July 19th 2026

The Second Luddite Congress met for three days, in April 1996, in Barnesville, Ohio. It was convened by the conservative Quaker Center for Plain Living, but the 250 “citizen delegates” represented many faiths, and none.

“To make technology responsible—answerable to our needs, careful of the approaching limits of the planet, responsive to conscience—such simple decisions must be replaced by complex ones, that include all the things—family, education, nature, faith, and the long-term future—that technolatry ignores. But in what social space will such decisions be made?

The neo-Luddite answer is that they can only be made in the limited, local community capable of thinking together about common concerns. This is not, of course, a new or surprising answer. But the congress was preoccupied with community, for it seems clear that community offers the conditions for an open, responsible, conscientious examination of social change.”

— Lionel Basney, 1998

English professor and neo-Luddite

[From the Daily Quaker Newsletter, June 26 2026]