Ludd Was Right: Difference between revisions

''I'll die with my hammer in my hand.''|John Henry, ''[http://www.museums.udel.edu/jones/archive/archive_pages/artist_portfolios/white/white-johnhenry2.html The Ballad of John Henry]''}}

According to [http://town.hall.org/radio/LuddLand/ folklore], sometime in the late 18th century or early 19th century, a man named [[wikipedia:Ned Ludd|Ned Ludd]] broke into a factory and destroyed two machines as a protest against technology. A movement to resist the industrial revolution and favor agrarian societies named itself the [[wikipedia:Luddite|Luddites]] in his honor. Agriculture itself was a technological advancement over hunting and gathering - but of course neither Ludd nor his opponents would have known that at the time. Incidentally, it wasn't actually an anti-technology movement. It was basically a unionist movement. Traditional craftsmen, such as wainwrights and blacksmiths, were their own masters, able to work whatever hours they wanted as long as they delivered their products on time. Industrialization reduced their crafts to menial labor that could often be performed by unskilled workers. If the artisans tried to make the transition, they were faced with lower wages and fixed working hours—something referred to in the American South as "wage-slavery". The Luddites were just protesting against changes they felt would destroy their way of life. Today the term 'Luddite' can refer (usually disparagingly) to any opposition to technology, though a major argument continues to be that effort-saving devices put people out of work. While some regard Luddism as a [[Dead Horse Trope]], a quick search of the internet—or the latest movies—will prove that [https://web.archive.org/web/20131109042403/http://www.primitivism.com/primitive-affluence.htm not to be the case].

Basically, [[Science Is Bad]] on a [[Society Is to Blame|global scale]]. See also [[Artistic License Economics]]. Also [[Green Aesop]]. May be the ([[Scale of Scientific Sins|sinful]]) Discipline in [[Harmony Versus Discipline]]. In fiction, may be enforced by [[Status Quo Is God]] (and in extreme cases, a [[Reset Button]]). Compare [[Industrialized Evil]], where evil itself uses the scientific method and/or efficient methods of "production" (not necessarily machines, but that's popular too). When this Trope is the view of a villain and essential to the plot (often suggesting Ludd was ''not'' right) compare and contrast [[Evil Luddite]].

* Characters in S.M. Stirling's ''[[Emberverse]]'' series of books seem perfectly happy being thrown back into pre-industrial state. A mysterious force disables all electricity, gunpowder, and steam power. This reults in most of humanity dying from starvation and the survivors reverting to agrarian communities. Although a few can be heard pining for modern conveniences (most commonly deoderant and birth control), more often than not you'll hear them say how much happier they are and that this was the way humans were meant to live. Of course, it must be pointed out that those who survived tended to be Renn Faire patrons, ranchers, history professors, survivalists, and the [[Society for Creative Anachronism]].

* A subtext in ''Daiku No Gensan''/''[[Hammerin' Harry]]''. The villains are modern construction workers and the company they work for. The hero is a traditional Japanese carpenter. The heroine/love interest/frequent [[Damsel in Distress]] is the heir to the company that employs him.

=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===

* [[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'': Saruman started out as a [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]] who thought his rule would be good for the world and used both magic and technology as means of gaining power. He later industrialized the Shire ([[The Man Behind the Man|through his puppet Lotho]]) as a petty jab at the hobbits.

* ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' episode ''"The Ultimate Computer"'': A new computer has been developed that can control an entire star-ship by itself, making crews and captains obsolete. For the entire episode, Kirk, Bones and at one point (briefly) even Spock make speeches about how terrible it is that people will be replaced by machines, how the computer will take something of what it is to be a "man" away from humanity, how computers just ''can't'' do the job with the same "heart" as people, etc. Bones evokes the trope explicitly at one point, noting how hard it is to lose one's job to automation. Of course, just to drive the point home, it turns out that [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot]], and the computer's designer was insane, to boot. [[Broken Aesop|Which of course]] ''proves'' that Ludd Was Right... even though it's made clear that if the designer was more psychologically stable, the computer might have worked just fine.

**:* Although one cannot help but wonder if "Losing your Job" in the post-monetary [[Star Trek]] utopia isn't really more than a bit of a nuisance.

*:* Really, the computer pretty much just made [[The Captain]] obsolete. It was made clear that crews would still be necessary for the purposes of landing parties. Also, no mention was ever made of Star Fleet's diplomatic functions at all.

* Parodied in an episode of ''[[Kids in The Hall]]'', in which a group of laborers who work all day at holding their arms in a sink full of fish guts are replaced by a machine full of mannequin hands which can do the same job. When the manager insists this is the way of technology, the laborers point out that the manager can be replaced by a machine too. {{spoiler|Then he starts stuttering and falling apart [[Tomato Surprise|because he's a robot.]]}}

* TheAs noted elsewhere on this page, the finale for ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]](2004 TV series)|the reimagined ''Battlestar (2003)Galactica'']] finale veers in this direction.

* This is invoked by [[Mad Scientist|economist]] Hubert Turvy in ''[[Discworld/Making Money|Making Money]]'', to explain why using the newly found {{spoiler|''four '''thousand''' golems''}} would be a bad idea.

* Another example being ''[[Discworld/A Hat Full of Sky|A Hat Full of Sky]]'' where {{spoiler|Hiver-}}Tiffany makes cheese using magic. The next day it's shown to be melting away and atracting flies, and generally infit for consumption.

=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===

* Taken to [[Anvilicious]] levels in ''[[Avatar (film)|Avatar]]'', where the naturalistic Naavi are presented as morally and culturally superior in comparison to the more technologically advanced humans, who are [[Humans Are Bastardsthe Real Monsters|all bastards]] who polluted their own home planet to the brink of ecological collapse.

* The [[Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)|remake of ''[[Battlestar Galactica]]'']] ends with the entire fleet {{spoiler|spontaneously deciding that Ludd Was Right and it's time to throw away all their advanced technology, hand the Cylon basestar over to the Centurions, launch the rest of their fleet into the sun, and embark on a [[Inferred Holocaust|primitive existence on a totally unfamiliar world]]. This was unfortunately a result of the need for the fleet to become us as shown in the coda to the finale, and flew right in the face of the lessons learned by the characters over the series. Lee actually said they needed to grow before they could attempt to live as they had done, ignoring that they had ''done just that'' over the series, even coming to gather with the artificially created Cylons (some of them), and the point had never been 'technology is bad', merely the societal problems ''they had just overcome!''}}

[[Category:Romanticism Versus Enlightenment{{PAGENAME}}]]