Almost 250 years ago, in 1765, James Watt demonstrated his first working steam engine. From this modest seed grew and flourished the great industrial revolution, the most significant advancement in human evolution since the invention of agriculture. The industrial revolution changed forever the world that existed up until the late 1700's. No longer could only the aristocracy afford fine clothing; the loom and then the sewing machine brought decent clothing within the reach of the common man. No longer could only the rich slave holders make money from their property; any man could buy a Case steam tractor that did the work of twenty slaves and grow far more than he needed for his own sustenance, selling the excess for a profit. No longer was traveling the sole province of the elite; the canal, and then the railroad, and finally the automobile brought easy and cheap transportation to the poorest man. The industrial revolution turned the world upside-down. It destroyed feudalism, it destroyed slavery, and it destroyed aristocracy.
Unfortunately, it has not yet destroyed the aristocrats. 250 years after their demise, the gentry are still very much with us, trying desperately to restore the world to its pre-1765 state, where they, as retainers of the nobility, enjoyed prestige, prosperity, and pleasure all at the expense of the insignificant peasants. Even the United States, which benefited most handsomely from the industrial revolution, still harbors remnants of feudalistic atavists.
Perhaps the most obvious among these is the socialists, also known as communists, progressives, and liberals. Socialism is an attempt to control the industrial revolution by harnessing industry to the "state," e.g. the elite aristocrats. Rational people who decry the fact that such stupidity has been shown again and again to destroy the creation of wealth and the prevalence of individual freedom miss the point. The socialists are not stupid. They know precisely what they are doing. The destruction of individual wealth and individual freedom is their primary goal. How else could they reign once again as feudal lords?
Another area of industrial reactionism is academia. It's no accident that people like Ward Churchill, Frances Fox Piven, Ralph Keeling, and Noam Chomsky abound in the halls of ivy. The medieval schoolmen enjoyed a special and privileged place in the feudal hierarchy, and they are still appalled at the audacity of engineers and entrepreneurs who charge about rashly changing the world without their counsel or consent. Their only recourse is to try to convince our children that technology, progress, and individual freedom are evil and must be destroyed.
Finally, there are the so-called environmentalists, the "tree huggers" who spend their time inventing such preposterous charades as acid rain, ozone depletion, over-population, oxygen reduction, resource depletion, and global warming. Their objective is to destroy, or at least impede, industrialization by nit-picking it to death. "You can't build a damn here because that would endanger the snail darters." "You can't drill for oil here because that would upset the caribou."
Unfortunately, the government of the United States has allowed itself to become aligned with these anti-industrial feudalists over the years. Fortunately for us, however, the industrial revolution has a life of its own. Once the common man has tasted wealth and freedom, it will not be easily taken again from him.
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