[chrisknyfe]

The luddites didn't destroy the power looms because they were some kind of handcrafting purists - they destroyed the machines because they took away ownership of the means of production from individual craftsmen to big businesses. The problem wasn't the machine, it was the factory and its owner.

[xscott]

I'm guessing they were worried about their source of income, and not Marxist philosophy that came about 100 years later. However my history isn't so hot, and maybe Ned was a philosopher in addition to a weaver, and maybe Karl should've paid royalties to his estate for stealing those ideas. :-)