It was truly refreshing to read Margaret Walton’s excellent letter (Free Times, March 29) regarding the terrible onslaught of technology, in particular the computer, upon natural life.
Electrical technology, or electricity, can by no stretch of the imagination be considered a natural phenomenon. In antediluvian terms, it is entirely unprecedented and without it, also the unprecedented bloodbaths of the 20th century would have been impossible.
At its worst, it is the Satanic false life of the image of the beast (Revelation 13), as life operates through tiny sparks of electricity, which otherwise naturally occur only in Heaven, as lightning. Satan fell from Heaven as lightning (Saint Luke 10), and the serpentine quality of electrical cords and cables is immediately apparent.
According to some, the word “computer” has a numerical value of 666. Technology is the shoddy imitation of real life. It is a distraction from reality, and is always inferior to the living minds of its inventor or programmer. It is emphatically not an improvement of life, but rather a cheap copy of it; an attempted replacement.
At best, electrical technology is a luxury which is forced on people as a necessity, and as such is an instrument of tyranny. It has become impossible to buy or sell without being involved with it (Revelation 13), for the most pernicious characteristic of electricity is that it nurtures reliance and dependence upon it amongst its users, to the detriment of practical skills and knowledge.
The luddites of the 19th century were quite right: machines take away the natural work of men, and leave them purposeless.
Mental illness ravages our people precisely because of this. Life is harsh, and this is unavoidable. The natural cycle of farm work, religious study, and village life is the perfect treatment for mental health, and is indeed the only situation able to keep mankind perpetually sane. Since we abandoned this ancient universal lifestyle, we have suffered like never before. Perhaps it is time to raise the Luddite battle cry once more; “Rage against the machines!”
Steven Harrison
