Modern Luddites
Soren Kierkegaard lamented that the conveniences and technology available to citizens of Copenhagen in the 1840s had succeeded in making life easy. Unfortunately, Kierkegaard believed that this easy life was not the best life. Life was so easy, Kierkegaard thought, that people could easily spend most or all of their time focusing on unimportant material things and little if any time focusing on what was really important. More than two hundred years later, the concern over the true impact of technology on the lives of humans is still alive. While there is no denying that modern technology is making our lives easier every day, some people are concerned that the rush toward convenience ignores or even denies the things that make human life meaningful. Luddites are people who decry the advance of technology. Though using the Internet to study luddites is ironic, see if you can pick out the arguments made by modern luddites. Are their concerns similar to those held by Kierkegaard?
Luddites- Overview with great contemporary links
New Luddites- Modern view against technologyOf Luddites, Learning, and Life- Essay about modern luddites.
Lessons from the Luddites- Adapted from Kirkpatrick Sale
Modern day Luddites -- PC Update June 1996
