User:MainlyTwelve/Industrial Society and Its Future

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Industrial Society and Its Future (also referred to as the Unabomber Manifesto) is a 35,000-word essay written by American domestic terrorist, former mathematics professor, and anarchist author Ted Kaczynski. From 1978 to 1995, Kaczynski conducted a mail bombing campaign targeting [indicate who through broad characterization], motivated primarily by his opposition to industrialization. In 1995, Kaczynski sent letters to various publications demanding the publication of his full manifesto. Several outlets ultimately published the essay.

In Industrial Society and Its Future, Kaczynski argues that technology has had a destabilizing effect on society, resulting in widespread physical and emotional suffering. He asserts his belief that the progress of technology can be stopped. Influences apparent in the book include John Zerzan and Jacques Ellul. The essay has been compared to works by Jean Jacques Rousseau, Tom Paine, and Karl Marx, and has been referred to as [prescient].

Writing[edit]

Publication[edit]

In 1995, Kaczynski mailed several letters to media outlets outlining his goals and demanding that his 35,000-word essay Industrial Society and Its Future (dubbed the Unabomber Manifesto by the FBI)[1] be printed verbatim by a major newspaper. He stated that if this demand was met, he would "desist from terrorism."[2][3][4] There was controversy as to whether the essay should be published, but the Department of Justice, headed by Attorney General Janet Reno, along with FBI Director Louis Freeh, recommended its publication out of concern for public safety and in hope that a reader could identify the author. Bob Guccione of Penthouse volunteered to publish it, but Kaczynski replied that as Penthouse was less "respectable" than the other publications, he would "reserve the right to plant one (and only one) bomb intended to kill, after our manuscript has been published".[5]

Instead, the essay was published by both The New York Times and The Washington Post on September 19, 1995.[6][7] The Post published the essay as a supplement to the newspaper for the day.

Contents[edit]

Summary[edit]

Industrial Society and Its Future begins with Kaczynski's assertion: "The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race."[8][9]

Kaczynski writes that technology has had a destabilizing effect on society, has made life unfulfilling, and has caused widespread psychological suffering.[10] He argues that, because of technological advances, most people spend their time engaged in useless pursuits he calls "surrogate activities," wherein people strive toward artificial goals, including scientific work, consumption of entertainment, and following sports teams.[10] He predicts that further technological advances will lead to extensive human genetic engineering and that human beings will be adjusted to meet the needs of the social systems, rather than vice versa.[10] He believes that technological progress can be stopped, unlike some people, who he says understand some of its negative effects yet passively accept it as inevitable,[11] and calls for a return to "wild nature."[10]

Kaczynski argues that the erosion of human freedom is a natural product of an industrial society because "the system has to regulate human behavior closely in order to function," and that reform of the system is impossible as "changes large enough to make a lasting difference in favor of freedom would not be initiated because it would be realized that they would gravely disrupt the system."[12] However, he states that the system has not yet fully achieved "control over human behavior" and "is currently engaged in a desperate struggle to overcome certain problems that threaten its survival." He predicts that "[i]f the system succeeds in acquiring sufficient control over human behavior quickly enough, it will probably survive. Otherwise it will break down," and that "the issue will most likely be resolved within the next several decades, say 40 to 100 years."[12] Kaczynski therefore states that the task of those who oppose industrial society is to promote "social stress and instability," and to propagate "an ideology that opposes technology," one that offers the "counter-ideal" of nature "in order to gain enthusiastic support." Thus, when industrial society is sufficiently unstable, "a revolution against technology may be possible."[13]

Throughout the document, Kaczynski addresses leftism as a movement. He defines leftists as "mainly socialists, collectivists, 'politically correct' types, feminists, gay and disability activists, animal rights activists and the like,"[14] states that leftism is driven primarily by "feelings of inferiority" and "oversocialization,"[10] and derides leftism as "one of the most widespread manifestations of the craziness of our world."[14] Kaczynski additionally states that "a movement that exalts nature and opposes technology must take a resolutely anti-leftist stance and must avoid all collaboration with leftists," as in his view "[l]eftism is in the long run inconsistent with wild nature, with human freedom and with the elimination of modern technology."[8] He also criticizes conservatives, describing them as "fools" who "whine about the decay of traditional values, yet they enthusiastically support technological progress and economic growth. Apparently, it never occurs to them that you can't make rapid, drastic changes in the technology and the economy of a society without causing rapid changes in all other aspects of the society as well, and that such rapid changes inevitably break down traditional values."[14]

Style (and role in capture)?[edit]

Throughout the document, written on a typewriter without italics, Kaczynski capitalizes entire words to show emphasis. He always refers to himself as either "we" or "FC" ("Freedom Club"), though there is no evidence that he worked with others. Academic Donald Foster, who analyzed the writing at the request of Kaczynski's defense, noted that it contains irregular spelling and hyphenation, as well as other linguistic idiosyncrasies, which led him to conclude that Kaczynski was its author.[15]

Reception and influence[edit]

In The Atlantic, Alston Chase reported that the text "was greeted in 1995 by many thoughtful people as a work of genius, or at least profundity, and as quite sane".[16] Chase himself argued, however, that it "is the work of neither a genius nor a maniac. […] Its pessimism over the direction of civilization and its rejection of the modern world are shared especially with the country's most highly educated."[16] UCLA professor of political science James Q. Wilson, who was mentioned in the manifesto, wrote in The New Yorker that Industrial Society and Its Future was "a carefully reasoned, artfully written paper ... If it is the work of a madman, then the writings of many political philosophers — Jean Jacques Rousseau, Tom Paine, Karl Marx — are scarcely more sane."[17]

David Skrbina, a philosophy professor at the University of Michigan and a former Green Party candidate for governor of Michigan, has written several essays in support of investigating Kaczynski's ideas, one of which he titled "A Revolutionary for Our Times."[18][19][20] Paul Kingsnorth, a former deputy-editor of The Ecologist and a co-founder of the Dark Mountain Project, wrote an essay for Orion Magazine in which he described Kaczynski's arguments as "worryingly convincing" and stated that they "may change my life".[21]

Psychiatrist Keith Ablow, writing for Fox News, stated that Kaczynski was "reprehensible for murdering and maiming people" but "precisely correct in many of his ideas," and compared Industrial Society and Its Future to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.[22] Anarcho-primitivist authors such as John Zerzan and John Moore came to Kaczynski's defense, while also holding reservations about his actions and ideas.[23][24]

Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator of the 2011 Norway attacks,[25][26] published a manifesto in which large chunks of text were copied from Industrial Society and Its Future with certain terms substituted (e.g., replacing "leftists" with "cultural Marxists" and "multiculturalists").[27][28]

Inspiration[edit]

As a critique of technological society, the manifesto echoed contemporary critics of technology and industrialization, such as John Zerzan, Jacques Ellul (whose The Technological Society was referenced in a 1971 essay by Kaczynski),[29] Rachel Carson, Lewis Mumford, and E. F. Schumacher.[30] Its idea of the "disruption of the power process" similarly echoed social critics emphasizing the lack of meaningful work as a primary cause of social problems, including Mumford, Paul Goodman, and Eric Hoffer.[30] Its general theme was also addressed by Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, which Kaczynski references in the text.[31] Kaczynski's ideas of "oversocialization" and "surrogate activities" recall Sigmund Freud's Civilization and Its Discontents and its theories of rationalization and sublimation (a term used three times in Kaczynski's essay to describe "surrogate activities").[32]

In a Wired article on the dangers of technology, "Why The Future Doesn't Need Us" (2000), Bill Joy, one of the co-founders of Sun Microsystems, quoted Ray Kurzweil's The Age of Spiritual Machines, which quoted a passage by Kaczynski in Industrial Society and Its Future on the types of society that might develop if human labor were entirely replaced by artificial intelligence. Joy wrote that Kaczynski is "clearly a Luddite", but, "simply saying this does not dismiss his argument," and stated "I saw some merit in the reasoning in this single passage [and] felt compelled to confront it."[33]

Later works[edit]

Following correspondence with Kaczynski for nearly a decade, University of Michigan–Dearborn philosophy professor David Skrbina helped to compile Kaczynski's work into the 2010 anthology Technological Slavery, including the original manifesto, letters between Skrbina and Kaczynski that clarify the latter's positions, and other essays.[34] Within the next decade, Kaczynski updated his 1995 manifesto as Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How to address advances in computers and the Internet. The book advocates for matching the computer programming skills of technology adherents and practicing other types of protest. It makes no mention of violence.[35]


Sources:

  1. ^ Chase, Alston. A Mind for Murder: The Education of the Unabomber and the Origins of Modern Terrorism. W. W. Norton & Company, Incorporated. p. 84. ISBN 0-393-02002-9. Google Book Search. Retrieved May 19, 2011.
  2. ^ "Unabomber Sends New Warnings". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 1, 2011.
  3. ^ Staff writer(s) (April 21, 1996). "A Delicate Dance". Newsweek. Archived from the original on August 12, 2017.
  4. ^ "Excerpts From Letter by 'Terrorist Group,' FC, Which Says It Sent Bombs". The New York Times. April 26, 1995. Archived from the original on August 7, 2017. Retrieved January 21, 2009.
  5. ^ Elson, John (July 10, 1995). "Murderer's Manifesto". Time. Archived from the original on September 25, 2013. Retrieved February 4, 2009.
  6. ^ "WashingtonPost.com: Unabomber Special Report". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 4, 2011.
  7. ^ "WashingtonPost.com". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on May 4, 2011.
  8. ^ a b Staff writer(s) (September 19, 1995). "Excerpts from Unabomber document". United Press International. Archived from the original on August 12, 2017.
  9. ^ Kaczynski 1995, p. 1
  10. ^ a b c d e Adams, Brooke (April 11, 1996). "From His Tiny Cabin To The Lack Of Electricty And Water, Kaczynski's Simple Lifestyle In Montana Mountains Coincided Well With His Anti-Technology Views". Deseret News. Archived from the original on August 12, 2017.
  11. ^ Katz, Jon (April 17, 1998). "THE UNABOMBER'S LEGACY, PART I". Wired. Archived from the original on August 13, 2017.
  12. ^ a b Sale, Kirkpatrick (September 25, 1995). "Is There Method In His Madness?". The Nation. p. 306.
  13. ^ Sale, Kirkpatrick (September 25, 1995). "Is There Method In His Madness?". The Nation. p. 308.
  14. ^ a b c Didion, Joan (April 23, 1998). "Varieties of Madness". The New York Review of Books. Archived from the original on August 13, 2017.
  15. ^ Crain, Caleb (1998). "The Bard's fingerprints". Lingua Franca: 29–39. Archived from the original on June 24, 2016.
  16. ^ a b Chase, Alston (2000). "Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on August 21, 2014. Retrieved April 26, 2017.
  17. ^ Finnegan, William. "The Unabomber Returns". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on April 28, 2017.
  18. ^ Spohrer, Lauren. "Penpals With the Unabomber". The Story. Archived from the original on June 30, 2016.
  19. ^ Skrbina, David. "A Revolutionary for Our Times". The Wild Will Project. Archived from the original on August 19, 2017.
  20. ^ Skrbina, David. "On the Question of Technological Slavery: A Reply to Campbell and Lipkin". The Wild Will Project. Archived from the original on August 19, 2017.
  21. ^ Kingsnorth, Paul. "Dark Ecology". Orion. Archived from the original on March 15, 2017.
  22. ^ Albow, Keith (June 25, 2013). "Was the Unabomber correct?". Fox News. Archived from the original on February 10, 2017.
  23. ^ "Whose Unabomber?". March 18, 2009. Archived from the original on March 18, 2009.
  24. ^ "The Unabomber: A Hero For Our Time". crimethinc.com. Archived from the original on February 11, 2010. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
  25. ^ John Stevens (July 25, 2011). "Anders Behring Breivik posted YouTube video six hours before Norway terror attacks". Daily Mail. London. Archived from the original on May 5, 2013. Retrieved July 24, 2011.
  26. ^ "Norway suspect admits responsibility". Sky News. Archived from the original on January 4, 2012. Retrieved July 24, 2011.
  27. ^ Lucas H. Weldeghebriel. "Kopierte Una-bomberens manifest". VG. Archived from the original on August 7, 2011.
  28. ^ Hough, Andrew (July 24, 2011). "Norway shooting: Anders Behring Breivik plagiarised 'Unabomber'". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on July 24, 2011. Retrieved July 24, 2011.
  29. ^ Kaczynski, Ted. "Progress vs. Liberty (aka '1971 Essay')". Wild Will Project. Archived from the original on January 17, 2018. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  30. ^ a b Sale, Kirkpatrick (September 25, 1995). "Unabomber's Secret Treatise". Nation. Archived from the original on May 2, 2009. Retrieved April 23, 2009.
  31. ^ Kaczynski, Ted (1995). "Industrial Society and Its Future, § Human Suffering". Archived from the original on August 10, 2015. Retrieved August 7, 2015.
  32. ^ Wright, Robert (August 28, 1995). "The Evolution of Despair". Time. Archived from the original on December 5, 2008. Retrieved July 6, 2008.
  33. ^ "Why the future doesn't need us". Wired. April 2000. Archived from the original on February 5, 2009. Retrieved February 4, 2009.
  34. ^ Young, Jeffrey R. (May 25, 2012). "The Unabomber's Pen Pal". The Chronicle of Higher Education. Vol. 58, no. 37. pp. B6–B11. ISSN 0009-5982. Archived from the original on October 9, 2017. Retrieved November 16, 2018 – via EBSCOhost.
  35. ^ Bailey, Holly (January 28, 2016). "The Unabomber takes on the Internet". Yahoo News. Archived from the original on February 14, 2016. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
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