Return of the Luddites

The mere words socialism and communism," wrote George Orwell 62 years ago, "draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex maniac, Quaker, 'Nature Cure' quack, pacifist and feminist in England." Today it is the bogeymen of globalization and world trade that bring out their own kooky crowd. There they were in Seattle last week: Zapatistas, anti-Nike-ites, butterfly defenders. They joined steelworkers and the Sierra Club, Ralph Nader and Pat Buchanan in a giant anti-trade jamboree.

The mayhem was ecumenical. You had your one-world paranoids, who stay up nights fretting that David Rockefeller, the Trilateral Commission and a...

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