Originally posted by PJ1 Some of them (those who weren't hung) were given a free ticket to Australia, along with the Tolpuddle Martyrs. I think they all had an impact which still echoes here today.
I don't know about all the Australian Luddites, but it appears that
all six of the Tolpuddle Martyrs eventually returned to England and five of the six eventually settled in London, Ontario.
Part of me wants to pontificate about how the mythology of trade unionism is founded on such minor actors in the great stream of people of the past, but I am reminded of Marshall McLuhan's phrase "forward through the rearview mirror." We really do look forward by looking for patterns in the past and if we jumped in a DeLorean and went back in time, we wouldn't be able to find those patterns. What we see in the past is filtered by what we experience now and doesn't reflect what really happened.
Originally posted by normhead Man, I look back on those days with great fondness, electrified now, but still, I'll never part with it.
Nothing wrong with enjoying the glow of nostalgia, but living in it was a different matter. I was going to say my adult kids don't have a clue what my childhood was like, but then I don't think my wife understands it either. And it isn't like I was irreparably harmed by it, in fact I think I'm a deeper and stronger person for it, so I'm not complaining, just commenting.