Discourse on Technology and Society:

Why does our knowledge outstrip our wisdom?

Usually the first question people ask me (that is, after they ask "Who the heck is Nedd Ludd?") is "So why are you anti-technology?" The truth is, I'm not. I have no quarrel with technology. Neither did those brave folks I took my name from, the luddites. The quarrel I have is with a society that whose level of knowledge has surpassed its levels of wisdom and compassion.

For example, our ability to keep people alive through medical science has surpassed our willingness to ensure they're life is worth living as we keep them alive. On the whole, as a nation, we would rather put Grandma and Grandpa (or cousin Mitsy who had a motorcycle accident and broke her neck) into a nursing home than assume our responsibility to care for them.

"But that is how I assume my responsibility, I make certain that they are taken care of!" Is the response I get the most from this. My rebuttal is simple. While I do admit that in SOME FEW cases, a nursing home is best for Grandma, Grandpa or cousin Mitsy, most of us are willing to condemn our loved ones to a nursing home simply because it makes our life easier. The thing that gets me the most about this argument is that having worked in a nursing home for over two years when I was a teenager, I noticed less than half of the residents receiving regular visitors. Taking care of our loved ones emotionally and spiritually is just as important as taking care of them physically. It is so easy to institutionalize a loved one that has become a burden. It makes it easy not to think of them. It makes it easier to go about one's own life. It is part of the reason our western society is in a downward spiral.

Another example of our society being too big for its britches is nuclear technology. While in theory I have nothing against nuclear technology, I have my doubts about a society that continues to make bombs, medical supplies, electricity, etc. when we have yet to discover a safe way to store, much less dispose of, the waste resulting from the manufacture of these products.

The discrepancy between our level of knowledge and our level of wisdom is very noticeable in the case of the luddite rebellion. Picture England, early 1800's new inventions are popping up it seems almost every day. Power looms, spinning machines, sewing machines, what once took ten men or one hundred men all day, all man could do in an hour. The reduction in the amount of labor put an incredible amount of skilled laborers out of work. And those that did keep a job, kept a miserable assembly line position that paid a fraction of what they used to make.

Can you imagine getting paid $20 or $30 per hour, and then getting busted down to $20 or $30 per day? Putting in 12-15 hour days? Can you imagine being in a skilled profession and then being reduced to assembly line work? Can you imagine your home town, once being world famous for the quality of its manufactured goods, becoming infamous for products that fall apart the day after you purchase them?

If you can envision any of those scenarios, you will catch a glimpse of how the common working man felt in Nottingham county at the turn of the industrial revolution. A single worker could no longer feed an entire house. Husbands, wives and some times children all had to go to work just to put food on the table. The work was grueling, humiliating for people that used to be skilled laborers. The work was demanding, spirit breaking. In conditions like these people begin to rebel.

What happened to the luddites are an example of what happens when technology (new manufacturing processes) outstrip out wisdom in implementing it (mindlessly putting thousands of laborers out of work to fatten the bottom line).

Yes, technology has its beneficial side as well. My wife has freedom of mobility only through use of a micro-computer controlled, electric wheelchair. Technology has given her a level and quality of life she could have never had without it. This same technology, however, can also be used in ways that incredibly harmful. We, as a society, need to be aware of the balance between use and abuse. We need to learn to say "when" and not build bigger, better, faster machines only because we can. A great man once said "The price is freedom is eternal vigilance." We need to extend that and remember that freedom is more of a responsibility than a right.

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