Everyone needs a good insult handy now and again; indeed, the power of naming, defining, verily hacking someone’s limbs off and sticking them in some sort of misconstrued BOX (placed firmly and profanely within some horrible category), is well, sometimes fitting.

Of course, depending on the person receiving said label, the intended insult may be interpreted as the exact opposite–a compliment! Likewise, those we intend to smile upon in beneficence with a compliment that expresses our deep regard may, actually, fly into a irreconcilable rage at being “insulted” to the highest degree.

Certainly there is no sure way to know how one’s comment will be noted, which naturally leads to the breakdown of many defining critera of what constitutes an insult or a compliment. Hence, the following label may be adopted for use as either an insult, or a compliment.*

The label is Luddite. “You are a backward Luddite.” “I wish I was as much as a Luddite as you.” “What are you, some sort of Luddite?” “As a Luddite, you know what really matters.” “Go ahead, bust out your hand written membership card to the Luddite club.”

Any effective label must be understood (Locke says it is impossible to talk meaningfully about things that we don’t understand). So what is a Luddite? -> A Luddite is someone completely antagonistic towards technology; sometimes violently so. A Luddite fears the changes that technology brings. The term is in reference to British craftmen during the Industrial Revolution who were being displaced by the advent of Textile Factories equipped with machines. Luddites would destroy the factories and machines. I actually found a nice history of the term at Wikipedia.

You now have the power of a new insult/compliment at your disposal.

* Those of you with a linguistic academic bent might consider how Bahktin’s death of the author, birth of the reader analogue works itself out in ridicule.