Listening to a CBC Ideas on Luddism that Walter had taped reminded me how the historical narrative has maligned the Luddites. Machines were smashed not because they were against technology but because they wanted to be free. At the time, changes were coming to the textile industry and people who had been weaving for generations were quite willing to adopt new methods. However, they were not willing to be locked into factories to work at the looms only rich industrialists could afford. Working for themselves, they could set their own hours, socialize whenever they wanted and not have do the bidding of a boss. They rebelled not at the machines but against becoming cogs in a machine.

And now we are cogs in the machines like the one you’re reading this on. Our psyches are being mined by captains of silicon valley industries to enrich themselves.