08/10/27 10:59:45
>>279
The [ knitting ] machines
[ which provoked the first Luddite disturbances ]
had been putting people out of work for well over two centuries.
Everybody saw [ this [ happening ] ] --
it became part of daily life.
They also saw
[ the machines coming more and more [ to be the property of men
[ who did not work, only owned and hired ] ] ].
It took no German philosopher, then or later,
[ to point out [ what this did ] had been doing to wages and jobs.
Public [ feeling ] about the machines could never have been simple [ unreasoning ] horror,
but likely something more complex:
the love/hate [ that grows up between humans and machinery ]--
especially [ when it's been around for a while ]--
[ not to mention serious resentment toward at least two multiplications of effect
[ that were seen as unfair and [ threatening ] ] ].
One was the concentration of capital
[ that each machine represented ],
and the other was the ability of each machine
[ to put a certain number of humans out of work ]--
[ to be "worth" that many human souls ].