni-technology meaning of the term and that it had some root in the past, but unaware of the actual story of the folks who signed their warning to factory owners with the fictitious name Neil Ludd.

Proof that “luddite” still pops up came in the New York Times where I see the term used in two places on the same Sunday. Here’s how it is used in the first case, a profile of musician M. Ward:

It’s not that he’s a Luddite — he buys songs on iTunes and does late-night YouTubing like everyone else — or a misanthrope who believes that art was better in someone else’s day.

This got me curious enough to type the term into google news where I found a page worth of entries for just the past two days.

I would theorize that the frequency of this metaphor from 200 years ago points to the fetishizing of electronic technology in our times, and the success that gadget makers enjoy in the corporate trick of “planned obsolescence”.  We are supposed to worry about being behind the times, or at least about being insulted by others for being behind the times. You’re not a luddite are ya?