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You might call that the old "dog in the manger syndrome".<br>
<br>
Those who cannot or wish not to avail themselves try to feel better
about their condition by<br>
pulling any bystanders into their "party in the cesspool".<br>
<br>
There may also be the inverse; those who have succeeded to crawl out
of the cesspool<br>
may feel that those remaining are unworthy of anything better than the
slop they are wallowing in<br>
so may try to squeeze all they can out of the unfortunate ones all the
while blocking the path out<br>
for the same , so that their personal self worth , ego and power might
be increased.<br>
<br>
Humans can be a real embarrassment at times.<br>
Or maybe it is all part of the process of natural selection.<br>
<br>
<br>
Adrian Tymes wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid20050514201610.36465.qmail@web81601.mail.yahoo.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">--- Rik van Riel <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:riel@surriel.com"><riel@surriel.com></a> wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">On Sat, 14 May 2005, The Avantguardian wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">What if the rich are just biding their time knowing that the
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">technology
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">is nigh upon us and try to illegalize it SPECIFICALLY so they can
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">get
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">access to it while the proletariat can't? Like Cuban cigars.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">I'd say that is very unlikely. After all, the rich like
keeping money (otherwise they wouldn't be rich), so they
have no interest in these new technologies not becoming
commodities that are safe and easily available to them.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
Unless they want the techs to become *only* available to them. Which
is a common misunderstanding of technological development possessed
by many elites, who think it is possible to restrict certain techs
only to the rich and powerful forever. Just look at how well the
security restrictions on nuclear weapons have worked...er, well, maybe
the restrictions on biotech...no, maybe the restrictions on
cryptography?
Still, while there may be some element of this, it's not the main
driving force behind neoluddism. Many people honestly don't grok the
core concetps of science, and really don't understand* any other way to
greet significant changes than fear and panic.
* I'd say "know", except that they may have heard of such things as
investigation and research to dig up the truth. But to them, these are
remote abstractions that other people do, not an activity they
themselves should undertake. (Many even think they *can* not read up
on things, after practicing for so long the mindset of letting their
eyes glaze over and their minds tune out at the slightest hint of
complexity. Reacting to complexity with mental strategies to break it
down into understandable parts is a learned art - one that some may
have more of a genetic predisposition towards than others, but
ultimately learned nonetheless.)
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</pre>
</blockquote>
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