A good point, wvmntneer. I'm no Luddite and will certainly affirm the many great benefits wrought by the industrial revolution. I also don't think the song is pointed solely at machines. There is definitely a critique of the old ways, the cavalier attitude towards human life. In that way the machine is certainly a step up for human life.
In the end Isbell seems to be asking more about the place of working class people in the modern world. For better or worse John's job is gone and with it a way of life. His contemporaries must move to urban centers and make a go of it there. But how? Do they go back to school to get better jobs? Go to work repairing the very machines doing their old jobs? That might not be a negative but there's always a place to dwell on the end of an era.
A good point, wvmntneer. I'm no Luddite and will certainly affirm the many great benefits wrought by the industrial revolution. I also don't think the song is pointed solely at machines. There is definitely a critique of the old ways, the cavalier attitude towards human life. In that way the machine is certainly a step up for human life.
In the end Isbell seems to be asking more about the place of working class people in the modern world. For better or worse John's job is gone and with it a way of life. His contemporaries must move to urban centers and make a go of it there. But how? Do they go back to school to get better jobs? Go to work repairing the very machines doing their old jobs? That might not be a negative but there's always a place to dwell on the end of an era.