Kirkpatrick Sale

In the early 1800s, a group of British workers led by Ned Ludd destroyed and sabotaged machinery that they believed was taking away their jobs and livelihoods. The term “Luddite” came to mean someone opposed to industrialization and technological change. Social activist and author Kirkpatrick Sale examined the Luddite movement in his book Rebels Against the Future: The Luddites and Their War on the Industrial Revolution: Lessons for the Machine Age. In the following viewpoint, an article adaptation of that book, Sale argues that the spirit of the Luddites lives on in the writings of many ecological philosophers and activists who believe that technology and modern industrial society are destroying nature and impoverishing many humans. The Luddites and their philosophical successors offer important lessons concerning...