dark satanic mill

English

Etymology

From William Blake's poem, And did those feet in ancient time (1804): “And was Jerusalem builded here, / Among these dark Satanic Mills?”.

Noun

dark satanic mill (plural dark satanic mills)

1. (often in the plural, derogatory) A mill or factory during the Industrial Revolution, seen as monstrous and dehumanizing; (by extension) a similar modern form of exploitation.
   • 2007 January 21, Peter Culshaw, “Martha Tilston”, in The Observer‎^[1], →ISSN:

     Instead, the 30-year-old singer's subjects include that modern satanic mill, the call centre.

   • 2010 April 9, Aida Edemariam, quoting Mark Serwotka, “Mark Serwotka: 'Call centres are the new dark satanic mills'”, in The Guardian‎^[2], →ISSN:

     The working class just looks different. "Call centres are the new dark satanic mills. We have people who have to put their hand up to ask to go to the toilet.

   • 2012 June 26, Rob Cooper, “Whatever happened to our green and pleasant land? […] ”, in Daily Mail‎^[3]:

     Danny Boyle is expected present a grim picture of Britain's satanic mills with a towering factory chimney the centrepiece of a scene showing off the country's coal-powered past.

   • 2019 July 19, Amy Remeikis, quoting Tony Abbott, “'Dark satanic mills': Tony Abbott continues his crusade against wind turbines”, in The Guardian‎^[4], →ISSN:

     The former prime minister Tony Abbott has continued his crusade against wind turbines, labelling them the “dark satanic mills of the modern era”.

   • 2023 April 2, Sue Neave, “Unravelling the threads that link us to the slave-owning past”, in The Guardian‎^[5], →ISSN:

     Never once did it cross my mind that these dark satanic mills were not only products of Yorkshire and Lancashire entrepreneurs, but built on the back of a vast network of slaves and slave-owning people who amassed the wealth of Great Britain in the industrial revolution.