Much as I am a Luddite* in the sense that I don't really like new technology, and am not adept with it - I am loving my new i-Phone. I was the last hold out in our family with a flip phone and then my ten year old had to teach me how to text. I sound like such a cliche, but it's true. I have had an i-Phone going on 5 years now, but mine was so outdated that Siri regularly told me, "I can't help you with that right now," so I stopped asking. My new i-Phone SE not only responds to my requests but seems to anticipate them - truly a smart phone and a bit eerie. It has a health app where I put my vital information (eg blood type, allergies and emergency contacts) this morning. When it began to ask if it could monitor my eating, sleeping, meditation and exercise habits that crossed a line. Yes I know people live by their fit bits, but I'm not going to have my phone telling me when to meditate or do my sit-ups thank you very much!
So the Luddites present an interesting parallel to our current political climate. Trump campaigned on bringing jobs back to the coal miners and the manufacturing sector as if they would just miraculously reappear. The return of coal is an illusion and the miners no doubt resent renewable energy like wind and solar just like the Luddites probably feared the automated loom. But theirs is a dying cause.
Manufacturing and technology brought us into the modern age as it will push us forward into the post-millennial age and beyond. The irony is that studies show manufacturing jobs are also being lost to automation technology and not to immigrants who Trump has made into a convenient Bogeyman.
But computer technology allowed me and 10 others to use a Virtual Phone Bank to call DeKalb County, Georgia, today in support of Jon Ossoff who is running for a congressional seat in a special election on April 18th. NY Rep Elliot Engel told one of the organizers that getting Democrat Jon Ossoff elected would be the single most helpful thing people could do right now as it will send a clear symbol to the House and the Administration that this Red District has gone Blue and does not support their agenda.
It must be working because he is up in the polls and many voters told us they'd received as many as four calls a day from dedicated callers. We'll all be watching to see what happens.
*The name derives from English worker's in the early 19th century who smashed new technology in the weaving and manufacturing industry fearing that the machines would take their jobs.
So the Luddites present an interesting parallel to our current political climate. Trump campaigned on bringing jobs back to the coal miners and the manufacturing sector as if they would just miraculously reappear. The return of coal is an illusion and the miners no doubt resent renewable energy like wind and solar just like the Luddites probably feared the automated loom. But theirs is a dying cause.
Manufacturing and technology brought us into the modern age as it will push us forward into the post-millennial age and beyond. The irony is that studies show manufacturing jobs are also being lost to automation technology and not to immigrants who Trump has made into a convenient Bogeyman.
But computer technology allowed me and 10 others to use a Virtual Phone Bank to call DeKalb County, Georgia, today in support of Jon Ossoff who is running for a congressional seat in a special election on April 18th. NY Rep Elliot Engel told one of the organizers that getting Democrat Jon Ossoff elected would be the single most helpful thing people could do right now as it will send a clear symbol to the House and the Administration that this Red District has gone Blue and does not support their agenda.
It must be working because he is up in the polls and many voters told us they'd received as many as four calls a day from dedicated callers. We'll all be watching to see what happens.
*The name derives from English worker's in the early 19th century who smashed new technology in the weaving and manufacturing industry fearing that the machines would take their jobs.
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| The Machine Breakers by Eric Hobsbawm |
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