279. Summary: Industrial Society and Its Future (The Unabomber Manifesto)

<p><a href= "https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RBBM1JL?tag=kadavyinc-20"><em>Industrial Society and Its Future</em></a>, is otherwise known as “The Unabomber Manifesto,” written by Ted Kaczynski. Kaczynsnki is a terrorist who killed three people, and injured twenty-three others, by sending bombs through the mail, between 1978 and 1995. He used his terror campaign to exploit the negativity bias of media and pressure the <em>Washington Post</em> and <em>New York Times</em> into <a href= "https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/national/unabom-manifesto-1.html"> publishing</a> his 35,000-word anti-technology manifesto.</p> <p>Obviously, what Kaczynski did was horrible, but his manifesto is a thought-provoking, albeit extreme, perspective on technology. And so here is my summary of <em>Industrial Society and Its Future</em>.</p> <h3>Leftism creeps towards totalitarianism</h3> <p>The manifesto begins with a seemingly out-of-place rant about leftism creeping toward totalitarianism: According to Kaczynski, leftists have low self-esteem, are defeatist, and hate themselves. They hate success, and feel the groups they try to protect are inferior. They are overburdened by guilt over their natural drives, and so want to turn into issues of morality things that don’t have anything to do with morality, such as policing the use of words to which they themselves have applied negative connotations.</p> <h4>Anti-left is not far-right</h4> <p>When people hear anti-leftism, they tend to assume the person with those views is far-right. But it’s worth noting that’s not Kaczynski’s view. A quote, for example:</p> <blockquote> <p>[Leftists] want to preserve African American culture. But in what does this preservation of African American culture consist? It can hardly consist in anything more than eating black-style food, listening to black-style music, wearing black-style clothing and going to a black- style church or mosque. In other words, it can express itself only in superficial matters. In all ESSENTIAL respects most leftist