"...Q: Many market-libertarians either ignore or whitewash the horrors of the Industrial Revolution. That's rather amusing, as the circumstances surrounding industrialization in England, where many thousands of people were driven off the land their families had lived on for centuries, would hardly seem to fulfill anyone's ideals of freedom. From across the political spectrum, what types of apologias or evasions have you encountered for the horrors of industrialism? A: I know of no serious technology critics among market-libertarians. Even those who advocate Jeffersonian small-farmer ownership. The general feeling of even those who are aware of the ugliness of the state in securing industrialism, and the suffering of people (and freedom) therefrom, is that the you-can't-make-an-omelet benefits outweigh the horrors..." FROM http://www.primitivism.com/sale.htm Interview--Kirkpatrick Sale Kirkpatrick Sale is the author of Rebels Against the Future, a remarkable and extremely readable history of Luddism. If you're looking for an intelligent and sympathetic account of the Luddites, with insightful parallels between their troubled time and our own, look no further.
