While industrialism brought about some exciting changes, it definitely had its opponents. Industrialism, while laying the groundwork for future innovations, also came with disturbing conditions. Since jobs in the rural areas were becoming obsolete, people were flooding major cities. This obviously brought about high poverty rates, as most of the immigrants had no money, and thus, no place to stay. To make matters worse, the jobs they were taking paid next to nothing, even though the people worked long hours. And if you thought it couldn't get worse, children were employed in jobs where the conditions were the worst! From the "Parliamentary Papers", Hannah Goode stated, "I think the youngest child is seven. There are only two males in the mill, I dare say there are twenty under nine years. They go in when we do and come out when we do. The smallest children work at the cards, and doffing the spinning bobbins. I work in that room. We never stop to take our meals, except at dinner. It has gone on so this six years and more... William Crookes is overlooker in our room; he is cross-tempered sometimes. He does not beat me; he beats the little children if they do not do their work right... They are always very tired at night." Now, I think just about everyone can object to this. It's disgusting that young children are put to work in such terrible conditions when it's already bad enough that they're working in the first place.
So, if we do a cost/benefit analysis of industrialism, would people be "for" or "against" it? Sure, the downfalls to this age were gross and inhuman, but look at where it has taken us today. If we never had those terrible work conditions, then we wouldn't have workers' rights today. I don't know about you, but I'm glad that they had to go through all that instead of me. Selfish, I know, but I think most people would agree with me on that one. Another positive that came out of all this mess is our ability to embrace change. It forced itself upon us, and being humans, we adapted. So not only did we learn to embrace change, but it made it to where we looked forward to change. While this may not seem like a big deal today, it certainly was a big deal to those who lived in a time where traditions reigned supreme.
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4 comments:
Daniel,
Good comments on the Industrial Revolution. I think your posts are most successful when you quote and analyze specific passages from the text, as you do through much of the first paragraph, but less so when you seem to be generalizing and making sweeping, even flippant comments about the reading in general, as you do towards the end of the second paragraph.
I enjoyed reading about the Industrial Revolution because I found it fascinating how radical these changes were to you. It is so sad about the horrible conditions that these people were forced to live and work in, but you are right when you talk about how far it has gotten us. I can not imagine life with out all the things the Industrial Revolution lead to and although it was hard for these people, it has benefited us. Change is hard, but I liked what you said about us being human and adapting. It is so important to be able to adapt to change or perhaps we would still be stuck in a pre Industrial Revolution era.
I think the Industrialization would have been a VERY tough period if you were living in it. Looking back now we think it is great because of all the things which have resulted from it--such as technology, etc. Could you imagine living in this time period though?! I do feel terrible that children were put in such terrible conditions though. I liked your post!
I think that Industrialism was they first step towards Global Warming but it did bring about some nice technology...so its more like a Catch-22
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