WEBVTT - Part Two: All Hail King Ludd: How the Luddites Almost Saved Us 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:04.720 Cool Zone Media. 0:00:05.519 --> 0:00:08.920 Hello, and welcome to Cool People Do Cool Stuff. Your podcast, 0:00:09.440 --> 0:00:13.520 it's yours, You belongs to you because it's part of 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:15.840 the commons. You see what I did there. If you 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:17.200 didn't listen to part one, you have no idea what 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:21.520 I'm talking about. But you might know my guest, Robert Evans, 0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:23.040 that's right in the bastards. 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:27.760 Yes, uh, and I legally own all podcasts. Actually, I 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:30.360 came up with the idea. Before me, no one had 0:00:30.400 --> 0:00:34.240 ever had the idea to steal the human voice and 0:00:34.440 --> 0:00:38.479 imprison it in an audio file. You know I invented that. 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:43.839 Yeah, uh, the first wax cylinder Robert Evans special. 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:49.400 That's right, that's right, it's audio Drunken Try to Pizza Hut. 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:53.400 Our producer is Sophie. 0:00:54.160 --> 0:00:56.720 Robert says is a lie. Everything Margaret says is the truth. 0:00:57.560 --> 0:00:58.120 Mm hmmm. 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:00.840 Oh, you know, market guards getting at that. 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:04.120 If podcasting, ever doesn't work out, you and I could 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:07.600 get get a gig doing that guarding some rich guys. Dungeon. 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:10.800 I look good in the suit of full plate armor 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:14.280 of a Halbert just saying now they have the like 0:01:14.360 --> 0:01:16.480 every now and then the Internet figures out that some 0:01:16.560 --> 0:01:20.480 Victorian rich people had had like hermits that they hired 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:23.199 to like little in the property. The new one should 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:26.119 be the the ominous Guards. 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:29.560 The harminous Guards, one of whom tells only lies and 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:31.120 the other speaks the truth. 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:37.119 And honestly guarding our legal liability by cutting out when 0:01:37.120 --> 0:01:40.680 we say things we shouldn't. Is our audio engineer, Daniel Hi, Daniel. 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:45.600 Yeah, Dannel, Robert fucking say it? 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:47.280 Hi, Daniel, Okay good? 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:50.760 And our theme musical was written for us by n women. 0:01:50.880 --> 0:01:53.240 And this is part two in a two parter about 0:01:53.280 --> 0:01:56.400 the Luddites. And I wonder if there's people who actually 0:01:56.400 --> 0:01:59.040 only listen a part two of mine because they know 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:01.320 the first part is contact. But you're gonna miss so 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:03.680 much and you won't understand why it's cool if you 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:07.720 don't go back and listen to part one. There's poetry 0:02:07.960 --> 0:02:15.120 and fire. So the Ladites. I mentioned that there was 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:18.480 a war going on in Europe, the Napoleonic Wars, and 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:22.079 this was fucking everything up as war tends to do. 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:25.320 It was fucking up industry and the economy and food 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:27.480 and all of that shit. It didn't help that you 0:02:27.520 --> 0:02:30.520 also get like four years of bad harvest in a 0:02:30.600 --> 0:02:34.320 row and there's a fucking comet in the sky and 0:02:34.320 --> 0:02:37.280 everyone you know is dying in Europe fighting a Napoleon, 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:43.120 and trade embargoes are cutting off entire markets for textile exports, 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:46.720 which is ten percent of what the British people do 0:02:46.800 --> 0:02:50.760 for work. Food prices are rising dramatically. People are living 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:53.639 literally starving in a lot of these working class towns, 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:58.480 and all of these fucking factories are suddenly popping up everywhere, 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:03.200 and trade unionism is out, And we do and don't 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:05.720 know a lot about the Luddites. There are endless well 0:03:05.760 --> 0:03:08.360 researched books written about them, and there are plenty of 0:03:08.360 --> 0:03:11.720 primary sources because they weren't afraid to write. But they 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:15.400 were also a secret society and they took it their 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:19.480 vow of secrecy really seriously. A lot of what we 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:22.760 know only came out decades later as old Luddites approached 0:03:22.760 --> 0:03:24.320 the end of their lives, and it's like the eighteen 0:03:24.440 --> 0:03:26.160 sixties and they're like, I fine, I guess I could 0:03:26.160 --> 0:03:30.160 fucking talk about that shit. You know, so not the 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:34.560 best way to get super accurate information. They are also 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:37.760 such mythic figures that everyone tries to write a story 0:03:37.800 --> 0:03:41.720 onto them. I'm honestly doing it too. I'm trying not 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:46.240 to write, but it's impossible. But we do know a 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:49.880 lot of their actions. The Ludites weren't all over England. 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:53.200 They were in what gets called the Luddite Triangle, which 0:03:53.200 --> 0:03:55.600 should have been called the Ludic triangle if you ask me, 0:03:55.840 --> 0:04:00.200 but no one did because I wasn't born and might 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:04.480 have a different etymological route. There was a triangle formed 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:08.080 by Yorkshire in the north west to Lancashire and down 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:09.440 to Leicestershire. 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:14.160 Leicester. I know that because I've pronounced it wrong on 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:16.440 the show and everyone in England is like, how did 0:04:16.480 --> 0:04:19.840 you not guess that? It's pronounced completely differently from how 0:04:19.880 --> 0:04:20.560 it's spelled. 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:21.640 But it's Leicester. 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:24.640 You have wester. 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:30.880 Leicester because they're the different The bigger areas have the 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:34.080 Shire at the end, and then the towns look like 0:04:34.080 --> 0:04:38.240 there's like nottingham and then it's in Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire. Get 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:40.960 your shit together, England, come on, I know, I know. 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:44.440 Well they're still fighting giants, so it's hard, you know. 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.520 Did you just say get your shit together, England? 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:50.200 The one thing we don't want them to do. 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:52.240 You're right the last time that happened. 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:55.479 It went badly for a lot of people when Albion 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:56.960 Rises were all in trouble. 0:04:57.040 --> 0:04:58.240 Keep your ship apart. 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:02.360 Yeah, some of us. Actually, that's the next line of 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:05.159 my script. Some of us don't know a lot about England. Say, 0:05:05.200 --> 0:05:07.920 for example, all you know about England is that King 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:10.560 Uther Pendragon once died while his air was missing, and 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:13.080 his son Arthur was discovered by pulling a sword out 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:15.159 of a stone. And the same thing is about to 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:18.080 happen now, because get it, there's a I'm trying to 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:21.320 make a reference to things that are happening in the 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:23.000 modern world and in the news. 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:27.680 Sophia, are you talking about the fact that nobody's seen 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:32.800 Printess Kate Middleton in many months and the photoshop fail 0:05:33.040 --> 0:05:36.559 and that the royal family is not explaining why? 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:39.239 Yes, which I knew about because of you. 0:05:39.240 --> 0:05:40.680 You're welcome, Thank you. 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:43.159 Whereas if you want to know about kings who either 0:05:43.240 --> 0:05:45.760 never existed or have been dead for five hundred years, 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:50.039 I'm your girl. But things that actually impact our lives 0:05:50.080 --> 0:05:52.280 now so versed with. 0:05:52.440 --> 0:05:54.640 This does not impact our lives. 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:56.720 But that's good. 0:05:56.880 --> 0:06:01.120 Kate Middleton may not be a live which she's not. 0:06:01.279 --> 0:06:04.640 Good unless By the time you're hearing this, she has 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:08.760 returned with Excalibur and has Warwiz gone to the Isle 0:06:08.800 --> 0:06:11.800 of Avalon and talked to the ladies there to get 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:13.200 a sword from the lady in the lake. 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:16.120 Or if you follow conspiracy theories with. 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:20.320 A brand new face, ooh, I hope there's still a sword. 0:06:20.880 --> 0:06:22.839 Me too, should always be a sword. 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:24.160 Yeah. 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:27.599 The other thing that you might know about England is 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:30.160 that there was a fox named Robin Hood who hung 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:32.919 out in a forest called Sherwood, robbing people alongside his buddy, 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:36.800 who was a bear named Little John. For those of 0:06:36.880 --> 0:06:40.919 us who don't know anything beyond that, the ludic triangle 0:06:41.120 --> 0:06:45.680 including not in Him and nottingham Shire and therefore Sherwood Forest. 0:06:46.160 --> 0:06:51.599 In fact, our story starts in Noddingham. Okay it started. 0:06:52.240 --> 0:06:54.640 I'm going to claim it started in November eighteen eleven. 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:56.760 Other people are like, oh, it was in March, but 0:06:56.800 --> 0:07:00.159 there was like some specific characteristics that made it. Some 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:03.159 people did some cool shit in March. But I'm gonna 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:06.320 start at in October. In November, sure, because this is 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:12.120 when it is more self consciously. The Luodites on November fourth, 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:14.960 eighteen eleven, on a night lit by the comet in 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:19.160 Nodingham a small band of men. More women are involved 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:22.080 later or were written out of this earlier part because 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:24.120 everything keeps being like and then these men did things, 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:25.960 and like later in the story they're like, oh, there's 0:07:25.960 --> 0:07:26.400 some women. 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:28.480 You're like, really they're all along? Yeah, who's to know? 0:07:28.840 --> 0:07:29.080 You know? 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:30.800 Yeah. 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:35.640 But a small group of people gathered and disguised themselves. 0:07:35.760 --> 0:07:38.320 Some of them blackened their faces with coal, others covered 0:07:38.360 --> 0:07:42.720 their faces with scarves. They are armed with hammers, axes 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:45.679 and pistols. They make their way to a weaver studio, 0:07:45.800 --> 0:07:47.800 not quite a factory, but a place where machines for 0:07:47.880 --> 0:07:50.720 knitting hoseery are being worked. And they go in and 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:53.080 they only smash up not all the frames, but the 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:56.400 wide frames. These are the frames that make cheap, inferior 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:00.440 product at like greater speeds. A week at the first 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:03.640 November raid, they went at it again. This time the 0:08:03.640 --> 0:08:09.000 owner was ready. One ludite died and he shouted out, proceeed, 0:08:09.200 --> 0:08:13.200 my brave fellows, I die with a willing heart. This 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:15.160 might be one of those things where we have it 0:08:15.200 --> 0:08:18.040 fifty years later, but who knows. I'll give it to him. 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:22.480 He became their first martyr, and his body was displayed 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:24.440 for all to see, for everyone to get mad at 0:08:24.440 --> 0:08:26.040 the murder. It wasn't like I put his head on 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:28.360 a pike so everyone doesn't want to fight. 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:30.800 They did, our boy. 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:34.360 Yeah exactly in the Marge Simpson voice. 0:08:34.800 --> 0:08:36.400 Yeah. 0:08:36.480 --> 0:08:39.080 The lud eight smashed their way into the building. The 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:42.160 defenders fled, and the Luddites went and smashed everything up. 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:44.360 I suspect that after they had just seen their friends shot, 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:48.560 they probably were a little less particular in what they 0:08:48.640 --> 0:08:52.880 chose to sabotage. That same night, other Luddites attacked another 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:55.240 shop and smashed up frames and revenge for that shop, 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:58.079 hiring what are called colts, which were young men who 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:02.160 hadn't been apprenticed, basically like old timey scabbing or strike breaking. 0:09:03.600 --> 0:09:06.000 A few days later, a cart full of looms was 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:09.000 bandited by men who disguise their faces along the road, 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:13.200 and then they smashed up the looms. That same day, 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:16.800 a thousand people poured into the town of Sutton, armed 0:09:16.840 --> 0:09:19.440 to the teeth and smashed up all the machines in town. 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:23.320 The militia came in. There's like no cops basically at 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:26.360 this time. It's soldiers and militia that are doing all 0:09:26.360 --> 0:09:31.080 the law enforcement at scale. They came in and arrested 0:09:31.080 --> 0:09:33.360 about twelve people the next day, and this is actually 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:35.920 one of the bigger arrests in the movement. But it 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:40.760 didn't stop or slow down the movement any appreciable way. 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:43.200 It's at this point, it's November nineteen eleven that they 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:46.800 started sending letters out communicate as if you will. All 0:09:46.880 --> 0:09:50.080 of them invoked Edward Lud or ned Lud. Sometimes it 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:52.880 was King Lud, sometimes it was General Lud, sometimes it 0:09:52.920 --> 0:09:58.240 was Captain and Chief ned Lud. And these letters are threats. 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:02.000 The letters are stop treating workers as disposable, or will 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:06.560 destroy your property or maybe just kill you. It was 0:10:06.800 --> 0:10:10.920 quite literally terrorism. Yeah, they had no structural power over 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:13.960 their bosses or the owning class, and they had no 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:17.880 other means of recourse, but they had numbers, organization, secrecy, 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:21.800 and the ability to instill fear. So that's what they did. 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:27.200 They picked a leader, a fictitious one, and the first 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:29.600 written version of that ned Lud kid I talked about 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:32.520 last time comes from eighteen eleven, which was like thirty 0:10:32.600 --> 0:10:36.640 years after it supposedly it happened, So we don't know 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:40.439 if this is actually the origin. One historian Kirkpatrick's Sale 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:43.040 makes the case that it could be derived from local 0:10:43.160 --> 0:10:46.800 slang that sent all of a lud meant to smash 0:10:46.800 --> 0:10:50.400 something into a heap, or that it could derive from 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.280 an actual king from eighteen twenty five named King Lud 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:56.520 or you'll be shocked to know this as my favorite. 0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:58.560 It could also be connected to a King Lund of 0:10:58.559 --> 0:11:01.600 the first century BC, who is connected to the Celtic 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:06.560 god Lud. That oh, and King Lund might be where 0:11:06.559 --> 0:11:09.240 the name London comes from. It might come from Lundstown, 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:14.480 but other people make the etymology is out people. 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:17.400 Yeah, when you're getting shit that old, it's usually like 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:19.120 this is one of our better guesses. 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:22.960 Yeah, and it used to be the best I can tell. 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:25.320 It used to be a little bit more like, oh, yeah, 0:11:25.320 --> 0:11:28.800 it's Lundstown totally, it's from King Lund. And then like 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:30.400 now people are a little bit it's like, oh, it's 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:32.840 from the Proto Indo European word for like a low 0:11:33.040 --> 0:11:36.880 lying area or whatever. I don't know, but I like 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:39.960 it when the Ludites get their name from the Celtic 0:11:40.000 --> 0:11:45.160 god lude that obviously is my favorite. All over they 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:48.920 are you could say soliciting financial support for their movement. 0:11:49.960 --> 0:11:52.400 Other people could say they're extorting it. I think both 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:56.840 would be perfectly accurate representations. They would leave notes around 0:11:56.840 --> 0:12:01.079 that said things like, gentlemen, all he had Lud's compliments 0:12:01.120 --> 0:12:03.800 and hopes you will give a trifle towards supporting his army, 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:07.360 as he well understands the art of breaking obnoxious frames. 0:12:07.880 --> 0:12:11.360 If you comply with this it will be well. If not, 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:13.280 I shall call upon you myself. 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:18.200 I love that again, very classy. 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:18.840 Yeah, exactly. 0:12:19.480 --> 0:12:21.200 Yeah. 0:12:21.240 --> 0:12:24.320 And meanwhile they're starting to robin Hood shit too. They 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:27.960 are raiding wealthy farms for food and money, and they 0:12:28.000 --> 0:12:31.040 were They decided that they were better than robin Hood. 0:12:31.080 --> 0:12:34.760 Soon enough, an unknown author coined a famous rhyme about them. 0:12:35.320 --> 0:12:38.199 Chance know more your old rhymes about bold robin Hood 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:41.520 his feats. I but little admire, I will sing the 0:12:41.559 --> 0:12:49.120 achievements of General Leude, now the hero of Nottinghamshire. Sometimes 0:12:49.160 --> 0:12:54.199 they worked alone, sometimes they worked in huge formations. And 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:58.360 there's one problem with running around doing terrorism? 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:01.760 Oh is there really? Now? This is something new. I've 0:13:01.760 --> 0:13:04.400 never heard of any problems with terrorism, magpie. 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:07.520 Yeah. Well, it turns out that Britain is a particularly 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:11.240 law and order focused country only at the time. 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:14.920 Interesting at I may have to change some of my 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:16.000 vacation plans. 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:21.199 Yeah, it's a good idea. There are about two hundred 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:24.360 capital offenses on the books in eighteen eleven, including like 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:31.280 stealing cheap boots or writing threatening letters, also being a 0:13:31.280 --> 0:13:33.679 guy who has sex with another guy capital crime. At 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:38.160 the time. Ten percent of all criminals who were sentenced 0:13:38.200 --> 0:13:41.079 in England in eighteen ten were sentenced to death. 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:43.719 Jesus Christ. 0:13:45.000 --> 0:13:48.280 Like, Texas, get your shit together, you got to catch up. 0:13:48.559 --> 0:13:51.160 Yeah. 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:53.800 The rest of Europe was like the rest of Europe 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:55.920 wasn't really I mean, they had the death penalty, but 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:59.640 they were like looking over at England being like, y'all right, 0:14:00.320 --> 0:14:02.679 fucking the fuck is happening here? 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:05.200 Yeah. 0:14:05.320 --> 0:14:07.840 So England responded to the Ladites by basically being like 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:10.280 fuck this, fuck them, fuck are on peasants. Let's just 0:14:10.360 --> 0:14:14.440 kill the lot of them. They pulled thousands of troops 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:17.080 out of the Napoleonic Wars to put down the revolt, 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:19.160 and this is the largest force used to put down 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:21.920 a disturbance in English history up to that point. Although 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:25.120 I've read that in multiple places, I would argue the 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:29.720 English Civil War was like probably bigger and as many 0:14:29.800 --> 0:14:33.760 disturbance but whatever, I guess since the Civil War like won, 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:37.560 it's like different, I don't know whatever. Yeah, Nottingham was 0:14:37.640 --> 0:14:41.080 under siege by troops. Anyone who turned informant would be 0:14:41.120 --> 0:14:44.480 pardoned and massive rewards were offered for information. Supposed ring 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:46.960 leaders were rounded up and a dozen people were arrested, 0:14:48.520 --> 0:14:53.640 but no one turned informant. None of the arrested turned snitch. 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:58.240 Almost everyone was released for lack of evidence, and none 0:14:58.280 --> 0:15:00.880 of it stopped the raids because they hadn't actually caught. 0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:03.800 It's the thing that we keep running over time and 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:06.640 time again. The hierarchical organization is like, Haha, we have 0:15:06.720 --> 0:15:08.520 cut off the head of the snake, and then they're like, 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:10.119 oh shit, it's a jellyfish. 0:15:10.280 --> 0:15:13.560 Yeah, no one's in charge, we're all just pissed. 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:18.560 Yeah. In the end, a few people did come forward 0:15:18.640 --> 0:15:22.640 to claim the reward for information. All of them were 0:15:22.680 --> 0:15:25.480 scamming the government. None of their lives held up in 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:28.280 any court case. They just showed up with random ass 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:33.080 information based which is a sketchy tactic that could get 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:38.840 people hanged, but it worked, so fuck it. The government 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:41.640 at the time wrote basically being like, oh, they must 0:15:41.640 --> 0:15:44.040 have an absolute hierarchy in order to have this much organization. 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:46.320 Historians are pretty sure that they had the opposite thing 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:49.520 working in their advantage. In some ways, they are quite formal. 0:15:49.880 --> 0:15:52.200 They're drilling out on the moors at night, and they 0:15:52.240 --> 0:15:55.080 are sending representatives back and forth to coordinate between different 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:58.080 groups sometimes and soon enough they'll be taking oaths of 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:01.440 secrecy into the society. It was very decentralized, and there's 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:03.880 no evidence of any kind of any kind of steering committee. 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:08.240 Some owners started to give in to the Luddites and 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:11.480 started promising to stop wage cuts and stop churning out 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:16.600 mediocre hosiery. And this time period sometimes gets called collective 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:19.440 bargaining by rioty. 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:24.600 Now, now that sounds like they're onto something here, I 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:25.720 can get on board. 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:29.960 It worked and didn't you know. It's like one of 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:33.400 those things where it's like everything does or doesn't work. 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:34.800 You know, people are like, oh, this one thing didn't 0:16:34.800 --> 0:16:36.240 work that one time, and you're like, yeah, you know, 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:40.240 what doesn't work most of the time most things. Yeah, 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:44.720 but the New Year eighteen twelve donned. Nottingham is under 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:48.800 martial law, and this doesn't stop the antics. A man 0:16:48.880 --> 0:16:51.000 in a goat skin mask with a beard down to 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:54.000 his waist like waylays a cart full of frames in 0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:56.440 broad daylight and gets away with it and no one 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:57.320 can track him down. 0:16:57.880 --> 0:16:59.720 The magic of goats, which. 0:16:59.520 --> 0:17:02.600 Is impressed because I mean, yeah, like the godpan has 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:06.040 now robbed you. But how do you disc the man 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:07.639 had a beard down to his waist? 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:10.800 That was a lot I've been. I've been some places 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:12.320 in the world where it's like, well, that has not 0:17:12.440 --> 0:17:15.800 narrowed it down at all. Okay, We're in this village 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:17.679 in like rural Iraq. There's a lot of men with 0:17:17.760 --> 0:17:19.320 beards down to their waists. 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:21.639 Fair enough, fair enough, And I want to know what 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:24.120 the goat's skin mask was. I want to know more 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:25.960 about that. Did it look like a goat or was 0:17:26.000 --> 0:17:31.520 it just a bandana? Or was it? Who knows? On 0:17:31.640 --> 0:17:34.919 Valentine's Day eighteen twelve, the government, as a love letter 0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:39.920 to the common people, passed a new law death penalty 0:17:39.960 --> 0:17:44.240 for anyone who's caught breaking a frame. Okay, during the 0:17:44.320 --> 0:17:48.879 debates in the House of Lords, a young new baron 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:50.879 in the House of Lords went up and gave a speech, 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:53.479 and it is his first speech before the House and 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:55.320 it is a defense of the Luddites. He is the 0:17:55.359 --> 0:17:58.679 lone voice speaking out in defense of the Ludites. And 0:17:58.800 --> 0:18:02.280 his name is Lord Byron, the first vanik Go. 0:18:02.920 --> 0:18:04.240 Yes, he is. 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:07.280 More famous as a romantic poet than being the first vampire, 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:09.560 and for being friends with the Shelleys and the father 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:12.399 of Ada Lovelace, who is probably the first computer programmer. 0:18:13.800 --> 0:18:15.760 But I'm gonna tell you about how he's the first vampire. 0:18:15.800 --> 0:18:20.200 Have you heard this story? Yeah, bits of it? Yes, Okay, 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:23.440 we I'm gonna tell it to you again. Anyway. There's 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:28.320 this famous ghost story competition that happens in Switzerland where 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:32.280 Percy Shelley, Mary Shelley, and Lord Byron are the only 0:18:32.320 --> 0:18:35.280 three people there that person not true and they have 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:39.560 a ghost story competition, And this is where Frankenstein comes from, right, 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:43.840 And Percy Shelley and Lord Byron wrote some forgettable stuff. 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:48.720 What Lord Byron told was like not technically a vampire story, 0:18:48.760 --> 0:18:50.919 but not not a vampire story, like could have been 0:18:50.920 --> 0:18:54.920 a vampire story, but there was another person there. There's 0:18:54.960 --> 0:18:56.960 probably a bunch more people there. There's probably servants there 0:18:56.960 --> 0:18:59.280 all over the place, but there's this like hanger on, 0:18:59.760 --> 0:19:04.040 who is it in the employee of Lord Byron, John Polardori, 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:08.120 and the two men. The two men might have been fucking. 0:19:08.880 --> 0:19:11.800 Lord Byron was absolutely bisexual, which is actually part of 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:15.800 why he left England is that that was a capital crime. 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:21.119 Whether just as friend or employer or lover. Lord Byron 0:19:21.240 --> 0:19:25.719 was a shit to John Polodori. He's like constantly like 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:28.920 making fun of him and shit, And it's basically like, Ah, 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:31.399 this drag of a guy, I gotta keep around me. 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:34.480 It's like the pickup artists always say, negging is the 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:35.719 best way to hit on someone. 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:38.480 I know, Lord Byron is the expert at this. 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:40.080 It works great on him. 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:44.480 Yeah. But the other thing is that every single historian 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:47.400 is like John Polardari sucked and was annoying as hell. 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:50.159 But I'm like, was he or was he in an 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:55.400 abusive relationship with Lord Byron? I don't know whatever happened. 0:19:56.520 --> 0:20:00.160 John wrote a story called The Vampire, and this is 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:02.879 this is the creation of the vampire as a romantic 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:06.840 character in Western literature prior to this. The vampire is 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:12.760 an Eastern European folklore creature that is like not incredibly 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:15.280 distinct from a zombie or a ghost or something, you know, 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:19.280 it's like someone has come back from the dead, but 0:20:19.320 --> 0:20:27.000 it's not an aristocratic romantic character. So Lord Ruthven the 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:31.280 vampire in the story The Vampire is absolutely a parody 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:34.439 of Lord Byron, and it is this heartbreaking story about 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:37.640 kind of being attached to and traveling with this guy 0:20:37.680 --> 0:20:43.880 who's just seducing women everywhere and sucks and to make 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:48.000 things worse. So Lord Byron is the first vampire, and 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:50.879 John Polodaria is like, Oh, I wish I could like 0:20:51.000 --> 0:20:52.880 have my own career, but I'm attached to this rich 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:56.720 man or whatever. Right, A magazine found his story and 0:20:56.760 --> 0:21:01.000 published it under the name Lord Byron, and so he 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:03.960 just like can't exist in his own way. 0:21:04.080 --> 0:21:08.160 Yeah. We talked about this during our Dracula episodes. Oh 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:10.480 shit o yeah, but without this much detail, I didn't 0:21:10.480 --> 0:21:14.480 really get into anything about like their relationship, yeah, which 0:21:14.520 --> 0:21:16.680 is such a fucked up thing to have happened. 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:21.000 Yeah. And then like a couple of years after this, 0:21:21.080 --> 0:21:24.400 John Pulladari probably kills himself at a pretty young age. 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:27.680 It's like he died of accidental poisoning. But most people 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:29.880 are like, yeah, he killed himself. That is like more 0:21:30.359 --> 0:21:33.960 the gay love affair thing is like conjecture, right, But 0:21:34.680 --> 0:21:36.600 it's funny to me to realize that the modern vampire 0:21:36.680 --> 0:21:40.200 might exist because of a salty gay love affair. Yeah, 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:42.000 So what I'm telling you is that the ludd It's 0:21:42.040 --> 0:21:45.159 primary supporter and government. Actually, before that, I should do 0:21:45.160 --> 0:21:45.680 an ad. 0:21:45.800 --> 0:21:47.840 Our primary supporter is. 0:21:47.840 --> 0:22:02.199 Not is all of these ads these guys. Yeah, and 0:22:02.280 --> 0:22:05.879 we're back. The Lunnight's primary supporter and government was the 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:10.239 first vampire. And his speech went hard. I don't know. 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:11.840 We might have been a terrible person. He might have 0:22:11.880 --> 0:22:13.919