GEORGE MCGOVERN: LUDDITE: The Walter

GEORGE MCGOVERN: LUDDITE: The Walter Mondale of the 1970s has an essay in the Wall Street Journal, complete with these eye-popping lines:

The computer has become a new weapon of mass destruction to overrule our minds and our common sense. Did I tell you that I am terrified by computers, e-mail and the Internet? The only things worse are automated telephones that tell you to press numbers 1 through 99 and then inform you that the item you want is no longer in stock. Civilization is crumbling before these awful gadgets–although my grandsons are threatening to show me that they are not any more dangerous than the atomic bomb or AIDS.

I’ll probably yield to the computer age eventually despite my strong instincts against it.

Well let’s see, computers first started showing up right after World War II. The Altair, Apple II and TRS-80, those first home PCs, arrived in the mid-1970s. So you’ve had well over 25 years to “yield to the computer age”, and haven’t yet?

Keep ’em flying, George!