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Entry 182 of 240Uprising

The Luddite Uprising

1811–1816 CE/British Isles/Britain
Today Northern EnglandSpan Luddite uprising · 1811–1816

As industrial machines threw skilled textile workers out of their trades, bands of English weavers calling themselves 'Luddites' smashed the machines by night — and were crushed, some hanged, by a government that made machine-breaking a capital crime. They were not fools afraid of technology; they were skilled people watching their livelihoods vanish with no safety net. They were not fools afraid of the future; they were skilled workers watching their livelihoods vanish with no safety net beneath them.

◆ Worth knowing'Luddite' is now an insult for someone who fears technology — but the real Luddites weren't anti-machine; they were skilled workers demanding a fair share of the wealth the machines created, and the state hanged them for it.
◆ The mechanismLabor displacement

A new technology destroys and creates work faster than institutions and people can adapt, producing dislocation and backlash.

Also: Wealth concentration & leveling · Revolution from hardship

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