The rise of the neo-Luddites

Yesterday, a pair of Just Stop Oil protesters glued themselves to a John Constable painting in the National Gallery, covering The Hay Wain with a printout of an alternative vision of England. The cart crossing the River Stour in Suffolk is perhaps Constable’s most famous painting. But instead of a bucolic, biscuit tin Albion, Just Stop Oil’s version shows the Stour tarmacked over, a belching power plant in the distance and a commercial jet overhead. The message is clear: our modern world is sick.

I have some sympathy with these student activists, or at least I envy their certainty. Their view of the world is simple: bad things like fossil fuels, industrialisation, and consumerism can be stopped merely by taking a stand. If only they make their voices heard, those satanic mills will grind to a halt and man shall be free. We can return to Constable’s Britain if only we choose to.