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opinion/analysis
 Wednesday December 03, 2003 03:02 by seedot
 In June next year the residents of ireland will go to the polls to vote in european and local elections. This election will be the first to have nationwide electronic voting, using the system developed by the Dutch company which so memorably made Nora Owen cry. This system is being challenged for a whole range of faults beyond making female members of Fine Gael cry. Boards .ie has covered this issue well - but there has been little coverage of electronic voting in other media. Maybe this is because of companies like Diebold which have used the law (copyright in an imaginative attack) to prevent memo's about how, well, shite their voting system was. They even had a go at Indymedia, which was ably repelled. Personally I like making our political leaders stare at our messages of what we think of them for 24 hours. I like the openness, simplicity and built in feuding of the multi-seat single transferrable vote system of PR which we have held dear through multiple referenda. It can be like getting our own back - publically and drawn out over a period of days - indulging the bloodsport element of tribal politics. Not necessarily a reason I would support elections - but definitely the type of election I would support. Be a Luddite. Smash the machines. |
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Comments (4 of 4)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4Smash the machines??
I suppose you are aware of the irony of sending this message on the internet?
As far as I was aware the Luddites were against those forms of mechanical progress which restricted their ability to self manage their own work (ie machines which forced them to work under supervision in mills instead of being masters of their own destiny in their cottage industries). I'm not aware that they had anything against technological development which made their lives easier, contrary to popular wisdom. Maybe I'm wrong.
You're Right. EP Thompson's The Making of the English Working Class has a fascinating part about the politics of the Luddites.
The origin of "King Ludd" and the other similar names has been lost to the shadows of history, but the name "Luddite" denoting a person who fears technology has endured. However, what the Luddites feared, was not the technology itself, but the loss of individuality, and self-sufficiency it represented.
Read the rest or Google Luddite - there's loads more.
Craftworkers resisting the coming factories through smashing machines has a matrix / terminator type of resonance. The were not technophobes - weaving was the height of technology in the 1820's and much of it had been adopted rapidly by the craft weavers. It was a particular application and use of technology that was being resisted.
Have a look at the link that I put in the original article - these people are not technophobes. But when we oppose electronic voting or other forms of technology we are painted as technophobes, resisting progress, fools and reactionaries.
Personally I have yet to see a justification for eVoting that makes any sense - so I would not be on the side of those who are attempting to campaign for fair evoting.
But maybe I am a technophobe
But at least i've got HTML