I had listened the track "New Luddities" from Con-Dom for ages. Then some discussion in UK years ago already, someone asked you know what were Luddities, and I was like "uh?"... Well, the briefing of the spot made me to do more research. I read some pamphlets published by Finnish anarchists as well as various www information.
I just happened to google for "new luddities", and what I could find was about australian journalist, who was working on piece called "The New Luddities":
Quote
Kath has contributed journalistic features to The Age, The Courier-Mail, Art Monthly, the Law Institute Journal and Good Weekend (for which she won a Melbourne Press Club award). Her essays have also appeared in journals including Griffith Review, Meanjin, Eyeline and Overland.
Topic
Low-tech social movements
Kath's PhD thesis investigates the beliefs, motivations, organisation and political consequence of DIY technology subcultures in Australia.
Candidacy
PhD
Supervisors
Professor Klaus Neumann and Professor Julian Thomas
Anyone who hasn't heard about the moment, well, brief look into wikipedia always helps, hah:
Quote from: wikipediaThe Luddites were a social movement of British textile artisans in the early nineteenth century who protested—often by destroying mechanized looms—against the changes produced by the Industrial Revolution, which they felt were leaving them without work and changing their entire way of life.
This English historical movement should be seen in the context of the era's harsh economic climate due to the Napoleonic Wars, and the degrading working conditions in the new textile factories. Since then, however, the term Luddite has been used derisively to describe anyone opposed to (or perceived to be opposed to) technological progress and technological change.
The Luddite movement, which began in 1811 and 1812 when mills and pieces of factory machinery were burned by handloom weavers, took its name from the fictive Ned Ludd. For a short time the movement was so strong that it clashed in battles with the British Army. Measures taken by the British government included a mass trial at York in 1812 that resulted in many executions and penal transportations.
The principal objection of the Luddites was against the introduction of new wide-framed automated looms that could be operated by cheap, relatively unskilled labour, resulting in the loss of jobs for many skilled textile workers.
You find some interesting texts about "neo luddism" as well.
While I'm in some cases, like here, with the internet forum, possibly taking advantage of pretty new technology, I can see the sense in context of art and lets say "craftmanship" in general. Where I do dislike ideas that I can't soon fix my car, since it needs some computer connection by authorized dealer to rip me off, where I can't get service from man when I go to places, where everything is automized and whole society left to hands of unskilled puppets, I'm still kind of ".. nah, who cares". But when I think of art, where technological advancement has replacement craftmanship and artistic creativity and reduced it to machine lead cheap imititations & replications. It sounds like industrial revolution taking over, and traditional talents being lost little by little. While original industrial music somehow praised the idea of... well, industrial music. Where it indeed is industrial product. But at that time technological situation wasn't yet allowing it to be more than result of innovations and difficult manual craftmanship. Where situation is different now. Even bands like Vivenza who claimed to be totally inhuman non-music, just sound of machines, sounds organic & clever when compared to modern digital age.
I'm tempted by the route of luddities. To destroy the new machine, in aim to cultivate skill & craftmanship in traditional means. Well, being cheap bastard, I simply won't destroy machines what works, but indeed I have given away some things like digital synths and some effects etc. due feeling they will do more harm than good if I ever mistakingly start over using them. Same goes to recording technic. I invested 1500 euro for huge multi-track digital recorder to do complex (music) recordings. I received it 2 years ago, and I have not dared to open package. Meanwhile recorded albums with old methods. I'd hope to sell it away, but value probably decreased meanwhile drastically. It is probably worst purchase I have ever done, when thinking of the extreme loss of money due mental difficulty to start using it.. or even open the pack once.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Luddite.jpg)
"Down with all kings but King Lud!"
Friend of mine did a radio documentary on the Luddites. They where and no doubt still are much admired by the anarchist movement because of their basically labour activities. Some English folks on this forum could have more history; I'd hope there'd be local place names, pubs, etc. commemorating the Luddites.
In the English language a "luddite" is usually a term of abuse; someone who doesn't care much for some new piece of technology and is therefore out of touch with this wonderful modern society we all so benefit from.
And I was almost relieved to read about your digital recorder, because I made the same mistake as well. Paid over a grand for a flash, shiny new 8-track digital multitrack only to discover it could only records a few minutes of mixed-down material due to the restrictions of memory. Biggest waste of money I ever made. Years later, I did the smart thing: just brought a decent sized computer and use my 4-track as the mixer and input.
I see releasing tapes as a low level luddite activity. It forces the listener to play a more active part as opposed to the soulless downloads available at the click of a mouse. It's also harder for people to upload and spread to the masses via the internet. Not impossible but some effort will have to be made unlike the CD/CD-r which is ripped and uploaded in a matter of minutes.
Here's some links about the subject:
http://sniggle.net/ludd.php (http://sniggle.net/ludd.php)
The big name in anarcho-primitivism is (or was, at least) John Zerzan. I remember there being a pretty big chasm in anarchist circles some years ago, people like Zerzan, Bob Black and the whole Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed -crew vs. the more "anarcho-leftists" guys like Bookchin and others. Although this happened mostly in America, I think the primitivist scene is at its strongest there.
I recall Zerzan having written some pretty good essays. Not really politically powerful in any practical sense of the word, but quite good reads nonetheless.
Quote from: TheGreatEcstasy on January 05, 2010, 02:17:52 PM
I see releasing tapes as a low level luddite activity. It forces the listener to play a more active part as opposed to the soulless downloads available at the click of a mouse. It's also harder for people to upload and spread to the masses via the internet. Not impossible but some effort will have to be made unlike the CD/CD-r which is ripped and uploaded in a matter of minutes.
Amen! That's the same way I feel about vinyl. Although I admit I'm also a huge Ipod fan since my best listening is done on my daily commute (1-2/2 - 2 hrs).
Quote from: heretogo on January 05, 2010, 10:49:56 PM
I recall Zerzan having written some pretty good essays. Not really politically powerful in any practical sense of the word, but quite good reads nonetheless.
You might want to check out Against Civilization edited by Zerzan. Maybe not the bomb I wanted, more like a firecracker. Still good one though.
(http://feralhouse.com/images/covers_225x_shadow/againstciv_fcvr_225x.jpg)
Against Civilization
Readings and Reflections
Enlarged Edition
Edited By John Zerzan
Illustrations by R.L. Tubbesing
With mass poisonings, global warming and other tidings of contemporary civilization threatening the planet, shouldn't we begin to reconsider our unthinking attachment to it?
Feral House's new expanded edition of Against Civilization adds 18 new essays and feral illustrations by R.L. Tubbesing to the contemporary classic that provides 67 thought-provoking looks into the dehumanizing core of modern civilization, and the ideas that have given rise to the anarcho-primitivist movement. The editor of this compelling anthology is John Zerzan, author of Running on Emptiness (Feral House) and Future Primitive.
http://feralhouse.com/press/againstcivilization/
I think I still have copies of that book available in Sarvilevyt! So if any finns take interest in the subject matter.
Quote from: heretogo on January 05, 2010, 10:49:56 PMThe big name in anarcho-primitivism is (or was, at least) John Zerzan. I remember there being a pretty big chasm in anarchist circles some years ago, people like Zerzan, Bob Black and the whole Anarchy: A Journal of Desire Armed -crew vs. the more "anarcho-leftists" guys like Bookchin and others. Although this happened mostly in America, I think the primitivist scene is at its strongest there.
I don't think Bob Black was an "anarcho-primitivist", but he was very against the more leftist and syndicalist anarchists (had a big blue with the Processed World people). There is also the Green Anarchist movement in England, very much anarcho-primitivist. I'm sure Europe has it's fair share of anti-technological anarchos as well.
Quote from: TheGreatEcstasy on January 05, 2010, 02:17:52 PM
I see releasing tapes as a low level luddite activity. It forces the listener to play a more active part as opposed to the soulless downloads available at the click of a mouse. It's also harder for people to upload and spread to the masses via the internet. Not impossible but some effort will have to be made unlike the CD/CD-r which is ripped and uploaded in a matter of minutes.
Cassettes are just as technological as anything else. Plus, you have to rely on a company to print them off for you, if you're going to make decent sounding ones. The Luddites where about having control of the means of production for themselves, being able to produce things with your own tools.
Quote from: Andrew McIntosh on January 05, 2010, 11:52:50 PM
Plus, you have to rely on a company to print them off for you, if you're going to make decent sounding ones. The Luddites where about having control of the means of production for themselves, being able to produce things with your own tools.
Well, to go totally off-topic and audiophile on you... Get yourself a good deck, make sure it's up to spec, use quality tapes, adjust the bias to the tape brand you're using and I guarantee you will be making much better dubs than any commercial service you can find. Won't help much if the idiots you sell them to will play them on boomboxes, though. But such is life.
Been thinking of doing just that.
Also, Ben from Cathartic should be on this thread, he's pretty much a neo-Luddite. He'd have some good suggestions for books to investigate.
I love cassettes, but the industrial process to make the stratum is no "archaic" deal. I used to work in a steel mill. Part of my responsibility was monitoring and weighing these 3 ton bags of this ferric compound, which was a byproduct of coating steel wire so it wouldn't rust out in the stockyard. I later found that that most of it was sold to BASF and used in the process of making audio tape. Modern industrial complex. Don't fool yourself. They're cool little mechanical mechanisms, no question.
I will continue to be baffled by the general, anti-, vitriolic atmosphere MP3s* create within underground music communities. It's evident how powerful consumerism, materialism, and the delivery paradigm is to the past few generations. They laid out the rules and structure, and we jumped into it like fish to water; worst yet we continue to cling to it like they're threatening to cut off the oxygen we breathe. We are pawns. Period. Some lesser. Some more so. Still, all pawns.
*I use that in quotes as a generic term for all forms of file encoding.
I think we can all agree that by todays technical standards they are widely considered obsolete and if not then at least a thing of the past.
Yes we are all more or less pawns. As unflattering as it may be (to myself as well as some others) I admit to being attached to many of my wordly belongings. But surely the introduction of MP3 does nothing to change our status as the eternal pawns in the hands of those who call the shots? Just because fewer people wish to hold the music they like in their hands hasn't made them less materialistic.
RANT WARNING!Quote from: wiki
In his work on English history, The Making of the English Working Class, E. P. Thompson presented an alternative view of Luddite history. He argues that Luddites were not opposed to new technology in itself, but rather to the abolition of set prices and therefore also to the introduction of the free market.
Thompson argues that it was the newly-introduced economic system that the Luddites were protesting. Thompson cites the many historical accounts of Luddite raids on workshops where some frames were smashed whilst others (whose owners were obeying the old economic practice and not trying to cut prices) were left untouched. This would clearly distinguish the Luddites from someone who was today called a luddite; whereas today a luddite would reject new technology because it is new, the Luddites were acting from a sense of self-preservation rather than merely fear of change.
and about neo-luddism:
QuoteNeo-luddism does not equate necessarily to outright technophobia and includes the critical examination of the effects technology has on individuals and communities.
To me it would sound, that it's not all about just simply destroying the machine. And for example relying on tape or vinyl, would be method of
new luddities (which is the topic, instead of old luddities). For reasons of preserving suitable aesthetics, preserving desirable sound. There exists independent vinyl factories. Who work with machinery that is to high decree manual work of skilled professionals. Not just guy pushing a button. In same way, working with tapes, is something that is work of talented people. It's not simply automation. All these demand craftmanship and vision to be working with tools. How vinyl records are played, is pretty much with tools what almost anyone can build. They need few basic parts to do it, which are manufactured by many smaller companies around the world who probably do it for other reasons than fast consumer product for mass.
I got speakers that are hand made in Finland. By small company who is specialized on hi-fi speakers. Couple guys working not so far away from here. It's technology, but it isn't just some faceless corporate machine, but done by those with labor or love & skill.
Of course, I don't fool myself. Many, if not all, of there belong to chain, which in end leads to some huge corporation, who creates some of the the original components or at least the plain raw metal, wood and plastic you use. But I think that isn't the problem of even original luddities.
One can think of independent photographer. There can be guy, who buys the latest short life canon pocket cadget, through cable transfer image to his fujitsu siemens computer, works it a bit with photoshop like all the artists of today, and uploads it to some big servers on 72dpi resolution for someone to view for free. It seems that many people and useless dead weight have been dropped out: Independent from big film factories, photo developers, big paper producers, chemical factories, plenty of unnecessary tools etc. But it was merely changed, not really dropped. The guy who works with Canon professional camera, shoots of film, or shoots large scale images that can be printed on film, to go through chemical process to get image appear on paper, result just is different. You can decide how many steps back to take. Rejecting film and shooting directly on paper. Rejecting all automation (AF, flash etc). Rejecting modern day cameras. Rejecting readily made photopapers. Even rejecting lenz, just shoot through needle hole. But I'm sure the luddities, when making their works, didn't reject everything. They didn't simply advocate work with bare hands like monkeys, but tools obviously necessary. The tools that underlined things like artistic craftmanship, local economic survival, etc. You can find similar links in making recordings, listening recordings, making and experiencing artwork.
I do like the original hand made, hand assembled piece of art. I can't take very "seriously" mp3 or jpeg image. It may work as introduction, but it feels very strange to me to advocate experience of art to happen via computers as great thing. Can you experience sculpture from looking at tumbnail image online? Of course. But I do prefer book. Or the real thing. Also printed image of painting is basically flattened and one-dimensionaled version, but servers is pretty well. But often keeps you amazed to see actual piece of work live, where you can see hand crafted qualities and immense talent. Which wasn't so obvious when image was reduced into tiny compressed image.
Of course mp3 done well, won't change the sound as much. But I prefer to listen to sound from format and with tools it seems designed contribute it. I don't find much of revolutionary independece in form of having to rely on files transmitted by hi-tech tools perhaps only biggest companies in market are making? With product that is pretty much unrepairable, short age, problem waste?
In deed, I took mp3 player from friend. He traded it to 1 cd. I thought, it's cheap, why not. I have never, even put batteries in it. Now, years later I wonder where it is, so I could maybe pass it to someone who could use it. But I guess those old mp3 players are out already. People with ipods and phones. I was recommended by many nowadays comic artists to start use the virtual pen. Or whatever it is called. Flat surface you connect on computer, and draw with pen. With photoshop, it isn't like mouse, but you can actually operate it just like brush. Thick and heavy, thin and delicate. Yeah, I invested, luckily not much. And that it was used also on girlfriend clothing/accessory designer work. Anyway, I must admit that it requires plenty of motoric skills and getting used to, but for fucks sake, if you imitate ink & brush strokes on photoshop screen, with this piece of electronics in your hand, can it be any faggier than that? For sake of easy upload to your doodle blog.... Perhaps I should not talk anymore about purchases. It is depressing reading. That's why I like to stick on tools at hand.
One can say it saves paper, it saves ink, you don't waste anything real. Yeah. Real. Result is just artificial in first place. It is compromise far from actual brush and texture of paper and consistency of ink or colors. That one felt this compromise is necessary since didn't bother to do difficult & time consuming process... yeah. That's the starting point of problem. Talking of recording, I have a feeling that I have heard lately quite many "distant" recordings. Perhaps thanks to new digital hand recorders. The cheap ones. That have automated recording volume inputs, and while the guy with 4 track, could just throw dynamic mic's next to blasting amplifiers, spread them out to targets of sound, sometimes these new recorders seems like placed "somewhere". Just far enough to ruin recording with build-in condensator mics starting to distort. Easiness of tool, suddenly removing the little necessary "craftmanship". The process, what wasn't about "throwing recorder somewhere", but placing all elements to place you gain the results you wanted. With new opportunity might come restrictions. And all related to easiness of mass market product and mentality it creates?
I remember reading some primitivist / new luddite zine I think was called "Speciestraitor". Had some good articles in it...
Strömkarlen: John Zerzan is now published (I think for the first time) in Swedish by Anarchos. "Maskinernas skymning": http://www.anarchos.se/product_info.php/products_id/41
What about more extreme people like Linkola? He held a very interesting lecture on Finlandsinstitutet in Stockholm 2002... I have photos + tape recording somewhere... easiest is to read here http://djupekologi.blogspot.com/2006/04/djupekologens-abc-om-tillstndet-i.html
I don't know how much this applies to any kind of "neo-Luddite" philosophy, but I see the worship/collecting of vintage methods and equipment in the same light as any sort of modern techno-hunger. It's entirely different when, for example, a manual laborer has to worry about being replaced by a machine or an otherwise economic concern, but for artists it tends to be more fetishistic and based either on preserving an aesthetic (which I support fully) or simply working a half-baked political "angle" (no support)
It also takes someone who is truly a product of modern decadence to make an outspoken "neo-Luddite" philosophy a priority. Not much different from the trust-fund hippie that's so often stereotyped. There are just so many layers involved that create a self-contradictory environment, and that would be much more fatal to me as an artist than some piece of technology I don't feel the need to use.
The situation is also relative.... the type of equipment/processes that get fetishized today were obviously once "new technology", so you have to question whether someone with an anti-techno perspective would go back in time and start criticizing the very things they idealize today. Or if they just want to return to a completely animalistic "no technology whatsoever" world, I say good fucking luck.
Aye, thanks for the mention, Andrew.
For stuff particularly related to the Luddites, and applications to current times, check out "Rebels Against the Future: the Luddites and Their War on the Industrial Revolutions, Lessons for the Computer Age" by Kirkpatrick Sale. It's a brilliant history of ideas and action with particular attention to how and what we can learn from them.
My continued attraction to industrial culture goes back to SPK and their manifestos, Maurizio Bianchi and the work of bands like A.B.G.S. Reading "Wreckers of Civilization," it's clear why Genesis hated SPK and MB - they reflect a completely alternate view of industrial civilization. To SPK and MB, industrial civilization is a regression of the species, the death of the species. Genesis and Throbbing Gristle relish in the myth of progress, and further are happy to continue gnawing on the fruit of the tree of knowledge, to transcend the human and become gods as part of an inverted gnosticism or Luciferian transhumanism. Genesis' emergence as the industrial Frankenstein meets Crowley (a mockery of chaos magick, and adherent to the initiatory systems) typifies the alternate image the SPK was putting forward. Besides, SPK made better music, anyway.
I could, as Andrew said, provide a lengthy reading list on technology. I'm a big fan of John Zerzan's work, but there's a lot more out there. "The Culture of Technology" by Pacey is amazing, as is "Technology, Time and the Conversations of Modernity" by Lorenzo C Simpson. If you can find "Questioning Technology: A Critical Anthology" edited by John Zerzan and Alice Carnes, grab it. Some of the best material on technology by dozens of great authors from Stanley Diamond to Jean Beaudrillard and Jacques Ellul to Lewis Mumford. "Against Civilization," mentioned above, is also a terrific anthology and highly recommended. "Technopoly" by Neil Postman is good, also. If you want more, I could name a bunch of other, perhaps relating more to environmental issues, or to the negative effects of cities on communities, or the process of "development" of non-modernized communities, for instance. There's a lot of proto-fascist stuff out there by J Evola, Pentti Linkola and the like, but it comes across as ridiculously confused - abhorring the technics of machines but not of advanced forms of governments to manage bloated populations communed around cities. If you want something without nearly as much postmodernist or leftist language (though the above mentioned works are more post-left), I would suggest checking out Ivan Illich. He's a lot more of a "traditionalist," and a terrific writer. Edward Goldsmith truly reclaims the term "conservative" in his vision of limited technology, ecological thinking, connection to the land, localism and value of family and community. His work is unbelievable, and much is available online at http://www.edwardgoldsmith.com/. His last great work, "The Way," might be my manifesto. The more conservative among you on the forum would enjoy his work the most, I would think. (Me being an anti-globalist, politics are largely irrelevant to me, as I think they are developed organically in a community, based on human ecology and environment; politics are only relevant with imposed economic structures that unnecessarily link communities to build empires and accumulate resources and slaves.)
Happy to see this thread on here. The vision of industrialism as death, is what makes industrial (music) culture interesting to me.
Quote from: LIFE on January 07, 2010, 07:59:48 AMThe situation is also relative.... the type of equipment/processes that get fetishized today were obviously once "new technology", so you have to question whether someone with an anti-techno perspective would go back in time and start criticizing the very things they idealize today.
It is true, but when you look things like "old school punk", "old school metal". They were revolutionary and fresh new things when they first appreared. But that's not really their only quality. Creation of timeless classic, which survives the test of time, and is as valid now, as it was then. Same with industrial noise for example. Or electro acoustic/experimental music.
Some of the material surely aged badly. When they utilized the modern gadgets without much artistic insight. You listen some late 80's industrial, and it often wasn't as innovative when surviving with mere vision & insight.. When they had access for more, it often came less.
Some cool tools as chaospads and poorly used ebows, I think might someday remembered as very dull results when mere technology overrided talent & vision. Where only few masters managed to use them properly.
Knowing these things, I think "politic" and "aethetic choise" is pretty much the same thing. Lesson learned through experience and observation. But in end of line there isn't really obsessive festishistic collecting of vintage equipment. I have very little of gear, and perhaps should have even less. I'm often surpriced when I hear about sheer volume of vintage pedals and synths people have. Perhaps availability & prices are different elsewhere.
Quote from: FreakAnimalFinland on January 07, 2010, 12:52:53 PM
Knowing these things, I think "politic" and "aethetic choise" is pretty much the same thing. Lesson learned through experience and observation. But in end of line there isn't really obsessive festishistic collecting of vintage equipment. I have very little of gear, and perhaps should have even less. I'm often surpriced when I hear about sheer volume of vintage pedals and synths people have. Perhaps availability & prices are different elsewhere.
The way I see it, no way.... obviously making an aesthetic choice to do something is going to have certain political undertones at the heart of it all (certain cases more than others), but it's not the same thing as making a political platform out of it. It's like Ted Kacynski---his lifestyle could have been seen in the same light as an "aesthetic choice", something personal, where he's only "living by example" if someone takes the time to notice. But he went beyond that and reached out to the world with extroverted "terror", which is much different than simply the lifestyle he lived. Maybe like Kacysnki, most artists/musicians can't separate their politics and aesthetics, but I don't think it's a rule.
I agree 100% "old school" things have a lot more to offer than just some yearning for old times, and I often prefer them. Where I'm coming from, I'm asking if people who set themselves up on an anti-technology bend are truly anti-technology, or if it's just angst aimed at modern technology (i.e. the world they know)? I mean, is someone who criticizes metal today for not being Iron Maiden going to go back and criticize Maiden for not being Black Sabbath? Someone's probably done it. If someone is anti-technology, I suppose I expect them to go all the way back to the pillow and the wheel, not just the car and the laptop or whatever. Blame the source... but once you start doing that, the entire world starts looking like it needs to get bombed.
It's absurd in most cases to say "technology up to this point is acceptable, anything beyond is not", because technology exists in constant motion---we relate technology to the products of technology, but it's a neverending chain of impulses/events. Someone can make any kind of fascist demands they want, but it doesn't stop the basic impulse. I'd just have a big problem going up to a seagull who learned that the easy way to smash open a clam is to drop it on a hard surface (or nowadays, they drop them on sidewalks, ha), and telling them, "you can't go any farther than this technique!"
Maybe an exception is technology that is grossly damaging to the environment. A lot of seemingly harmless products indirectly fuck the environment, too, of course, but I'm getting away from the point... looking at all of this from the perspective of art/music, my ultimate thought is.... innovate the old with the help of the new. I record almost everything analog at this point, and often use a simple wav editor to move the results beyond my normal capacity. Sometimes the post- editing is minimal to non-existent, other times it has a bigger role. In either case the heart of the material is organic. Even if I didn't use the modern (how modern is a wav editor, truly? haha) technology as a helper, I'd still feel like an asshole calling myself a neo-Luddite or anything like that. Maybe an amoeba has the right to be a true Luddite, but if any amoeba goes around calling himself a "Luddite", he IS the biggest asshole of all time.
For me I can say I'm against laziness and it seems like certain technology at hand like downloads, mp3's and laptops have made people even lazier than before and, come to think of it, less free. It's not the technology I oppose but the way the vast majority choose to utilise it thus becoming even more dependent, lethargic and ignorant.
I wouldn't be so pompous as to describe or even label my tapes and vinyl as neo luddisim but by forcing lard ass out of the couch to change the record or turn the tape instead of scratching his belly while clicking the mouse for the next mp3 I feel I, even if in the most miniscule way, have at least attempted to counteract the above.
RE: Life
I'm going to assume most "formal" luddites, when pressed, would draw the line at the Industrial Revolution as the turning point, at which they would see no philosophical or pragmatic reason to continue down a proposed slippery slope that ultimately ends at sticks and stones; the point at which there was a disconnect between production and existence (farming, hand-craftsmanship, bartering for necessity and sustenance, etc). I would also assume that would be a logical conclusion, or at least a remote tugging of their consciousness, for most people who experienced a lesser urban environment.
Zeno, that makes sense, but you have to consider the human impulse to keep innovating, changes in population and environment, etc. which together make "drawing lines" almost impossible. I think "formal" or "old school" Luddites are a bit more sympathetic than some "neo-Luddites" in the same way that it's easier to accept Nazis as a product of circumstance, whereas neo-Nazis are masturbators. And I actually feel the same way about this neo-"Ludditism" in art as I do neo-Nazism in art. I can enjoy it, even respect certain aspects of their views---but seeing it as legitimate practice? No....
Passive aggressive ludditism brought on more by frustration than by design has been a great inspiration for me. Nothing more arousing than bearing witness to suffering enhanced by that which is supposed to make living "easier".
Quote from: LIFE on January 09, 2010, 01:52:07 AM
Zeno, that makes sense, but you have to consider the human impulse to keep innovating, changes in population and environment, etc. which together make "drawing lines" almost impossible. I think "formal" or "old school" Luddites are a bit more sympathetic than some "neo-Luddites" in the same way that it's easier to accept Nazis as a product of circumstance, whereas neo-Nazis are masturbators. And I actually feel the same way about this neo-"Ludditism" in art as I do neo-Nazism in art. I can enjoy it, even respect certain aspects of their views---but seeing it as legitimate practice? No....
Would this mean than anything else than following the mainstream route or isolation to indefference would be foolish? Are changes in population and environment something one has no control of, and what is "past", is really the past, somewhere in linear development? I don't think so. I strongly believe in ability of sculpturing world to what you require it to be, and to promote not only right aesthetic, but also right ideals. Of course one can't return to 40's national socialism, since it isn't 40's. Or one can't really return to 1800's Luddity ideals, but just like some thought liberal capitalism & globalisation had "won", and there is no argument against it, when the first crisis actually hit close to home base, a lot of people suddenly start to see that this might not be the only good way. Or the most strangest aim of increasing profit & increasing welfare. The whole ideal of growth, in situation where most people advocating it are dying in abudance and freedom. Ideals of luddities or the nazis might be handy in new rising decade, even if they won't manifest them in original form so many years later.