Industrial Society and Its Future

Part of a series on Theodore Kaczynski / Unabomber. [View Related Entries]

[View Related Sub-entries]

PROTIP: Press 'i' to view the image gallery, 'v' to view the video gallery, or 'r' to view a random entry.

This submission is currently being researched & evaluated!

You can help confirm this entry by contributing facts, media, and other evidence of notability and mutation.

Overview

Industrial Society and Its Future, also called the Unabomber Manifesto, is a 35,000 word essay by Ted Kaczynski contending that the Industrial Revolution began a harmful process of technology destroying nature, while forcing humans to adapt to machines, and creating a sociopolitical order that suppresses human freedom and potential. The manifesto formed the ideological foundation of Kaczynski's 1978–1995 mail bomb campaign, designed to protect wilderness by hastening the collapse of industrial society.

Background

Between 1978 and 1995, Ted Kaczynski engaged in a mail bomb campaign^[3] against people involved with modern technology.[citation needed] His targets were universities and airlines, which the FBI shortened as UNABOM. In June 1995, Kaczynski offered to end his campaign if one of several publications (the Washington Post, New York Times, or Penthouse) would publish his critique of technology, titled Industrial Society and Its Future, which became widely known as the "Unabomber Manifesto".

Kaczynski had drafted an essay of the ideas that would become the manifesto in 1971: that technological progress would extinguish individual liberty and that proselytizing libertarian philosophy would be insufficient without direct action. The original, handwritten manifesto sold for $20,053 in a 2011 auction of Kaczynski's assets, along with typewritten editions and their typewriters, to raise restitution for his victims.^[1] (shown below)

mean that we regard these other developments as unim- portant. For practical reasons we have to confine our dis- cussion to areas that have received insufficient public at- tention or in which we have somet hing new to say. For Industrial Society and Its Future example, since there are well-developed environmental and wilderness movements, we have written very little about environmental degrada tion or the destruction of wild nature, even though we consider these to be highly important. Theodore Kaczynski 1995 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MODERN LEFTISM INTRODUCTION 6. Almost everyone will agree that we live in a deeply 1. The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have troubled society. One of the most widespread manifesta- been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly tions of the craziness of our world is leftism, so a discus- increased the life-expectancy of those of us who live in sion of the psychology of leftism can serve as an introduc- "advanced" countries, but they have destabilized society, tion to the discussion of the problems of modern society have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings in general. to indignities, have led to widespread psychological suffe- ring (in the Third Workd to physical sufering as well) and century leftism could have been practically identified with have inflicted severe damage on the natural world. The socialism. Today the movement is fragmented and it is not continued development of technology will worsen the si clear who can properly be called a leftist. When we speak tuation. It will certainly subject human being to greater in- of leftists in this article we have in mind mainly socialists, dignities and inflict greater damage on the natural world, collectivists, "politically corect" types, feminists, gay and it will probably lead to greater social disruption and psy- disability activists, animal rights activists and the like. But chological suffering, and it may lead to increased physical not everyone who is associated with one of these move- suffering even in "advanced" countries. 2. The industrial-technological system may survive or it sing leftism is not so much movement or an ideology as a may break down. If it survives, it MAY eventually achieve psychological type, or rather a collection of related types. a low level of physical and psychological suffering, but Thus, what we mean by "leftism" will emerge more clearly only after passing through a long and very painful period in the course of our discussion of leftist psychology. (Also, of adjustment and only at the cost of permanently redu- see paragra phs 227-230.) cing human beings and many other living organisms to engineered products and mere cogs in the social machine. deal less clear than we would wish, but there doesn't seem Furthermore, if the system survives, the consequences will to be any remedy for this. All we are trying to do here is be inevita ble: There is no way of reforming or modifying indicate in a rough and approximate way the two psycho- the system so as to prevent it from depriving people of logical tendencies that we believe are the main driving dignity and autonomy 3. If the system breaks down the consequences will still ling the WHOLE tnith about leftist psychology. Also, our be very painful. But the bigger the system grows the more discussion is meant to apply to modern leftism only. We disastrous the results of its breakdown will be, so if it is leave open the question of the extent to which our discus- to break down it had best break down sooner rather than sion could be applied to the leftists of the 19th and early 7. But what is leftism? During the first half of the 20th ments is a leftist. What we are trying to get at in discus- 8. Even so, our conception of leftism will remain a good force of modern leftism. We by no means claim to be tel- 20 th centuries. 9. The two psychological tendencies that underlie mo- later. 4. We therefore advocate a revolution against the in- dustrial system. This revolution may or may not make use dern leftism we call "feelings of inferiority" and "over- of violence; it may be sudden or it may be a relatively socialization". Feelings of inferiority are characteristic of gradual process spanning a few decades. We can't predict modern leftism as a whole, while oversocia lization is cha- any of that. But we do outline in a very general way the racteristic only of a certain segment of modern leftism; measures that those who hate the industrial system should but this segment is highly influential. take in order to prepare the way for a revolution against that form of society. This is not to be a POLITICAL revo- hution. Its object will be to overthrow not governments but the economic and technolog ical basis of the present FEELINGS OF INFERIORITY society. 5. In this article we give attention to only some of the negative developments that have grown out of the riority feelings in the strict sense but a whole spectnim industrial-technological system. Other such developments of related traits; low self-esteem, feelings of powerless- we mention only briefly or ig nore altogether. This does not ness, depressive tendencies, defeatism, guilt, self-hatred, 10. By "feelings of inferiority" we mean not only infe- 1

While Americans abhorred Kaczynski's violence, his manifesto expressed ideas that continue to be commonly shared among the American public. A 2017 Rolling Stone article stated that Kaczynski was an early adopter of the concept that.

"We give up a piece of ourselves whenever we adjust to conform to society’s standards. That, and we’re too plugged in. We’re letting technology take over our lives, willingly."

The Labadie Collection of the University of Michigan houses a copy of Industrial Society and its Future, which has been translated into French, remains on college reading lists, and was updated in Kaczynski's 2016 Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How, which defends his political philosophy in greater depth.

Developments

At 35,000 words, Industrial Society and Its Future lays very detailed blame on technology for destroying human-scale communities. Kaczynski contends that the Industrial Revolution harmed the human race by developing into a sociopolitical order that subjugates human needs beneath its own. This system, he wrote, destroys nature and suppresses individual freedom. In short, humans adapt to machines rather than vice versa, resulting in a society hostile to human potential.

Kaczynski indicts technological progress with the destruction of small human communities and rise of uninhabitable cities controlled by an unaccountable state. He contends that this relentless technological progress will not dissipate on its own because individual technological advancements are seen as good despite the sum effects of this progress. Kaczynski describes modern society as defending this order against dissent, in which individuals are adjusted to fit the system and those outside it are seen as bad. This tendency, he says, gives rise to expansive police powers, mind-numbing mass media, and indiscriminate promotion of drugs. He criticizes both big government and big business as the ineluctable result of industrialization and holds scientists and "technophiles" responsible for recklessly pursuing power through technological advancements.

On December 16 2018, YouTuber ^[2] Philosophy and Esoterica posted a voice over of Angustus Sol Invictus reading the book (shown below.) The video hit 100,000 in 2 years.

In 1997, Theodore Kaczynski got arrested and took a photo ^[3] (shown below.)

Theodore Kaczynski's Book

Feral House republished the manifesto in Kaczynski's first book, the 2010 Technological Slavery, alongside correspondence and an interview.^[26]^[27] Kaczynski was unsatisfied with the book and his lack of control in its publication.^[28] Kaczynski's 2016 Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How updates his 1995 manifesto with more relevant references and defends his political philosophy in greater depth.