tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2156536327610779049.post4764371274916758659..comments2024-02-23T11:23:45.971-05:00Comments on Lost Motorcyclist: Luddites of the FutureLost Motorcyclisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08873504561959138792noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2156536327610779049.post-83184743229863100142011-01-28T08:43:35.892-05:002011-01-28T08:43:35.892-05:00Resistance to change arises from a number of diffe...Resistance to change arises from a number of different motivations.<br /><br />As you point out, many people feel uncomfortable with social and technical change which threatens their worldview, especially when it affects their own perceived place in the 'established' social order.<br /><br />That, in fact, is one of the (if not, <i>the</i>) essential characteristics of 'conservatism' ... resistance to change (or even regression to some notional '<i>good old days</i>') and the assignment of excessive merit to 'traditional' institutions (e.g. 'family values'). And which has been, and continues to be, so cynically exploited by our conservative 'leaders.'<br /><br />As you point out, in popular contemporary usage, 'Luddism' has come to signify an irrational (and often violent) resistance to technological change. But, as Eric Hobsbawm explains in the <a href="http://libcom.org/history/machine-breakers-eric-hobsbawm" rel="nofollow">article</a> you link, the original Luddites were essentially workers fighting for some basic rights.<br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobsbawm" rel="nofollow">Hobsbawm</a> is, of course, one of our greatest <i>leftist</i> historians. His trilogy on the 19th Century remains one of the most distinguished writings about that period.<br /><br />In my humble opinion, no one is truly qualified to intelligently discuss our historical context (plagued as it is with the distorted view of history most of us were inculcated with during our secondary school educations) without having read Hobsbawm. <br /><br />In fact, I would go as far as to say that anyone's historical education would be essentially incomplete without having read the following:<br /><br /><b>·</b> Hobsbawm's <a href="http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/28" rel="nofollow"><i>Age of Extremes</i></a><br /><b>·</b> Chris Harmon's <a href="http://totheroots.wordpress.com/2008/05/28/chris-harmon-a-peoples-history-of-the-world/" rel="nofollow"><i>A People’s History of the World</i></a>, and<br /><b>·</b> Howard Zinn's <a href="http://www.harpercollins.com/books/Other-Civil-War-Howard-Zinn/?isbn=9780060528423" rel="nofollow"><i>A People's History of the United States</i></a>.<br /><br />These serve as an antidote to the '<i>great men</i>' histories on which we were raised, and punch through the propaganda which the powerful interests have used to perpetuate their hegemony over the lesser classes.Madeyehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02593933575568389288noreply@blogger.com