idea of progress 4

Today we finished studying last time's text.

Here's what we found out.

According to Thomas Pynchon, there were two main reasons for the Luddites' revolt:
1. The machines were owned by just a few people, they were rich. Each machine was a "concentration of capital."
2. Each machine would replace many workers, "many human souls."

People in 1812 had a "love/hate" relationship with these knitting machines: on the one hand, they made clothes cheaper than ever, and they represented technical progress (Good points), but on the other hand, they caused social problems and unemployment (negative points).

It's the same with us today, all machines have a price to pay (be it (que ce soit) social, environmental or economical), and the Luddites of today are afraid of losing their jobs to future machines.

A very famous English poet and politician, Lord Byron, was against a law in Parliament that projected to punish machine breaking by death.




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