Theodore Roszak, “In Defense of the Living Earth”

Forward to Turning away from Technology, Stephanie Mills (1997)

(Study questions at end)

1.      Extreme characterization of the debate is between

         a.      Luddites: Indiscriminate hostility toward industrialism

         b.       Technological enthusiasts: Favor “indiscriminate industrial growth”

2.      Replies to false characterization of Luddism

         a.      There has never been a movement that

                   i.       Unthinkingly hated machines and destroyed them

                   ii.      Called all tech evil and want to get rid of all of it and live in caves

3.      Original Luddites were angry weavers put out of jobs by factory owners who used power looms and knitting frames

         a.      These first Luddites, after appealing reasonably and getting nowhere, resorted to busting machines

         b.      Quickly put down by armed force and several hanged

         c.      “A small futile gesture of defiance at outset of industrial revolution”

4.      Original Luddites were first victim of technological unemployment

         a.      Luddite fallacy? Labor saving techniques don’t put people out of work

5.      Note that Roszak’s focus is on industrialism, not technology per se

         a.      Not all tech

         b.      Industrialism as a type of technology

         c.      Mightn’t there be technologies other than industrial technologies that Luddites and Roszak would worry about?

         d.      Some claim we are in an information society, a “post-industrial society”

6.      Criticizes industrialism for its inhumanity and destructiveness

         a.      Putting people out of work, making work meaningless

         b.      Env. impacts of pollution and habitat degradation

7.      Roszak’s characterization of inappropriate tech: Machines and systems of machines that sacrifice public good to enrich selfish few

         a.      Examples?:

                   i.       E.g., practice of some corporations to buy up patents of their competitors and sit on them

                   ii.      E.g., if it were true that the automobile manufacturers had technology to make cars get 60 mpg, but where withholding the technology, because they can make more money by selling gas guzzling cars (perhaps because they are financially tied to the oil industry)

         b.      Note: These are examples of withholding new technologies!

8.      ROSZAK AIMS FOR A MIDDLE POSITION BETWEEN EXTREMES OF TECHNOLOGICAL ENTHUSIASTS AND EXTREME LUDDITES

9.      Absolutist Luddites

         a.      Sweeping prescription for tech withdrawal

         b.      Believe that “Our species can’t be trusted with anything that gets much beyond water wheels and windmills”

10.    Absolute technophiles, technological enthusiasts

         a.      Any technology is a good technology and should be employed

         b.      Accept Francis Bacon’s statement of goal of science/tech:

                   i.       “To establish and extend the power and domination of humans over the universe”

                   ii.      Is this an inappropriate goal?

11.    Conflicted middle

         a.      Have anti-tech principles but also board a 747 to attend conferences, and use word processors and email

12.    Roszak is in the conflicted middle

         a.      He has no choice; his current life is due to high tech medicine, for which he is grateful

         b.      Also he finds both pleasure and fascination in much modern tech

                   i.       Motion pictures are a marvelous art form

                   ii.      Electricity marvelous convenience

         c.      Science behind tech is “most enthralling intellectual adventure of our age”

                   i.       Can one love science and be a Luddite (skeptical and worried about technology)? (Yes)

         d.      Still worries that our growing dependence on computer will spell disaster down the line

13.    A Neoluddite can make many compromises with Modernity

         a.      Wisdom is in the figuring which compromises to make

14.    Defense of homo faber (man/woman the maker)

         a.      Humans as makers account for some of humanity’s greatest achievements

                   i.       Such as?

         b.      But not the only source of these achievements

                   i.       What are humanity’s great non-technological achievements?

15.    Arrogant to insist that engineers and corporate forces behind them can be trusted to prescribe own values and limits

                   i.       Claim is that society needs to control technology

                   ii.      Winner’s idea

16.    Neoluddite criticism is rational and realistic

         a.      Owning machines is a form of power

         b.      Abuse of power to use technology

                   i.       To drive people off the land

                   ii.      Take their jobs away

                   iii.     To desecrate the natural environment

17.    True progress (improvement in quality of life not quantity of goods) never grows from machines (new technology) but from judgment and conscience of other humans

         a.      Aren’t there technologies that have clearly improved human’s quality of life?

18.    High tech is incredibly seductive

         a.      High tech is “subtlest and most seductive stage of industrialism”

         b.      Offers us nothing short of magic

         c.      Create own virtual universe and bend nature to our will

         d.      Breed perfect babies

         e.      Enjoy medical immortality

         f.       Redesign plants/animals to our specification

         g.      Globe trot the planet on economy fares

         h.      Colonize the cosmos

         i.       A tremendously intoxicating and deluded program (a passionately held mistaken belief held in spite of contrary evidence)

19.    LUDDITE PROGRAM

20.    Luddite program is simple

         a.      Scale down (“Small is beautiful”)

         b.      Slow down

         c.      Decentralize

         d.      Democratize

21.    Bigness is a key problem

         a.      A benign and constructive invention that is built at too big of a scale turns into a monster

                   i.       E.g., solar power (on rooftops or in the stratosphere?)

         b.      Such bigness happens where profit is measure of progress

         c.      Luddites generally prefer small scale technology

22.    Luddites plea for

         a.      Living within limits

                   i.       Example?

         b.      Appeal for loyalty to place

                   i.       Example?

         c.      Respect for natural order that was here before us

                   i.       Example?

         d.      Roszak builds core environmental values into Luddism

23.    Earth is neoluddites most powerful ally

         a.      Environmental limits that Luddites want us to respect are earth’s own limits and won’t long be violated

         b.      Is it true that modern technological society is threatening the life support systems of the planet on which humans depend?

24.    Luddites address great moral challenge of our time:

25.    Create a sustainable, post industrial culture

                   i.       A sustainable culture can’t be industrial? Why not?

         b.      One movement in world today that transcends the mystique of progress and links us to life on the planet

Study Questions, Roszak “In Defense of the Living Earth”

1.       Define Luddism. Who were the Luddites?

2.        Explain the idea of humans as “homo faber.” Does Roszak accept this idea?

3.       Does Roszak reject all technology? Why or why not? Is he an absolute Luddite or a technological enthusiast?

4.       What does Roszak think about the science behind modern technology?

5.       Explain the four points of the Luddite program that Roszak identifies.

6.      What is the relation between Luddism and industrialism according to Roszak?