What do you think of 'The Limitations of Progress' by Ezakiah Valentine?

Question

A famous quote: "Right now all that is burning is the desire for change. We need to put out that fire and light a much bigger one."

Answer 1

As for Valentine, he was essentially a Luddite, not that I hold necessarily negative attitudes toward those people who would protest the textile industry's launch of the Industrial Revolution which led to Global Warming.  But, the Industrial Revolution also allowed humanity to rise above agrarian serfdom and monarchy into democracy, and above superstition and ignorance into a significantly more rational age.  

The rise of humanity above the basal rhythms of nature and savagery has been directly correlational to our technological advances, from rock cutting tools all the way to modern medical imaging equipment and computers.  In every generation, there is always a certain percentage of people who say, "Ok, STOP the presses.  Technology the way it was when I was growing up is the RIGHT place to stop it's progress."  Morons.  Hence, the derogatory connotion of Luddite.

As for Valentine's quote here and the sentiment behind it that elitism and the ancient ruling families that control our civilizations and farm us in a form of animal husbandry, oh, where would you like for me to strike that match, for I agree completely.  BUT, such families have too much power now.  They have been hording extraordinary scientific and technological breakthroughs from the masses this past century and the truth is, the masses could no longer successfully revolt with violence and fire.  We'll need to be a bit more clever than a mob with a match to rout them these days.  But, it needs to be done or we will be locked into a frightening oligarchy of men like Cheney and Bush and their spawn forever with the unfair advantages they now have over us secondary to a century of deliberately dumbing the rest of us down while suppressing knowledge of science and technology that only they enjoy and have at their disposal .