๐ Getting Off with the Luddites
I’ve been impressed and inspired by the NYC luddite scene which has helped historically contextualize this dystopian big tech moment and wisely pointed to the positives of community, solidarity, and FUN instead of just the evils of technology. I found myself vigorously agreeing with most of this great profile of them in n+1. Perhaps it could be a new political home to try out?
Getting Off with the Luddites | Sarah Thankam Mathews
The Luddites see Big Tech as having eroded commonality: the common good, the social fabric, the institutions of collective interest. Luddism, as they conceive of it, is a communal, spiritual, and political project centered on three things: reclaiming collective agency away from Big Tech and its attention-fracking, data-capturing, social erosion project; re-enchanting public life through public events that help people experience connection; and fostering a world rooted in localism, public goods, care, fun, democracy, and what one Luddite I spoke to referred to as โcollective effervescence.โ