Luddite Online

Author: ludditeonline

  • Net Neutrality Wins the Day

    Net Neutrality Wins the Day

    Luddites of 17th Century England fought the government to retain a hold on their livelihood and standards of living. The government’s recent decision to enforce rules of “net neutrality” designed to prevent private corporations from parceling out better Internet service to the wealthy illustrates the complexity of the “Luddite” debate.

    “Net neutrality” proponents view the Internet as a public utility, which it is from an objective standpoint. Telephone service, mail delivery, housing, access to medical care and legal services, education, and work are all institutions designed to serve the general interest and are the basic building blocks of civilization. Privatization and deregulation advocates appear delusional in their insistence that only the very wealthy should enjoy these most basic of human rights.

    Luddites fought modernization in their efforts to maintain control of a part of the economy that provided them with the comforts and security their skills and training had earned them. On the surface, the pro-government view of net neutrality seems to be in opposition to traditional Luddism. But the proponents of privatization and deregulation, unlike traditional Luddites, are not threatened with the loss of their income or place in society, and the laws they oppose limit technology for a very different reason: Net Neutrality Passes FCC.

  • Entropy

    Entropy

    1. Thermodynamics.
      1. (in statistical mechanics) a measure of the randomness of the microscopic constituents of a thermodynamic system. Symbol: S.
      2. (on a macroscopic scale) a function of thermodynamic variables, as temperature, pressure, or composition, that is a measure of the energy that is not available for work during a thermodynamic process. A closed system evolves toward a state of maximum entropy.
    2. (in data transmission and information theory) a measure of the loss of information in a transmitted signal or message.
    3. (in cosmology) a hypothetical tendency for the universe to attain a state of maximum homogeneity in which all matter is at a uniform temperature (heat death)

    4. Doctrine of inevitable social decline and degeneration.

    (Entropy. (n.d.). Retrieved August 14, 2015, from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/entropy )

    Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution once was considered shocking. To suggest that humankind descended from apes was considered blasphemous. Oddly we now have arrived at a state of entropy occupied at one extreme by proponents of “unnatural selection” who argue in favor of artificial, planned, engineered evolution, thereby rendering criticisms of Darwin quaint; and on the other extreme by neo-fundamentalist religious zealots who would like to reanimate the Darwin debate and realists who have accepted the malaise of a lingering entropy as the inescapable path forward. In Future Humans: Four Ways We May or May Not Evolve, The National Geographic has provided a blueprint for the future with four paths to choose from: Where do we go from here?

    (Reference: FUTURE HUMANS: Four Ways We May, or May Not, Evolve. (2009, November 24). Retrieved April 1, 2015, from http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/11/091124-origin-of-species-150-darwin-human-evolution.html.)

  • Luddite Film of the Century?

    Luddite Film of the Century?

    Amidst all the rapid and radical change from carbon paper, leaded gasoline, transistor radios, black and white television, rotary dial phones, and telegraph machines to high-speed Internet, disposable cell phones, space travel, omnipresent surveillance, and high-definition everything in less time than it took to invent the Gutenberg Press, sometimes we forget that the sun and the moon and the stars and the sea haven’t noticed.

    1987 was not that long ago, but remains an important year in film thanks to the release of Babette’s Feast, a classic tale that speaks volumes about the human condition. Check the Films page for more information.

  • Silicon Valley and Amorality

    Silicon Valley and Amorality

    Within recent memory, people respected those who achieved success through hard work. Similarly, not so long ago, cool  was how we described those who could pull us out of sad, abusive, toxic places and make us feel good again. The Wide World of Sports, once an American tradition in sports broadcasting, began its weekly program by reminding us why we enjoy sports: the ennobling of the human spirit is personified by “the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” [(1961). Wide world of sports. Television series. American Broadcasting Corporation.]

    The corrupt, money-worshiping, morally bankrupt influence of 1980’s Wall Street culture in which the victory of greed by means of cutthroat competition is the only thing that gets respect ended all of that. Amid all the decay and degeneracy, however, one bright spot has been the development of technology, with its promise of giving a voice and long-promised opportunity to otherwise oppressed, invisible, and powerless minorities. And to some degree, anyway, that has happened. Silicon Valley gave rise to the “irrational exuberance” of hordes of young entrepreneurs who responded to Google leadership’s vow never to be evil.

    Although Silicon Valley has been a relative paragon of virtue in the story of Twenty-first Century capitalism for so long, this story strikes a tragic if familiar chord. As a sign of the times, the IT industry’s decision to embrace amorality at the expense of shareholders and the public trust may allow you to depersonalize your annoyance at inaccessible websites and the non-responsiveness of the Great Corporation. Let’s hope the Google founders’ pledge, “Don’t be evil,” has not been shredded with Enron Corporation’s SEC filings: Silicon Valley’s Culture of Amorality.

  • Fugunka Films on Luddite Online

    Fugunka Films on Luddite Online

    The contemporary world may be described as the era of “isms.” Capitalism, communism, fascism, nationalism, idealism, nihilism, atheism, totalitarianism, relativism, socialism, patriotism, fanaticism, pluralism, populism… the list goes on and on. Combined with education and government policies inspired by uniformly regimented and inflexible digital coding languages formulated and administered as if they were patches to fix bugs in computer programs, the devastating psychological impacts of over-specialization and alienation can be overwhelming,  especially when there seems to be an expectation that we all conform to a single, one-size-fits-all universal philosophy.

    At Luddite Online, we are aware of the danger and treachery of being reduced to just another “-ism.” So to keep things fresh and lively, we are happy to introduce a new feature. In collaboration with Groowinky.com, Luddite Online will begin providing access to original films and reflections about the growing atmosphere of depersonalized, nihilistic, tech-heavy absurdity as the corporate takeover of planet Earth continues apace, unchecked, unregulated, and with apparently no end in sight. We hope that by including original, contemporary contributions, we can avoid trapping ourselves in a self-deluding bubble of neo-Luddism.

    Among other things, Groowinky produces, films, and releases short, independent movies featuring independent actors and independent script writers. We believe these films are a better representation of the value of the media of film than what is typically produced in the major Hollywood studios.

    Our Films page hosts a selection of many major motion picture releases whose themes are sympathetic to and compatible with many of the beliefs held by contemporary-era Luddites. We are excited that Luddite Online has attracted the support of independent filmmakers, and we believe that such ventures will lend a voice to others who feel drowned out in the increasingly technological world order. We also hope that the filmmaking efforts at Groowinky and elsewhere will lead to a renewal of classic filmmaking more concerned with quality acting and writing that addresses themes that are concerned more with film viewers and art lovers, and less with generating box office receipts or catering to the dictates of the film rating associations.

    Above is a short film entitled, “Taffy Tucker.” This film is valuable and thought provoking. This film portrays the very face of evil and obstruction that has reduced life from the fulfillment of rewarding and meaningful pursuits to an absurd, empty, and meaningless obsession—in this case with tucking taffy.

    This film depicts the pain of life in modern cities in a way that does not resort to exploitation, and gratuitous violent and sexual abuse. In a sense, this kind of “G-rated” pain may be even worse because the actors are denied their own humanity, independence, adulthood, and autonomy, reduced instead into forced roles of subservient children playing games that amuse the owners of the city.

    Are they willing and complicit? Are they helpless and clueless victims of a modern society that refuses to acknowledge anyone’s humanity? It is difficult to confront people who, when faced with these dilemmas, often choose to cooperate with forces that are clearly trying to harm them—maybe it’s people like this who, in another time, eventually became the inspiration for the gargoyles that adorn the buildings of so many American cities. They appear so innocent, yet they are so sado-masochisitic. Is this just the best they can do when they are faced with the reality of empty lives and nothing to live for? In that sense, a life spent tucking taffy may be a victorious rebellion. Perhaps some meaning and friendship is better than none at all; and if they are able to expose their tormentors, all the better.

    YOU CAN VIEW ADDITIONAL ORIGINAL FILMS BY GROOWINKY, AS WELL AS REVIEWS OF MAJOR RELEASES THAT CELEBRATE THE ART OF FILM, ON OUR FILMS PAGE. ACCESS TO THE FILMS PAGE REQUIRES A FULL MEMBERSHIP, WHICH YOU CAN PURCHASE ON OUR MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS PAGE.
    ENJOY!
  • Is there anybody out there?

    Is there anybody out there?

     GROOWINKY FEATURES POETIC MUSINGS, ZANY DRAWINGS (DONE MOSTLY ON DISCARDED JOURNAL ENTRIES), INVENTED WORDS, FILMS, AND OTHER CREATIONS WHICH POUR OUT OF ONE MAN WHO LIVES FEVERISHLY UPON THE CREATIVE CURRENTS OF HIS OWN MIND.

    Once upon a time not very long ago, in a place not very far from where you are standing right now, the world was a vast place full of wonder, mystery, adventure, and promise. Thousands of generations of men, women, and children, stretching back into the deepest recesses of historical memory, and even further back than that, made this world—brick-by-brick, day-by-day, season-by-season, and year-by-year. Over the millennia, this world suffered feasts, famines, huge leaps forward, devastating setbacks, wars to end all wars, and revolutions to overthrow all revolutions. One thing remained constant despite all these changes—the world was unendingly and always the domain of humanity.

    It doesn’t take long for an unprecedented event to take its place in the long historical march of previously unprecedented events, and the next unprecedented event seems always to threaten us with its incurable unprecedentedness. But this time, we’re really up against it—never in all the previous disruptions of our sacred traditions and principles have we been confronted with the unpoetic and dehumanizing reality of digital technology, social media, high-definition everything, perennial surveillance, and inescapable, global totalitarian behavior modification!

    Once upon a time, the tule fog in the Sacramento Valley was so dense every winter that you couldn’t see across the street in the morning. Once upon a time, the magic of San Francisco’s construction moratorium attracted travelers from all over the world to indulge in The City’s charms. Once upon a time, the threat of instant hypothermia kept the North Pole’s prehistoric inhabitants safe from the predatory advances of real estate developers and tourists. Dude, where’s my world?

  • War of the World

    War of the World

    We are at war.

    How many times have you written off the guy at the office who keeps coming to your desk with the latest copy of Soldier of Fortune magazine and berating you for dismissing everyone on the Right as a paranoid gun nut? You’re probably right to dismiss them, and to be skeptical of their claim about our current political state relative to peace. You’re probably also right to dismiss the BMW-driving yuppie IT-exec whose very favorite thing is getting fired up with a Starbuck’s for his next meeting, because, “as we all know by now, the real war is being waged in the boardroom, so that’s why you were passed over for a promotion–these meetings aren’t boring and irrelevant…you’re just not paying attention….” Yeah, you’re probably right to dismiss them.

    But they may not be wrong in their claim that we are at war. In fact, we are in the same war we have been in since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Sadly, you can be relieved from the unending burden of denial in the face of idiotic brutality and complicity. Furthermore, if you have dismissed the management team and the office vigilante who’ve gotten rich and happy fighting from the comfort of their suburban video game room in the company of their co-conspirators—the rest of your so-called colleagues and associates who won’t invite you to Christmas parties anymore—you are probably on the right side of it. In “The War of The World,” Rebbecca Solnit provides an instructive and engaging explanation of what your paranoid, manic office mates are going on about, but in a tone much more appropriate to the tragic choice of war and our undeniable place in it, whether we like it or not.

  • Lifelong Learning

    Lifelong Learning

    Since the digital technology revolution, there has been an increasing trend toward a “reinvent-the-wheel” mindset, which has given lifelong learning a bad name. Probably, most of these tendencies result from the ability of digital technology to make possible an apparently infinite array of tweaks and customization to existing tools. For instance, many people remember early versions of the Microsoft™ Word™ application. Initially, it provided basic but very effective and flexible tools for writers. Most people were excited to have this new invention, dubbed “word processing software,” to help with writing tasks. The formerly intimidating and arduous task of typing error-free documents on a steel typewriter was transformed into an exciting and inspirational tool for authors who were all too happy to take advantage of the newly developed possibility of easy error correction, copy and paste, and the ability to move paragraphs around without the need to re-type everything from scratch every time a major edit was required.

    Now, Microsoft™ Word™ has been redeveloped and redesigned repeatedly. Annual updates and changes to layout, new functions, and an overabundance of associated tools available on the Internet, have enhanced this software with complexity that most people probably will never use. Nonetheless, these development efforts have likely resulted in a bloated software design department at Microsoft Corporation—countless employees are probably paid fairly substantial salaries to tweak and alter and update existing programs with newer and increasingly complex updates that do not really add anything to the basic functionality of the original product.

    Thus, technology has created a pseudo-industry. Social media applications, cellular phone applications, gadgets, buzzers, bells, alarms, cameras, light and sound detectors, and all manner of tools for documenting, monitoring, and analyzing the activity of the increasingly duplicative business of overly-technological departments of public and private organizations everywhere are continually reinvented and redesigned on an ongoing basis. Unfortunately, the work these tools are designed to help people accomplish more effectively has been neglected, and the redesign of software and “mobile apps” has become the substantial majority of most companies’ personnel and research and development budgets and training efforts.

    But what have we gained as a result? When social media companies hire staff not to acquire new advertising accounts, but to develop more dazzling social media applications than the competition, they cease to provide the service they were originally created to provide. When Internet research companies spend their budgets on redesigning search engines and algorithms instead of researching whatever it is their founders set aside funding to investigate, they effectively abandon their mission and leave too many people stranded. When government agencies equipped with surveillance tools violate societal laws designed to protect privacy and ensure the prosperity of citizens and instead descend into deadly contests of illegal spying in an international for-profit competition to dominate the technology industry, we all lose.

    Sadly, the education profession may be the most serious casualty in this war for technological supremacy. The term, “lifelong learning” is itself a living example of the failure following from the “reinvent-the-wheel” mindset. Too many schools appear obsessed with using high-tech advertising to “sell” prospective students on the value of so-called “lifelong learning.” Yet, there has never been a time in history when learning was not a lifelong venture. How many times have you heard the saying, “You learn something new every day”? It is not possible for anyone to make it through a lifetime without acquiring new knowledge throughout their life’s journey, and this is why the human species founded educational institutes so long ago.

    Unfortunately, although in the past, there was scarcely anyone who would not have jumped at the chance to acquire a university education, societal changes have rendered most of what we do now unrecognizable and incomprehensible. The contemporary era of artificially generated environments, in which duplicative and pointless busy work has replaced traditional forms of human commerce, has embittered generations of people and turned them against the idea that “lifelong learning” is anything more than a euphemism for financial and intellectual slavery. The newly created educational management organizations may find it easier to train aspiring and ambitious young people to earn certificates in professional busy work than to honor the profession they have besmirched and soiled with this travesty of justice that only benefits the least deserving among us, but to do so is quite seriously a crime against humanity.

    Luddite Online hopes that if you agree with this assessment you do not abandon your societal and human right to acquire a valuable and worthwhile education. But we also hope you enter into any such efforts with open eyes and a wariness for the self-serving bureaucracies that threaten to annihilate forever the priceless and timeless tradition of the liberal arts education.

  • Technology: Bad for the Brain

    Technology: Bad for the Brain

    Technology, technology, technology….Science, nerds, geeks, IT, virtual reality…..Sometimes it seems there is nothing else to life and the world we live in, and many people seem to think that’s perfectly okay. However, technology is not the same thing as science. And while marketing professionals have been very successful at selling the high-tech lifestyle as the premium choice for anyone with half a brain, there are many serious-minded professionals within the education, technology, science, legal, government, and business sectors, both public and private, who agree that Too Much Technology Is Bad for the Brain.

    Luddite Online, by virtue of its online presence, cannot be held accountable for any fanatical, anti-technology, manifesto-minded insanity. Quite the opposite, Luddism has never been the result of mere opposition to technology for its own sake (read out Luddite Anthem for more information.) However, even in a society that so obviously betrays so many signs of turning its back on the outside world, those who continue to persist in the delusion that learning about technology itself, how to write code, or become an expert in only the most esoteric of ultra-complicated technological language of the most limited and exclusive application, at the exclusion of everything else  is somehow an improvement over traditional education is clearly misguided.

    Steve Nelson, Head of the Calhoun School in Manhattan, in his article of the same name, claims not to be a Luddite in expressing these views. Although Luddite Online agrees with the assertions in his article, we also challenge Mr. Nelson to reconsider his status as a Luddite, in light of our more inclusive definition, as stated in our Luddite Anthem.

    Too Much Technology Is Bad for the Brain _ Steve Nelson

  • Babette’s Feast

    Babette’s Feast

    1987 was not so long ago, but technological development has unleashed such rapid change that the Danish film, Babette’s Feast, seems to depict an era so far removed from the contemporary world as to be as likely as a fairy tale. Nonetheless, this film with its G rating for General Audiences, while devoid of graphic depictions of sex and violence, challenges viewers to question assumptions about the way they live. As a result, while certainly mild in terms of its content, this contemporary film may be more unsettling to viewers than many of the high-tech action films and torture porn issuing from Hollywood each month. Luddite Film of the Century, for sure:

  • High Life

    High Life

    Some of the best neo-Luddite films were made in the 1980’s, but maybe the best film about the neo-Luddite worldview was made about the 1980’s. High Life tells a tale of young men dissatisfied with the rise of the corporate prison system, the dehumanizing reduction of all life to random transactions with machines, and their quest for a meaningful and fulfilling existence in a society determined to deny anyone that right. Although deeply significant in its ability to criticize the bleakness and inhumanity of contemporary pop culture, regardless of how widely it is celebrated, this film remains accessible, enjoyable, and satisfying on many levels, especially to discriminating viewers who share the main characters’ distaste for the changes initiated in this tragic decade.

  • Fight Club

    Fight Club

    Fight Club may be the most important film of the second half of the twentieth century. Granted, Brad Pitt and Edward Norton give it blockbuster status, and Helena Bohnam Carter adds the credibility without which this film might otherwise have been relegated to obscurity or even an outright blacklisting. But Fight Club does a lot more than captivate and entertain. A generation of young people disillusioned with life in a mechanized and computerized society, deadened to all the possibility that life is supposed to offer, can find a voice in the schizophrenic personality of the nameless, therapy-addicted main character. Even feminists regretful of the irreparable damage they have unintentionally done to a generation of young men cite Fight Club as the expression of rage that unavoidably follows from denying to anyone their right assert their humanity. Luddite themes echo throughout every scene of the film–from the dissatisfaction of insurance company employees resigned to life on a predetermined course in which the only guarantee is that survival will increasingly approach zero to an ultimate showdown with a global financial corporatocracy. All anyone wants is for the time in between to mean something.

  • Office Space

    Office Space

    The ugliness and inescapability of life in our contemporary age of mediocrity, ennui, dissatisfaction, annoyance, and overcrowding is expressed with comic brilliance in Office Space. While films like Fight Club sustain the raw human emotion that our modern world seems to be making an uninterrupted effort to suppress, Office Space explores the equally realistic consequences of what waking up from this forced somnambulance might look like. An average office worker employed in an average office park by an average IT-company to generate endless tech reports full of data someone is paid a lot of money to pretend to care about sees a hypnotist at the urging of his girlfriend who is tired of his reticence. Unfortunately, the hypnotist has a heart attack before the office worker is brought back to the real world, so his consequent release from subconscious inhibitions sparks a chain of events simultaneously agonizing but also long overdue. The poetry of Fight Club is transformed to the constipated mundaneness of suburban life, with a no-less-effective cathartic expression of Luddite rage.

  • American Beauty

    American Beauty

    Pain. That seems to be the underlying theme of all pop culture artifacts. Songs, books, films, pastimes–they all seem to involve pain…. The pain of loss, of want, of need, of frustration, of deprivation, of injustice, of betrayal–all these forms of pain seem to be at the base of contemporary pop culture. But does this mean that people want to feel pain? That pain is the goal? Or is the pain ever-present in pop culture, like pain in medical terminology, really just a symptom? Probably we only cry out in pain because we crave the joy the pain tells we aren’t feeling. In 1970, the Grateful Dead released the Album American Beauty. Full of bluegrass-themed acoustic songs celebrating the joys of the natural world, it is an artifact from a world not so far in the past, but vastly different from the one we inhabit today. The 1999 film American Beauty makes great strides in addressing the sense of loss and despair as it takes a look at the emptiness and abyss that has opened up between people in the generations between. Even in the darkest of times and places, people never seem to stop looking for what’s worth salvaging, even when the cost appears too steep:

  • His Clouds Are Made from Cornstarch

    His Clouds Are Made from Cornstarch

    In collaboration with Groowinky.com, Luddite Online will begin providing access to original films and reflections about the growing atmosphere of depersonalized, nihilistic, tech-heavy absurdity as the corporate takeover of planet Earth continues apace, unchecked, unregulated, and with apparently no end in sight. We hope that by including original, contemporary contributions, we can avoid trapping ourselves in a self-deluding bubble of neo-Luddism.

    Among other things, Groowinky produces, films, and releases short, independent movies featuring independent actors and independent script writers. We believe these films are a better representation of the value of the media of film than what is typically produced in the major Hollywood studios.

    We are excited that Luddite Online has attracted the support of independent filmmakers, and we believe that such ventures will lend a voice to others who feel drowned out in the increasingly technological world order. We also hope that the filmmaking efforts at Groowinky and elsewhere will lead to a renewal of classic filmmaking more concerned with quality acting and writing that addresses themes that are concerned more with film viewers and art lovers, and less with generating box office receipts or catering to the dictates of the film rating associations.

    BELOW IS A SORT FILM ENTITLED, “HIS CLOUDS ARE MADE FROM CORNSTARCH.” 

    HEAL ME WITH CORNSTARCH!

  • The Hands of a Pusher

    The Hands of a Pusher

    In collaboration with Groowinky.com, Luddite Online will begin providing access to original films and reflections about the growing atmosphere of depersonalized, nihilistic, tech-heavy absurdity as the corporate takeover of planet Earth continues apace, unchecked, unregulated, and with apparently no end in sight. We hope that by including original, contemporary contributions, we can avoid trapping ourselves in a self-deluding bubble of neo-Luddism.

    Among other things, Groowinky produces, films, and releases short, independent movies featuring independent actors and independent script writers. We believe these films are a better representation of the value of the media of film than what is typically produced in the major Hollywood studios.

    We are excited that Luddite Online has attracted the support of independent filmmakers, and we believe that such ventures will lend a voice to others who feel drowned out in the increasingly technological world order. We also hope that the filmmaking efforts at Groowinky and elsewhere will lead to a renewal of classic filmmaking more concerned with quality acting and writing that addresses themes that are concerned more with film viewers and art lovers, and less with generating box office receipts or catering to the dictates of the film rating associations.

    BELOW IS A SHORT FILM FROM GROOWINKY ENTITLED, “THE HANDS OF A PUSHER.”
    ONE VIEWER SAID OF THIS FILM, “IN PAGAN CHRISTIAN MYTHOLOGY, THE GOAT REPRESENTS THE DEVIL, AND ALSO A WORK ETHIC. HENCE, TO WORK LIKE THE DEVIL. IN MANY MYTHOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDINGS OF THE SPIRITS OF MEN AND WOMEN—THE ANIMUS AND THE ANIMA—WOMEN CHOOSE EVIL BECAUSE IT’S EASIER.  SOMETIMES WHEN THE WORLD HAS ITS WAY, THE EVIL SEEMS LESS TERRIFYING AND MORE OF A COMFORT. I SUPPOSE IT’S NOT GOING ANYWHERE. “
    THE FILMMAKER REPLIED, “YES, THE GOAT IS A SYMBOL OF EVIL IN CHRISTIAN TEACHINGS.  BUT “PAN” THE GOAT IS ALSO A PRE-CHRISTIAN SYMBOL WHICH REPRESENTS A SORT OF OPEN, ANIMALISTIC SEXUALITY REMOVED FROM SOCIAL CONSTRAINTS.  THAT’S MORE OF WHAT I WAS GOING FOR WITH THAT FILM.  IT’S REALLY ABOUT THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF MODERN RELATIONSHIPS… BECAUSE THERE’S SO MUCH JUNK INSIDE OF US THAT OUR EFFORTS TO EXPRESS OUR LOVE OFTEN COME OUT MORE AGGRESSIVELY, OR JUST DISTORTED, THAN WE HAD PLANNED (IN THIS CASE, THE “PUSHING”).  THAT WAS FILMED IN THE NORTHWEST, AND ALSO IN RIVERSIDE CA, AND WAS TRULY A BEAUTIFUL AND INSPIRING EXPERIENCE.  I ESPECIALLY LOVE ALL THE IMAGERY OF THAT ONE, AND THE EROTIC UNDERTONE AND SUPERIMPOSED IMAGES.
  • Sideshow Chicken

    Sideshow Chicken

    In collaboration with Groowinky.com, Luddite Online will begin providing access to original films and reflections about the growing atmosphere of depersonalized, nihilistic, tech-heavy absurdity as the corporate takeover of planet Earth continues apace, unchecked, unregulated, and with apparently no end in sight. We hope that by including original, contemporary contributions, we can avoid trapping ourselves in a self-deluding bubble of neo-Luddism.

    Among other things, Groowinky produces, films, and releases short, independent movies featuring independent actors and independent script writers. We believe these films are a better representation of the value of the media of film than what is typically produced in the major Hollywood studios.

    We are excited that Luddite Online has attracted the support of independent filmmakers, and we believe that such ventures will lend a voice to others who feel drowned out in the increasingly technological world order. We also hope that the filmmaking efforts at Groowinky and elsewhere will lead to a renewal of classic filmmaking more concerned with quality acting and writing that addresses themes that are concerned more with film viewers and art lovers, and less with generating box office receipts or catering to the dictates of the film rating associations.

    BELOW IS A SHORT FILM FROM GROOWINKY ENTITLED, “SIDESHOW CHICKEN.”
    ONE VIEWER SAID, ” I LOVE ‘SIDESHOW CHICKEN.’ I FEEL LIKE WATCHING THAT MOVIE, ALL THE PEOPLE WHO GET BAD PRESS AS UNDERREPRESENTED, IGNORANT, HOPELESS CRIMINALS LOST FOREVER IN THE GHETTOS AND BROKEN NEIGHBORHOODS THROUGHOUT AMERICA HAVE QUIETLY OVERCOME ALL OF THE DONALD TRUMPS AND GEORGE W. BUSHES OF THE WORLD.” 
    THE FILMMAKER REPLIED, “THAT ONE WAS PAINFUL TO FILM BUT I DID MANAGE TO GET ACTUAL SLAUGHTERHOUSE FOOTAGE, WHICH ADDED A SORT OF SHOCKING REALISM TO IT.  I EDITED IT A THOUSAND TIMES TO GET IT JUST RIGHT, AND I THINK THIS IS THE VERSION THAT REALLY ALLOWS THE STORY TO MOVE.”
  • Appalachian Music

    Appalachian Music

    The Smithsonian Institute has released the Classic Appalachian Blues, which was recognized as the best album in its genre in 2010. The Smithsonian site has uploaded some free samples and has a purchase link.

    Of course, Appalachian music is still being written and recorded today, and the 2014 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the historical home of Appalachian Music, hosted plenty of contemporary performances, like this one:

  • Chuck Berry

    Chuck Berry

    Chuck Berry (1926-) is one of the most influential figures in all of rock-and-roll. An unofficial Internet history of rock’n’roll reminds us that although rock-and-roll is mostly associated with parties and good times, its roots include the tragedy of human slavery. Elvis Presley may always be known as the King of rock’n’roll, But it is Chuck Berry, often referred to as the Father of Rock’n’Roll who best represents this uniquely American musical tradition.

    Chuck Berry’s musical catalog is impressive. One Dozen Berrys, his second album, is a good place to sample his early work.

    Classic Chuck Berry performances show his signature live stage presence:

    (References: Chuck Berry biography. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/chuck-berry-9210488#synopsis; Eder, B. (n.d.). One Dozen Berrys – Chuck Berry | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards | AllMusic. Retrieved April 18, 2015, from http://www.allmusic.com/album/one-dozen-berrys-mw0000602929; Townsend, D. (2011, January 1). Changing the World, Chapter 1: Origins. Retrieved April 18, 2015, from http://www.dntownsend.com/Site/Rock/1orig.htm)

  • Robert Johnson

    Robert Johnson

    There may be no better representative of The Blues musical tradition that Robert Johnson (1911-1938). Born poor in Mississippi, his posthumous fame has had an unlikely influence on musicians as far-reaching ad The Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton. So much of contemporary culture can be traced back to musical styles and compositions made famous by Robert Johnson.

  • Miles Davis Quintet Live

    Miles Davis Quintet Live

    Miles Davis (1926-1991) is one of the most influential, accomplished, and well-respected men in the field of professional music composition and performance. Born in Illinois, he was a graduate of Julliard Music School and is credited with influencing the original development of jazz.

    Contemporary music is too often composed, recorded, and performed with so much technological support that talent, musicianship, skill, discipline, and artistry are no longer present in the final product. The final musical product in today’s musical industry is art only in the most literal of senses: it is “artificial,” in its inception, its creation, its delivery, and its promotion as a piece of merchandise engineered to boost sales to willing crowds who only want to be seen as complicit in the indoctrinated behavior of buying objects that are most loudly advertised as the most popular so their “friends” will still talk to them. Sadly, the value of the art of music is rarely found in the music anymore, but rather in the ability to insult those whom you’ve beaten to the iTunes store to download the latest 5 minutes of temporarily hip computer sounds.

    In 1964 in Milan, Italy, the Miles Davis Quintet display true talent and skill and dedication to the enrichment of the world via artistic achievement. Jazz blends classical music traditions with themes from the contemporary world. The resulting music imitates the rhythm of the modern world in no less authentic form than did the classical music of its time did for a more pastoral setting. This live performance is proof that while so many people claim that technology has made the world an infinitely better place, the relatively low-tech surroundings of 1964 were home to people who achieved a level of artistry, civilization, and humanity that today’s world completely and absolutely lacks–and even, tragically and incomprehensibly–looks down upon as inferior and unworthy.

  • Baroque Music

    Baroque Music

    The following video, from Patreon.com combines the elements of Baroque and Chamber music. A valuable and enjoyable celebration of past musical traditions, this performance proves that works of art from history are still relevant and necessary. Our lives lack the depth, warmth and humanity that make them worth living when we turn or backs on the past:

    (Ref: Support Emily creating Classical Music & Teaching Videos. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2015, from https://www.patreon.com/user.php?v=emilyplayscello.) Baroque Music is music composed during the Baroque period–from 1600 to 1750. “Baroque” comes from the Portuguese barocco, which means, “misshapen pearl,” and was originally meant as a somewhat negative description of this period’s music. Many people found the music of this period to be ornate and heavily ornamented. Thus, architecture from this period, also often criticized as being too ornate, is sometimes referred to as Baroque, as well.
    (Ref: Baroque music. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque_music.)

    Baroque composers include

    • Johann Sebastian Bach
    • George Frideric Handel
    • Alessandro Scarlatti
    • Domenico Scarlatti
    • Antonio Vivaldi
    • Henry Purcell
    • Georg Philipp Telemann
    • Jean-Baptiste Lully
    • Arcangelo Corelli
    • Tomaso Albinoni
    • François Couperin
    • Denis Gaultier
    • Claudio Monteverdi
    • Heinrich Schütz
    • Jean-Philippe Rameau
    • Jan Dismas Zelenka
    • Johann Pachelbel

    Chamber Music is classical music, including Baroque Music, that is composed for a small number of musicians to perform live. Originally, many classical musicians were employed by aristocrats or hired by wealthy individuals to play music for their pleasure or for special occasions. A good analogy is to consider acoustic folk bands or electric “garage bands” who dominated the 20th century American rock-and-roll music profession. During the Baroque and Classical eras, Chamber Music, one could argue, served many of the same functions. As with rock-and-roll, changes in society and advances in music and sound technology altered the prominence and role of small, live venues.
    (Ref: Chamber music. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamber_music.)

  • The Four Seasons, Antonio Vivaldi

    The Four Seasons, Antonio Vivaldi

    The Four Seasons may be the most famous Baroque composition. Composed by Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), this piece is composed of four main parts–one each for Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. Bold for it’s time, Vivaldi’s “musical description” attempted to violate many of the established practices composers of his time were expected to follow. Rather than limit himself to a musical program that delivered familiar variations on accepted themes, The Four Seasons attempts to express human feelings and actions using only music. Sinfini Music presents a discussion among music theorists about whether he was successful. Regardless, this composition is timeless and continues to bring joy to our lives.

    (References: Antonio Vivaldi biography: Educator, priest, composer. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2015, from http://www.biography.com/people/antonio-vivaldi-9519560; Antonio Vivaldi – The Four Seasons – Clarinet & Chamber Orchestra. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2015, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3miOg_yKw50; Vivaldi: The secret behind the Four Seasons | Sinfini Music – Cutting Through Classical. (n.d.). Retrieved April 18, 2015, from http://www.sinfinimusic.com/uk/features/other-features/the-four-seasons.)

  • Journey to the End of the Night – Céline

    Journey to the End of the Night – Céline

    Written by Louis-Ferdinand Céline and first published in 1932, this novel is regarded by many as the best expression of 20th Century consciousness and culture. For the author, this was both a blessing and a curse. Journey to the End of the Night is a dark and pessimistic work and offers a very critical and misanthropic view of the world. Tragically, the subjects of his criticisms were only encouraged by his outrage.

    Céline suffered the psychological scars shared by so many Europeans who lived through the First World War and everything after. As a result, the birth of existentialism enabled him and so many others, whether they knew it or not, to still find value in a world that had been literally and figuratively destroyed. Sadly, the world left behind after the war was lacking in the innocence and beauty and strength and power of his pre-war memories. Degraded and wounded, it became a receptive place for his darkly comic reflections and criticisms, and has remained still human perhaps only because of them. When all human striving is reduced only to worries of ass and bank account and once-revered professions like medicine (Céline was a doctor) are shot through with celebrated incompetence, fraud, and outright mockery, the enraged humanity of wounded men and women who may never again know the comfort and familiarity of the world they have always inhabited finds a voice in Céline.

    Ironically, rather than having rendered the eternal and universal truths of this novel obsolete, as so many would apparently prefer, the dawn of the technology revolution has instead made them more urgent and more relevant than ever.

    (Céline, Louis-Ferdinand (1983). Journey to the End of the Night. Manheim, Ralph (trans.). New York: New Directions. ISBN 978-0-8112-0847-5.)

  • Moby Dick – Melville

    Moby Dick – Melville

    Written in 1851 by Herman Melville, Moby Dick is regarded by many as the great American novel. Movies provide a great chance to escape the trap of modernity and see the word in a way our daily lives don’t allow. Many of the most popular and successful movies depict the world in previous eras of history, when life was more visceral, immediate, and the truth of things–at least from our perspective–was larger, better, and less debatable. Gladiator, Master and Commander, and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly are good examples. Herman Melville was not only a writer. His novels relate his knowledge of the world from his experience as a merchant seaman. Moby Dick allows us to see the world we now inhabit as it one was. This epic tale of a sea voyage on a wooden whaling ship is not just fantasy, thus its value as literature and living history is incalculable. To fail to read this book from cover to cover is not only to miss a first-hand account of what life in America and the rest of the world was like until fairly recently, but also to fail to truly understand the world we inhabit today. To fail at either of these tasks is to rob yourself of all the promise of this, the only life you will ever know, has to offer, as well.

    Melville, Herman (1988). Moby-Dick, or, the Whale. The Writings of Herman Melville Volume Six. Edited by Harrison Hayford, Hershel Parker, and G. Thomas Tanselle. Evanston; Chicago: Northwestern University Press: Newberry Library.

  • The Holy Bible

    The Holy Bible

    Demographically, some have cited atheism as the fastest growing ideology in contemporary America. This may settle the question for many people why there is such a rampant growth of consumerism and higher crime and imprisonment rates than at any time in history, not to mention the difficult-to-reconcile changes in American politics, both domestically and abroad. At the very least, this development is evident in the widespread reluctance of so many people to acknowledge the significance of The Holy Bible as one of the most important and influential written works in human history.

    Historically, atheism is not a typically American cultural practice. Many of the first European settlers in America arrived hoping to escape religious persecution in Europe. The state of Pennsylvania, founded by William Penn, was consciously established with the intent of providing sanctuary and a haven for the free practice of religions that had not enjoyed such protection elsewhere. Pennsylvania Deutsch—popularly known as Pennsylvania Dutch—is the German dialect of the members of the Amish community who still maintain many of their traditional practices to this day.

    Independent publications have a long history as catalysts for change. The American statesman Thomas Paine famously sought escape from execution in Europe as a result of his treatise, The Age of Reason2, originally published in 1795. This pamphlet, along with his entire body of writing, was instrumental in inspiring the American War for Independence. Thomas Paine and his fellow statesmen successfully established the foundation of traditional American philosophical, religious, and political thought that was based in deism, rational discourse, humanism, liberalism, and the political philosophy of John Locke, in which one can find the origin of the American understanding of civil liberties: we are only so free as we allow those around us—including those with whom we do not necessarily agree—also to be free. Thus, freedom is not absolute—it is limited to those actions which do not permanently prevent others from exercising the same rights and privileges you believe you deserve for yourself.

    Early Americans believed these rights were an inherent and defining quality of humanity; that we are endowed with them by our Creator; and that they are inalienable—they cannot be taken from us by legislation. Much of the conflict in Europe that the early European settlers were trying to escape resulted from disputes about this belief, and America settled the question by proclaiming that “we hold these truths to be self-evident,” i.e., there is no point in debates that try to prove or disprove such claims—we all know they are true, so let’s agree and move forward.

    Regardless, arriving at that moment in history was not without conflict. For Thomas Paine, the difficulty of feeling compelled to utter his views about religion and corruption angered many people who felt his “crime” should have resulted in execution:

    “Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon, than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness, that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and, for my own part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel…”2

    The civilized world of 1795 was not the civilized world of 2017, but to misinterpret his criticism as a rejection of religion or as an endorsement of atheism would be a serious mistake. His critique of The Holy Bible is punctuated by a more sublime understanding—it is not the stories of wickedness themselves that the religion represents, but the triumph over them that The Bible really speaks to, and for Thomas Paine in the vast wilderness of 18th century America, the Old World may have caught an inspiring glimpse of how the world should look, without all the wickedness and betrayal that created the need for religion in the first place:

    “BUT some perhaps will say — Are we to have no word of God — no revelation? I answer yes. There is a Word of God; there is a revelation.

    “THE WORD OF GOD IS THE CREATION WE BEHOLD: And it is in this word, which no human invention can counterfeit or alter, that God speaketh universally to man.”2

    So much for hermeneutics. The modern world has again vastly evolved, for better or for worse, from the world of Thomas Paine. Still, the spread of atheism as a violent and repressive reaction against religion ironically proves that The Holy Bible is no less a vital and influential artifact of human history now as ever.

    Although many people turn their nose up when anyone mentions religious teachings and writings, no one can really claim to be educated until they have read at least one of the major works of the world’s recognized and established religions. Don’t let someone else make up your mind for you. If for no other reason, and especially if you are an atheist, reading The Holy Bible will provide you with a more solid foundation for the study of world history, culture, and politics than will any 21st century textbook, no matter how fully annotated and detailed. How can you reject something of which you are fundamentally ignorant?

    There is no end to the debate about which version provides the most accurate translation. Many people object to the King James version1 for political reasons, but it is a widely accepted and well-known translation. Written in 1611, it will bring you closer to the genuine article than the proliferation of contemporary study Bibles, which are even more corrupted by contemporary political agendas.

    Regardless, reading this revered text from beginning to end may enrich your life in ways you cannot likely anticipate.

    1. The Holy Bible, King James version, 1611 edition. (2014). Rochester, NY: Starry Night Publishing.com.
    2. Paine, T., & Conway, M. D. (2010). The Age of Reason. United States: Merchant Books.
  • Pessimism

    Pessimism

    Pessimism is unnatural. I was recently discussing business opportunities with a local colleague who also owns and operates a small business. Unfortunately, we were unable to come to any agreement or establish any kind of productive relationship. I have grown accustomed to this disappointment, but I still know deep down that continual disappointment is not normal, and that toxic and negative professional environments are the exception, and not the rule. Despite the bad news, I was gratified that my short conversation with this colleague was not entirely unproductive. He confirmed what I have been suspecting for the longest time. He indicated to me not only his belief that operating outside the law was a preferable way to run business; but also that the current dysfunctional environment is the result of a deliberate effort on the part of a few wealthy individuals to corrupt and pervert the educational system into a tool for organized crime by indoctrinating generations of young people into a cult of pessimism; and that he was proud to be part of that effort.

    And now, for a word about the growing culture of pessimism, for which some people proudly claim responsibility for having deliberately engineered, please follow this link:

    Pessimist Perspective

  • Revisionist History and Cultural Cleansing

    Revisionist History and Cultural Cleansing

    Finger-pointing and “The Blame Game” are the status quo, to some degree: determining guilt is often no easy task and is the reason every nation has its established method of determining how to apply legal remedies to crime. Revisionist historians distort facts, play with perspectives, and use images, statistics, and the tools of technology and science to play fast-and-loose with the truth, usually for financial gain or to impose a personal agenda or worldview  on others. The latest incarnation of this crime goes by the euphemism, “cultural cleansing.” Luddite Online holds a view that history should be neither forgotten nor romanticized, but recorded and used as a compass to guide us forward in the ways we know are best. It is curious we would have so many tools at our disposal in the contemporary world to accomplish this goal with less effort than ever, yet there seems to be a simultaneous tendency toward duplicity and an undying passion among those responsible to seek the opposite aim.

    To triangulate, World War II saw the massacre of tens of thousands of Polish citizens at the hands of Soviet soldiers. At the time, the blame fell to the Nazi regime, and the Soviets were only to happy to let them have it, but as time wore on, the Soviet government contributed to the cover-up that soon became the accepted reality. This deliberate distortion has since been brought out into the open, but the damage is done. Similarly, anti-American forces like Al Quaeda and the Taliban are quick to strike out at American imperialism as we recall from the devastating attacks on September 11, 2001, yet the Taliban’s record of cultural cleansing has grown even more worrisome recently. And while America may be deserving of the support it has received in the light of these events, their not-completely-unfounded claim of the moral high ground competes with a claim to the height of hypocrisy in light of their contemporary penchant for revisionist history at the expense of their own heritage. It is no small wonder that “neo-Luddites” view the world with an almost impossible mix of hope and despair.

  • Deus Ex Machina: Literally!

    Deus Ex Machina: Literally!

    Deus ex machina is a Latin phrase meaning “God from the machine,” and has until recently been used almost exclusively to discuss literature. When a complicated plot in a novel or short story runs up against a seemingly unsolvable problem, the deus ex machina plot device is sometimes employed. The film Training Day used this device in the scene where the new police recruit, stranded in the ‘hood and about to be eliminated by some homies, is saved by the unlikely discovery of one of the thugs’ niece’s wallet in his jacket. Initially, this discovery inflames the gang member, but ultimately allows the narc to tell his side of the story, which, once confirmed by a quick cell phone call between ex-felon and young niece, allows the handsome young police-officer in-training to go about his day.

    Unfortunately, the hordes of devoutly literal-minded fanatical idiots have destroyed another thread in the fabric of human civilization. While illiteracy, corruption, hunger, incompetence, fear, violence, and failure spread like wildfire around the globe, and the world governments ransack the public funds to arm themselves to the teeth and make fools of themselves on the Internet and the public airwaves, the public has to suffer the IT industry’s decision to use its money, talent, and influence to reverse the deus ex machina effect. Instead of rushing in to save the day by funding schools, hospitals, and the effort to eliminate lobbyists from government and put an end to the for-profit prison business, they have released Deus Ex Machina the video game. Now you can pretend the world’s problems are unimportant and immerse yourself in a fully functioning psychotic pseudo-reality so you will never have to wake up and feel the humiliating slap in the face the Big Money decided to deal you this week….Have fun! (Not literally!)

  • Counter-intelligence, Hackers, etc.

    Counter-intelligence, Hackers, etc.

    The White House says Russia is behind a cyber-attack that breached the White House computer system. Edward Snowden is in Russia because he says the White House spies on everyone and knows everything. Everyone wants to live in America, but everyone agrees to hate America to ensure they will have a long friends list on Facebook. Except for Russia, who claims that everyone blames Russia for everything, which no one really does. And even if the White House collects information on everyone, they don’t know who broke through the White House computer security, except that they were Russian and worked for the government. Or they were a criminal. Or maybe it was someone else. No one is really sure. But it’s a big deal, because Bloomberg News has now confirmed rumors of Russian hacking of the American elections that the Republican party spent billions of dollars denying, with Michael Bloomberg himself registering as a Democratic candidate for President. Nothing has resulted from the simultaneous increase and apparent collapse of White House security.

    Intelligence, diplomacy, counter-intelligence, politics, and statesmanship were once the solemn, revered, and respected profession of the elite. But Facebook, Twitter, and easy access to hacking apps galore have turned national security and government into a fun-filled and exciting parlor game the whole family can enjoy! Now any illiterate moron with a Twitter account can engage in a fun-filled and exciting round of global conquest.  War is hell only when it is the last resort of the most high, but now it’s the first resort of the stupid and greedy, and nothing more than the spectacle of the directionless having fun as they learn the ropes and climb the social ladder….High score! Woooo-Hoooo! The future awaits, trembling with fear…..

  • Really….That’s not funny anymore…

    Really….That’s not funny anymore…

    What is so sad about the abuse of technology is not only how people have been dehumanized and reduced to button-pushing, pill-swallowing, automatons indoctrinated into a somnambulant state of compliant consumerism; nor the tragic consequences of people who still heroically try to impose their spirit and joie de vivre on a society that has developed a cannibalistic taste for abusing their fellows when they do rise to the occasion; but the obscene arrogance of those in a position to maintain standards and reign in the monsters who have insulted and humiliated all of us, yet who have too many among us eating out of their hands like little lapdogs.

    Edward Snowden’s decision to expose the American government’s abuse of surveillance technology was in the news recently. Of course, for most people the events of September 11, 2001 are a distant memory, or, like the Nazi Holocaust or the moon landing, are regarded as a fabrication so they can go back to sucking down energy drinks and playing Grand Theft Auto as they voluntarily devolve into a subspecies. Regardless, the effects of using technology as a tool of disseminating dangerous propaganda that, unlike old-fashioned print propaganda, also does lasting physical and psychological damage to its victims, have resulted in Mr. Snowden’s dethroning from a hero of a world tired of being violated to an object of abuse for the amusement of idiots. Must we reduce even the most lofty of humanity’s strivings to retarded adolescent toilet humor? The participants in the creation of this interview between Edward Snowden and John Oliver have taken the art of satire to a place where it seems to harm those whom it usually seeks to defend.

  • Devo!

    Devo!

    Although there is a debate, it is fairly one-sided. There is no debate that the unasked for, unregulated, unsupervised, uncontrolled, and incomprehensibly rapid pace of technological change being forced on the world has caused irreparable and undeniably harmful changes. There is also no debate that to a large extent, the more we advance technologically, the further we devolve socially, intellectually, psychologically, and in human terms. The only real debate that remains is how extensive and brutal and disturbing will be the changes to humanity as we are forced down a road not of our choosing.

    To this argument, there appear to be two schools of thought: One predicts the outcome, already tragic, embarrassing, and obscene, will continue to get worse; the other is largely the argument continually broadcast by the Information Technology industry’s apologists who promise with warm, narcotic reassurance a nightmarish Huxleyesque future of inescapable and eternally orgasmic but empty and unearned pleasure.

    The Pew Research Center has published expert research that provides insights into this debate. Your fears are not imaginary. In fact, it’s probably worse than you think. Regardless, drinking the Kool-Aid is not a pre-ordained act to which we are all required to submit. If you are less than pleased with this turn of events, take a little time to remind yourself that you are an American and have the guaranteed right of individual liberty and the freedom to decline participation in collectivized society.

    (Reference: Jorund. (n.d.). “Concerns about Human Agency, Evolution, and Survival.” Retrieved December 13, 2020, from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/12/10/concerns-about-human-agency-evolution-and-survival).

s2Member®