Shocktroops:

I've been reading at Mail Jewish about Haredi who use cell phones, but have arranged with the manufacturer to disable Internet and messaging features so they won't be forced too far into the 21st century. Regardless of how you view such hairsplitting, the fact is that these people are shocktroops in a war that will embroil us all this century unless the Messiah soon comes. It will be increasingly difficult for us to live in a world in which:

• Every large piece of household equipment is computer controlled.
  
• It becomes almost impossible to move about a home without issuing verbal commands to the house computer.
  
• Only computer-driven books are published.
  
• Lighting systems are required by law to be computer controlled and sensitive to where people are, to minimize the use of electricity.
  
• We are all expected to have computer chips implanted in our bodies.
  
• Many countries make it illegal to try to conceal our movements from the GPS system that tracks our every step.
  

The non-machine sabbath life is going to get harder and harder to achieve. And harder.