Victory of the Luddite.

OK guys up untill recently I have regarded the Luddites as something of a hopeless cause. They were apposing technological progress and while it is hard not to feel sympathy for them given that previously valued artisans were being transformed into factory labourers their cause was fairly doomed. But recently and partly from my time on this sight I have learned that in China they lived on the edge of an industrial revolution for a long time with all the ingredients necessary but never did it partially because several of the Emperors supressed progress (the Mongol invasion also helped). I realise the situation in Europe was very different not least because while China was largely free of competitors (or thought it was) every country in Europe was in a more or less constant struggle with every other thus making it rather unlikely that any country would reject the advantage the Industrial Revolution brought.

Nonetheless how do you think it could succeed. how could the Luddites or some other group succeed in stopping or delaying the industrial revolution in England and how might it effect the world at large?
 
No one. No one wishes to halt the march of progress. Prevent the dominion of steam. Halt the era of high Imperialism. Interupt the creation of multiple disease cures and delay the information age by prehaps centuries? No one at all?
 
The most important thing for this challenge is to understand what the Luddites really wanted, opposed to the historical myth that surrounds them. They never fought technological progress itself.

As the Industrial Revolution began, workers naturally worried about being displaced by increasingly efficient machines. But the Luddites themselves “were totally fine with machines,” says Kevin Binfield, editor of the 2004 collection Writings of the Luddites. They confined their attacks to manufacturers who used machines in what they called “a fraudulent and deceitful manner” to get around standard labor practices. “They just wanted machines that made high-quality goods,” says Binfield, “and they wanted these machines to be run by workers who had gone through an apprenticeship and got paid decent wages. Those were their only concerns.”
 
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