The Luddite Fallacy

13 June 07

The Luddite Fallacy:

In the early 1800s in England, Ned Ludd led a leftist movement intent on destroying new industrial technology, on the theory that technological advancement would lead to massive unemployment. His band of followers became known as Luddites, and the "Luddite Falacy," was, of course, that new technology, far from causing unemployment, actually creates new industries, new wealth, and new jobs.

However, the term "Luddite Fallacy" assumed another, more subtitle, definition during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries and continuing into the current Century. The British Army adopted a new explosive in the late 1800s. So much more powerful was this new compound than anything previously used as shell-filler, it was, laughingly, dubbed "Luddite." in honor of the nation's previous political history. The British quickly convinced themselves that Luddite would so revolutionize warfare that all previous ideas about tactics would have to be instantly revised.

Infantry was to become all but irrelevant! Heretofore, foot soldiers used fire and maneuver to identify, close with, and seize objectives through direct fire and close combat. No more! Now, such objectives would be casually vaporized as soon as they were located. Nothing could live through an attack of Luddite artillery! Infantry soldiers would be relegated to merely mopping up after enemy positions were reduced to so much detritus by this new, frightening weapon. From this point forward, infantry would engage in precious little, actual fighting. Most of them probably didn't even need to be armed, or, at least, so went the hypothesis!

The naive British got a chance to test this theory at Magersfontein, South Africa, in December of 1899 during the Second Angle-Boer War, and just a few years later at the Somme River in northern France in the fall of 1916. To their dismay, they discovered that believing in this new "Luddite Fallacy" had been a foolish blunder indeed! Warfare had not been "revolutionized" by this new weapon after all, as so many had hoped. And, after all this, infantry soldiers still had to locate, close with, and destroy the enemy, on a most personal level!

In my time, I remember Secretary of Defense MacNamara, President Johnson, and a host of others, who should have known better, seduced by a modern-day version of the "Luddite Fallacy." So persuaded were they that a tough and cunning enemy in Vietnam could be effortlessly defeated via a host of new, high-technology, mostly untested, gadgets, that the role of individual infantry and Marines could be degraded, once again, to mop-up status and little more. Soldiers and Marines no longer needed robust, long-range rifles, pistols, and machine guns in heavy calibers. They could now be issued light, short-range, impotent weapons, since they probably wouldn't have to opportunity to actually shoot anyone anyway!

How naive can you get? Like the British before us, we quickly and unhappily discovered that, to defeat VC and NVA, we indeed needed to "actually shoot" them, one at a time! All the high-tech stuff was helpful, but it did not" revolutionize" that war, just as it has failed to revolutionize any other! And, soldiers and Marines, now armed with underpowered, short-range weapons that were unable to penetrate much of anything found the job of closing with and defeating the enemy all that much more difficult.

That was forty years ago, and today, we see that the "Luddite Fallacy" is still alive and well! Last weekend, Vicki and I had the honor, once more, to train young, Marine instructors. They do their level best with the underpowered rifles and pistols they're issued, but the weapons' fateful limitations are painfully obvious.

Infantry needs to be restored to its rightful role as "Queen of Battle." The false thinking that technology has made foot soldiers obsolete is as naively delusional today as it was in 1899! And, issuance of impotent, individual weapons and calibers needs to be recognized as the foolish error we now know it to be.

Western Civilization is currently tottering at the brink of oblivion! If we ultimately fail and are brushed aside by less sophisticated but more aggressive civilizations, it will be because of the "Luddite Fallacy" that we were, and are, too proud, too timid, and too afraid to confront honestly!

/John