I am a Luddite

I am a Luddite.

It isn't that I don’t like technology itself. What I have issue with is our society’s wholesale, cult-like devotion to it. To the point that many folks literally can not live without it!

An extreme (I hope) example is the man who wrote a letter to the editor several years ago upset because all the food in his fridge went bad when the power was out for several days because of an ice storm!

It has long been a hobby of mine to learn how things were done without benefit of motors, gasoline, electricity and computers. What I've found is there often isn't anything wrong with the “old ways,” and that in fact there can be quite a bit of value in those methods in light of our current energy crisis.

Now — obviously — I do make use of technology in my life. But I evaluate each technology according to my own criteria, primarily that it not become pervasive in my life and I must know how to live without it. For example, the internet is a powerful tool which I frequently turn to. But I fail to see the need to use a gas-guzzling, pollutant-spewing, headache-inducing gas mower on my quarter-acre when my peaceful, quiet reel mower does just as fine a job without a drop of gasoline.

Up to this point, modern American’s head-long rush to adopt anything “new” without stopping to question if it’s necessary or even appropriate has been largely a source of amusement to me. But recent talk of electronically linking brains and visions of computers built directly into humans has me a little more concerned.

Here’s to slowing down a little and realizing that just because we can do something doesn't mean we should.