Ted Kaczynski, who is pictured above, was widely known as the "Unabomber." Click that link if you don't know anything about the Unabomber, or if your memory has by now grown foggy. If you are a Netflix subscriber you can find out more by tracking down the film, "Unabomber: In is Own Words."
In general, Kaczynski believed that "technology" has "led to widespread psychological suffering and has inflicted severe damage on the natural world." Furthermore, Kaczynski warned that "new technology tends to change society in such a way that it becomes difficult or impossible for an individual to function without using that technology."
Given this analysis, Kaczynski thought that it was imperative to try to destroy technological society, which led him to dispatch bombs at what seemed to be random targets, from the late 1970's to the mid-1990's, causing both death and damage. The FBI provides a listing. His identify was unknown.
Kaczynski's social, political, and economic critique can be easily reviewed and evaluated. He published a "manifesto," which was titled, "Industrial Society and Its Future," and you don't need to get access to his FBI file to read it. You can purchase a copy from Amazon, although that will require you to shell out something like $90. Access to the text is free from The New York Times and The Washington Post, both of which newspapers published copies in response to a demand that they do so, and in exchange for Kaczynski's promise not to dispatch a new bomb. As it happened, because Kaczynski's manifesto was published so widely, Kaczynski's brother recognized his writing, and this led to his arrest.
According to a relatively recent article in The New York Times Magazine, which was titled, "The Strange, Post-Partisan Popularity of the Unabomber," Kaczynski's "dark vision" is now finding fans who are beginning to think that Kaczynski's critique of our society was actually right.
A technology skeptic myself, I do think that some of Kaczynski's complaints have merit.
I, however, am in favor of changing the world, instead of trying to blow it up, when we find the world to be unacceptable. Changing the world is something that I know we can do.
We don't have to kill each other in the process of changing the world, either. In fact, killing in the name of peace, prosperity, or truth is always contraindicated and counterproductive. Even Tucker Carlson, that exemplar of good sense (I am just kidding, there), is quoted in The Times' article as evaluating Kaczynski as a "bad person [with a] smart analysis."
Let's not lose contact with the truth that we can, in fact, change the world when it's going wrong. Whether you are Ted Kaczynski or Luigi Mangione, who is accused of killing a United Health Care chief executive in either "protest," or in an attempt to stimulate "change by killing," let's remember that this Unabomber technique is not the right answer, even when the analysis is "smart," even when the analysis is truly spot on!
Foundation of Freedom
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