Group leader assignment
My group leader assignment was based on the readings for the week of March 20th by the authors Jeremy Rifkin, David Noble and John Kenneth Galbraith. My group consisted of 7 classmates including myself.
I began the discussion with the question, “Who were the luddites and what were their issues?” The group was quick to respond, everyone had seemed to grasp the first question very well. We concluded that the luddites were English workers from the 19th century who between the years 1811-1816 rioted and destroyed labor saving textile machinery in the belief that such machinery would diminish employment. We clarified that they were not against the machines but the changes the substitution of machines for labor would bring. One thing the group did not know is that luddites got their name working under a mythical name of Ned Ludd and started destroying one thousand mills in the Nottingham area in the years 1811 and 1812.
When I asked my second question, What according to Noble is the relationship between capitalism and technology?” , the group was quite slow to respond so I proceeded to explain that technology has a huge effect on individual freedom, for some increasing it and for others restricting it. Capitalism is a social system based on inequalities of power therefore technology will reflect those inequalities. The group eventually understood and we concluded that no technology evolved without people who benefit from it. In a capitalist society technology is most useful to the fortunate that can afford it by producing more growth for them sometimes at the expense of others like in the case of the luddites.
The question that got my group most engaged was “What is the modern “illusion” or “fraud” about work.” We all understood what Galbraith means about the modern illusion associated with the meaning of work. We know that he means that the single use of the term work to cover what for some is dreary, painful or socially demeaning for example, a factory job and
I began the discussion with the question, “Who were the luddites and what were their issues?” The group was quick to respond, everyone had seemed to grasp the first question very well. We concluded that the luddites were English workers from the 19th century who between the years 1811-1816 rioted and destroyed labor saving textile machinery in the belief that such machinery would diminish employment. We clarified that they were not against the machines but the changes the substitution of machines for labor would bring. One thing the group did not know is that luddites got their name working under a mythical name of Ned Ludd and started destroying one thousand mills in the Nottingham area in the years 1811 and 1812.
When I asked my second question, What according to Noble is the relationship between capitalism and technology?” , the group was quite slow to respond so I proceeded to explain that technology has a huge effect on individual freedom, for some increasing it and for others restricting it. Capitalism is a social system based on inequalities of power therefore technology will reflect those inequalities. The group eventually understood and we concluded that no technology evolved without people who benefit from it. In a capitalist society technology is most useful to the fortunate that can afford it by producing more growth for them sometimes at the expense of others like in the case of the luddites.
The question that got my group most engaged was “What is the modern “illusion” or “fraud” about work.” We all understood what Galbraith means about the modern illusion associated with the meaning of work. We know that he means that the single use of the term work to cover what for some is dreary, painful or socially demeaning for example, a factory job and