tion of labor- but instead that Revolution has come full circle: we presently have come to a break-even point where the products of the Industrial Age are now its undoing; mass-production and the unprecedented ability of modern electronic communication. Mass production was intended partially to maximise the usefulness of expensive machines through continuous production, but also to discipline workers who had to attend to the rigors of working with a machine that never took breaks, never slowed down, and never stopped for a stray finger or hand. The reduction in the prices of many goods due to mass-production has enabled the average citizen to afford many amenities which would have been beyond his means a century ago- including capital goods, which more and more tend not to be heavy machinery, but relatively inexpensive electronic devices. The Information Age is just beginning, and the control of information is the control of power, power to direct the next step of technological development. Once, publishing required printing presses, copious amounts of paper, and the ability to distribute printed matter, and thus the wealthy controlled the written word. Now, anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can make a Web page accessable to millions of people around the world. Scientists use this ultra-efficient electronic journal to advance their research (Stix, 106), and now, the explosion of popularity in the net brings together people of all different beliefs and motivations into the discussion that shapes society. Political ideas once suppressed by newspaper chains and television networks now filter through the strands of the Internet. In this new society, anyone who is interesting enough can be a star (Browning). Luddites are not afraid to use new technology- somethings are better done by them (Martinez). Power looms had been around before Jacquard's innovation; for even a Luddite saw that it took much of the effort out of the w...
