This Day in History: The "Unabomber" Theodore Kaczynski was captured at his Montana cabin on this day (April 3) in 1996. Theodore John Kaczynski is an American domestic terrorist and former mathematics professor. He was a mathematics prodigy, but abandoned his academic career in 1969 to pursue a more primitive life. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski killed three people and injured 23 others in a nationwide mail bombing campaign against people he believed to be advancing modern technology and the destruction of the environment. He authored Industrial Society and Its Future, a 35,000-word manifesto and social critique opposing industrialization, rejecting leftism, and advocating for a nature-centered form of anarchism.
In 1995, Kaczynski mailed several letters to media outlets outlining his goals and demanding a major newspaper print his 35,000-word essay Industrial Society and Its Future (dubbed the "Unabomber manifesto" by the FBI) verbatim.
Despite his deeds, Kaczynski's manifesto is oddly prescient, and, according to Keith Ablow, "deserves a place alongside 'Brave New World,' by Aldous Huxley, and '1984,' by George Orwell."
"Kaczynski wrote that the increasing industrialization of America and the world, and our increasing reliance on technology, would end up short-circuiting the ability of human beings to think for themselves and act on their own ideas and abilities.
He saw the political 'left' as embracing these technologies with special fervor, because they were in keeping with the 'leftist' ideology that centralized power was the way to govern men.
He saw these 'leftists' as psychologically disordered—seeking to compensate for deep feelings of personal disempowerment by banding together and seeking extraordinary means of control in society." Source
He writes that technology has had a destabilizing effect on society, has made life unfulfilling, and has caused widespread psychological suffering. Kaczynski argues that most people spend their time engaged in useless pursuits because of technological advances; he calls these "surrogate activities", wherein people strive toward artificial goals, including scientific work, consumption of entertainment, political activism and following sports teams. 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 social systems, rather than vice versa.
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 drastic changes to it would not be implemented because of their disruption of the system.
A significant portion of the document is dedicated to discussing left-wing politics, with Kaczynski attributing many of society's issues to leftists. He defines leftists as "mainly socialists, collectivists, 'politically correct' types, feminists, gay and disability activists, animal rights activists and the like". He believes that over-socialization and feelings of inferiority are primary drivers of leftism, and derides it as "one of the most widespread manifestations of the craziness of our world". Kaczynski adds that the type of movement he envisions must be anti-leftist and refrain from collaboration with leftists, as, in his view, "leftism is in the long run inconsistent with wild nature, with human freedom and with the elimination of modern technology".
The leftist wants power for powers sake and they will use any means necessary to get that power.
"If our society had no social problems at all, the leftists would have to invent problems in order to provide themselves with an excuse for making a fuss."
He also criticizes conservatives, describing them as "fools who whine about the decay of traditional values, yet ... enthusiastically support technological progress and economic growth", things he argues have led to this decay.
James Q. Wilson, in a 1998 New York Times Op-Ed, wrote: "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."
Alston Chase, a fellow alumnus of Harvard University wrote in 2000 for The Atlantic that "It is true that many believed Kaczynski was insane because they needed to believe it. But the truly disturbing aspect of Kaczynski and his ideas is not that they are so foreign but that they are so familiar." He argued that "We need to see Kaczynski as exceptional—madman or genius—because the alternative is so much more frightening."
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