OK, friends, it’s time to talk about that thing which both hinders and supports us. It is that thing which makes our way of life possible, creates nearly all of our opportunities, and influences every living being on the planet Earth. That’s right, friends, its time to talk about technology.
Once upon a time, someone told me that technology was a thing to be feared and hated because of its flexible nature and its swift evolution rate. At the time, I actually took this person seriously and believed that, way deep down, they had some kind of valid concern. I, of course, was wrong, but I was young and stupid at the time, and believe myself to be older and wiser now. I will now attempt to expose the hypocrisy of those who hate technology without reason. I will now refer to these people as Anti-Techs.
Technology is a great thing. It allows us to cook our food in minutes instead of hours. It lets us live in an environment where we are in control of the relative temperature. It lets us protect ourselves and our loved ones without even having to be awake. It even lets me rant and rave my way into your very home, lets me spread my ideas around the world instead of just around my town. Of course, it just as easily lets you ignore my thoughts, but I suppose we must take the bad with the good at times.
There are, however, people out there who will most avidly disagree with me. They say that our beloved technology is robbing people of their jobs, taking from them their vitality and ability to contribute to society. They try to tell me that the technology that we all rely on is not a natural thing, and therefore should be cast from our midst. They have the gall to say that we are poisoning ourselves and our fellow man by using and developing newer technologies. The list goes on, but you can read all their reasons for hating technology on their website. To these people I say: Toughen Up.
Yes, toughen up. Have we, as a species, gotten so weak that we are suddenly incapable of evolution? If a machine is threatening to take the job of a human, I say to the human: Evolve! Become something better than you were that you might best the machine. Allow me to digress for a moment. Free enterprise is a wonderful concept involving competition between companies, forcing each company to strive to put out a better product to stay alive. Why can the same thing not happen to people? As yet, humans have no competition save other humans. This does nothing to advance the species, in fact, it just makes us all lazy. We condemn corporate monopolies, but that is exactly what we have over this planet. If we have to create competition for ourselves, so be it. There seems to be no other way to get people off their dead asses, fire up their brains, and get them moving. As it is, we are all just sitting around with our thumbs up our asses waiting to get better without any effort, and this will get us nowhere. Anyways, if you are too lazy to try to beat the machine, you are too lazy to have your job. So quit your bitching, suck it up, and get tough.
To those who claim it is not “natural” to surround ourselves with technology, you are dead wrong. It is, in fact, the only natural thing to do. Giving a statement like this is like saying it’s not natural to have sex. Surrounding one’s self with one’s achievements is the only natural thing to do. Why do you think people go to all the trouble of setting up trophy rooms instead of throwing all their bowling trophies in the garbage? People want to be surrounded by things that remind us that some of us are the most intelligent animal on the planet. Man evolved to have a large brain, and that large brain has a great capacity for high-level intelligence (though many refuse to use it, it must not be “natural” to be smart). This intelligence, gained through completely natural evolution, allows us to live in more comfort, as we would like to live. Therefore, casting out all modern conveniences would be a highly un-natural thing to do.
Let us envision, momentarily, a perfect world as according to the Anti-Techs. Nice clean air to breathe, crystal clear water to drink, and the whole world smells fresh as a spring breeze. Of course, no one would have time to stop and enjoy these things, as we would all be busy 24 hours a day trying to survive the naturally hostile environment of Earth. No more global warming, so we could all sit around in our caves or trees and freeze our asses off. No more hole in the ozone layer, which would be small consolation to a farmer who has to work like hell every day to give himself and his family a small chance to go hungry most of the winter only to watch his children die of scraped knees and diarrhea. Yes, friends, it would be a grand old world in which man chooses to ignore his one and only weapon against an enemy: his intellect. Given real thought, we see that humans are very ill adapted to life on Earth. We have virtually no protective fur to ward off sun and cold. We have no claws to defend or attack with. Our young scream and whine to attract attention, a very bad thing with possible predators around. Hell, it takes us two years to learn to move under our own power. In short, if we got rid of all those things defined as technology, we’d be pretty much fucked.
It’s a shame that no Anti-Techs will read this anytime soon. It would be a real treat to see the look on their faces as they learn that one of their largest and most anti-technological groups has a website expressing their views. That’s right, I’ve seen it myself, the Luddites have their very own website. You can check it out here. Go ahead, now we can all go laugh at the silly hypocrites. (Little history lesson for ya: Luddites were people back in 19th century England who went around smashing machines that took their jobs)
Here’s a funny thing as well: no one knows just how far we should go in ridding ourselves of technology! Opinions range everywhere from only being allowed to own three cars to sending all mankind back to the stone age, or even farther if they could. You’d think that these people could at least decide on where to go before suggesting a direction change. It’s a lunacy. I think these people are the biggest advantage to microchip implants – who knows, maybe someday we could cram enough chips into them that they would have somewhere near an inkling of common sense.
OK, I think I about beaten this subject into the ground. Time for the disclaimer: If you see someone preaching the destruction of machines, don’t hurt them. It’s OK to laugh and jeer, but its rude to hit. Anyways, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Instead of beating them to a bloody pulp, try sitting down and having a discussion with them. Try to determine their reasons for believing the way they do, and show them yours. They don’t need to be hurt, just to understand that there is nothing to be afraid of. I leave you now, hopefully with a better understanding of this situation and armed to forge your own opinions. Until next time…
© 1997 quig6@aol.com
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