Tech Won’t Save Us: “The Real History of the Luddites” w/ Brian Merchant
Host: Paris Marx | Guest: Brian Merchant
Episode Date: September 28, 2023

Episode Overview

This episode features Paris Marx in conversation with Brian Merchant, LA Times technology columnist and author of Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech. The discussion dives into the nuanced and often-misunderstood history of the Luddites—early 19th-century English workers who protested against the way new industrial technologies were being used to erode their livelihoods and autonomy. The conversation unpacks key myths, historical context, and draws striking parallels between the Luddite movement and contemporary struggles with workplace technology, focusing in particular on questions of power, exploitation, and technological progress.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Why Write a Book About Luddites?

(05:57) Brian Merchant explains his motivation:

• The mainstream perception of Luddites—anti-technology, backward-looking—is a misrepresentation.
• No other group has been so thoroughly miscast in conventional wisdom.
• When emerging as a tech journalist, Merchant noticed the term “Luddite” was wielded as a slur against tech skeptics.
  • “People who are most invested in seeing technology and the tech companies advance at the fastest pace, would use this as a, as a word to sort of cast aspersions on the critics... lump them all together as people who don't understand what's going on. They're behind the times, they're backwards looking.” (07:50, Merchant)
• The real historical Luddites opposed the use of technology to undermine workers, not technology itself.

2. Who Were the Luddites? The Real Context

(12:13) Merchant’s deep dive into the historical context:

• Clothworkers in early industrial England, many practicing “cottage industry” production for generations.
• Their work provided autonomy, decent wages, and dignity.
• The rise of factories consolidated labor, upended wage standards, and stripped workers of autonomy.
  • Factory owners (early “entrepreneurs”) reaped significant profits, while workers’ wages and quality of life plummeted.
  • “All of a sudden there was one person who was going to profit. You would be laboring for them. You would be standing, quote, at their command. That's what the Luddites hated most of all, losing that autonomy…” (14:06, Merchant)
• Merchant describes the Luddites’ attempts at peaceful petition, only taking direct action (“machine breaking”) after all political and institutional avenues failed.
• Luddism was not random violence: only “obnoxious machines” used to undermine labor standards were targeted.

3. Debunking Myths: Luddites Were Not Anti-Technology

(20:41) On Luddite ingenuity and skill:

• Luddites were often skilled technicians, tinkerers, and even inventors—improving machines “on their own terms.”
• Attempts to innovate for worker benefit (e.g., measuring cloth quality for fairer compensation) were rejected by industrialists.
  • “They did all of these amazing things with technology that’s sort of been completely wiped away. One of my favorite examples is... a technology that could determine the cloth count... they brought it to the bosses... and it was rejected because it would have lost the entrepreneur’s money.” (21:05, Merchant)
• The division between using technology for worker empowerment versus for managerial control is highlighted.

4. The Machinery Question: Debating Progress in the 19th Century

(26:32) Technology and society:

• The “machinery question” animated public debates: is automation inherently progress, or does its value depend on who controls it?
• Merchant recounts an historic debate between two laborers:
  • One, inspired by Robert Owen, argued that “if society were differently constituted, machinery could be a boon.”
  • George Mellor (key Luddite), replies: “If, if, if… but it’s not.”
• The debate is echoed today: proponents touting long-term societal gains, while others urge a focus on immediate harms and inequalities.
  • “People in the trenches…are seeing the way AI is being introduced into their workplaces are saying, hold on a minute, that's not how it's affecting my life at all in the short term.” (29:57, Merchant)

5. The End of the Luddite Movement

(35:28) Successes and suppression:

• “Collective bargaining by riot” led to short-term wins—factory owners restored wages, some agreed to Luddites’ terms.
  • Many employers, under peer and community pressure, reverted to older labor-friendly practices.
• The state’s reaction: partnership with industrialists, a crackdown on dissent.
  • Machine-breaking made a capital offense; the army deployed against workers; dozens executed or killed.
  • “We see for one of the first times this alliance of state and industry… banded together with the common goal of crushing… the worker movement.” (38:39, Merchant)
• The label “Luddite” began to be used pejoratively, a precedent for modern anti-left/progress rhetoric.

6. Modern Parallels: Gig Work, AI, and Worker Resistance

(41:32–45:00) Linking past and present:

• Both Luddites and modern workers try peaceful petition first; direct action erupts when ignored.
• Gig work, surveillance, and algorithmic management echo factory-era exploitation.
  • Merchant: “The most effective and most sort of well-known battles against AI right now are taking place in union shops… I think it’s a Luddite tactic to say, ‘No, you cannot use this to generate a script… That’s just a hard no.’” (43:27)
• Today’s tech giants—funded by concentrated venture capital—make societal decisions about technology without democratic input, just like 19th-century industrialists.

7. What Should We Learn from the Luddites?

(45:17) Lessons for the present:

• Main problem repeats: “top-down technological development,” where elites dictate usage, profit, and terms.
• Real solutions: democratize technology development and deployment, put ordinary people at the center of decisions that affect their lives.
• Merchant highlights the power of solidarity, collective direct action, and sustaining pressure for institutional change.
  • “Sometimes it is not just okay, but morally just to resist a technology, an exploitative technology.” (51:25, Merchant)

8. Why Don’t We Know the True Luddite Story?

(52:42) Merchant on deliberate erasure:

• Historians and elites misrepresented Luddites to discredit worker resistance and legitimize elite control.
  • “If the Luddites didn't exist, their critics would have to invent them. They need this boogeyman.” (53:10, Merchant, quoting Theodore Roszak)
• ‘Luddite = loser’ narrative is a tool to cow people into accepting technological change, no matter the consequences.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “It was not the technology. It was the way that it was being used. It was the use to which it was being put, and it was the exploitation that it enabled. That's what the Luddites were railing against.”
  (00:00 | 24:53 | Brian Merchant)
• “If society were differently constituted, machinery could be a great boon. ... If, if, if… but it’s not.”
  (28:50–29:19 | Paraphrased historic debate via Merchant)
• “Collective bargaining by riot.”
  (35:33 | Merchant citing Hopkins’ phrase for Luddite strategy)
• “Sometimes it is not just okay, but morally just to resist a technology, an exploitative technology.”
  (51:25 | Merchant)
• “If the Luddites didn’t exist, their critics would have to invent them.”
  (53:10 | Merchant, quoting Theodore Roszak)

Key Timestamps

• 05:57 — Merchant discusses why he wrote the book.
• 12:13 — Context: who the Luddites were and their way of life.
• 19:32 — Merchant rebuts the anti-technology myth.
• 26:32 — “The machinery question” and public debate on technology.
• 35:28 — Luddite successes and state suppression.
• 41:32 — Drawing modern parallels; the state/industry alliance redux.
• 43:27 — Modern union resistance to AI as “Luddism revived.”
• 45:17 — Lessons: solidarity, direct action, and democratizing tech.
• 52:42 — Why history misremembers the Luddites.

Tone & Style

The discussion is forthright, critical, and empathetic toward worker perspectives. Both Merchant and Marx maintain a historical yet accessible tone, connecting complex history to urgent, present-day technology debates.

Concluding Thoughts

Brian Merchant’s research challenges the caricature of Luddites as anti-progress, instead offering a view of them as skilled workers demanding dignity and democratic say over the technologies reshaping their world. This history—buried and rewritten by the winners of the industrial revolution—remains deeply relevant as today’s workers face similar fights over automation, surveillance, and the distribution of technological power. The Luddites’ example, as Merchant argues, makes a compelling case for questioning, organizing, and, when necessary, saying “no” to exploitative technology—reminding us that resistance can be both justified and transformative.

Further Reading & Events

• Brian Merchant’s book: Blood in the Machine: The Origins of the Rebellion Against Big Tech.
• Mention of an upcoming Luddite Tribunal event on October 12, 2023, in New York City, featuring both Merchant and Marx.

Summary prepared by Tech Won’t Save Us Podcast Summarizer