Industrial Society And Its Future

These notes are based on the ideas and learnings from "The Unabomber Manifesto, Industrial Society And Its Future" by Theodore Kaczynski in 1995. The description of the book mentions: "The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life-expectancy of those of us who live in advanced countries, but they have destabilized society, made life unfulfilling, subjected human beings to indignities, led to widespread psychological and physical suffering, and inflicted severe damage on the natural world. The continued development of technology will worsen the situation". The text was sent to The New York Times and The Washington Post by a person who called himself "FC" (Freedom Club) and was later identified as Theodore Kaczynski. It should be emphasized that Theodore Kaczynski has been convicted for conducting 16 bombings and 3 murders - these actions were not acceptable and should never be seen as acceptable in any form under any circumstances.

For background, Theodore Kaczynski is known as the Unabomber and is a domestic terrorist. He was ... . Some points, such as calls to violence, have been excluded from these notes and it should be noted that most points are included for neutral interest (without any personal agreement or disagreement).

Introduction

The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for humans. They have greatly increased the life-expectancy of those of us who live in "advanced" countries, but they have destabilized society, made life unfulfilling, subjected humans to indignities, led to widespread psychological and physical suffering, and inflicted severe damage on the natural world. The continued development of technology will worsen the situation. The industrial-technological system may survive or it may break down. If the system survives, it may eventually achieve a low level of physical and psychological suffering, but only after passing through a long and very painful period of adjustment and only at the cost of permanently reducing humans and many other living organisms to engineered products and mere cogs in the social machine. Furthermore, the consequences will be inevitable without a way of reforming or modifying the system, so as to prevent it from depriving people of dignity and autonomy. If the system breaks down, the consequences will still be very painful. However, the bigger the system grows the more disastrous the results of its breakdown will be, so, if it is to break down, it is best for this break down to occur sooner rather than later.

Therefore, a revolution is advocated for against the industrial-technological system. This revolution may be sudden or it may be a relatively gradual process spanning a few decades. It is not possible to predict this, but it is possible to outline in a very general way the measures which should be taken in order to prepare the way for a revolution against this form of society. This is also not a political revolution, but a revolution to overthrow the economic and technological basis of the present society. The negative developments which have grown from the industrial-technological system have been documented, particularly areas which have received insufficient public attention or in which a new perspective can be presented (for example, as it is already widely known, very little is included about environmental degradation).

Psychology Of Modern Leftism

Some would argue that society is deeply troubled and one of the most widespread manifestations of the craziness is leftism. During the first half of the 20th century, leftism could have been practically identified with socialism. Today, the movement is fragmented and it is not clear who can properly be called a leftist. In this regard, leftists can usually be characterized as socialists, collectivists, politically correct types, extreme feminists, and social justice activists. However, not everyone who is associated with one of these movements is necessarily a leftist, but, in a sense, leftism is not so much a movement or an ideology as a psychological type or collection of related types. Although this definition is somewhat vague, it roughly and approximately indicates that there are two psychological tendencies which are the main driving force of modern leftism. These psychological tendencies are feelings of inferiority (characteristic of modern leftism as a whole) and over-socialization (characteristic of a certain segment of modern leftism).

Feelings Of Inferiority

Feelings of inferiority are related to a spectrum of related traits, such as low self-esteem, feelings of powerlessness, depressive tendencies, defeatism, guilt, and self-hatred. When someone interprets as derogatory almost anything which is said about them or about groups with whom they identify, it can be concluded that they have inferiority feelings. This tendency is pronounced among minority rights activists, whether or not they belong to the minority groups whose rights they defend. These activists are often hypersensitive about the words used to designate minorities and about anything which is said concerning minorities. However, in many cases, the negative connotations have been attached to these terms by the activists themselves (some animal rights activists have gone so far as to reject the word "pet" and insist on its replacement by "animal companion"). Also, in many cases, these activists are not even part of the minority groups who they claim are oppressed, but they come from middle-class and privileged strata of society.

In addition, many leftists have an intense identification with the problems of groups who have an image of being weak, defeated, repellent, or otherwise inferior. The leftists themselves must feel that these groups are inferior, as it is precisely because they see these groups as inferior that they identify with their problems. For example, since extreme feminists are desperately anxious to prove that women are as strong and as capable as men, there must be an underlying fear that women may not be as strong and as capable as men. In this text, it is not claimed whether or not a minority group is inferior, but the point is sustained to demonstrate leftist psychology.

Contrastingly, leftists tend to hate anything which has an image of being strong, good, or successful. They hate the United States, they hate Western civilization, they hate majority groups, and they hate rationality. Moreover, the reasons which leftists give for these stances do not correspond with their real motives. For example, they say that they hate Western civilization because it is warlike, imperialistic, sexist, ethnocentric, and so forth, but, where these same faults still appear in socialist countries or in primitive cultures, the leftists find excuses for them or, at best, grudgingly admit that they exist (in contrast to the enthusiasm and often exaggerations which are present in their initial claims). Thus, it is clear that these faults are not the real motive of leftists. The only real motives of leftists are that they hate Western civilization because it is strong, good, and successful and remains this way.

Leftists are anti-individualistic and pro-collectivist and want society to solve problems and satisfy needs for them. They are not the sort of people who have an inner sense of confidence in their ability to solve their own problems and satisfy their own needs. In a way, a leftist is antagonistic to the concept of competition because they know they will not win. As a result, art forms which appeal to modern leftists tend to focus on sordidness, defeat, and despair without rational control, as if there were no hope of accomplishing anything through rational calculation and the only thing is to immerse oneself in the sensations of the moment. Thus, they dismiss reason, science, and objective reality by insisting that everything is culturally relative - for one thing, their attack is an outlet for hostility, and, to the extent which it is successful, it satisfies the drive for power. More importantly, leftists hate these ...ideas... because these ...ideas... classify certain beliefs as true or superior and other beliefs as false or inferior. Leftists prefer to give society the credit or blame for the ability or lack of ability of an individual, such that this individual does not deserve their success or it is not the fault of this individual if they are inferior.

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