Arjun Srivastava's Library
Rating: Not rated
Tags: Lang:en
Added: March 28, 2020
Modified: March 28, 2020
Summary
In 1971, he moved to a remote cabin without electricity
or running water, in Lincoln, Montana, where he began to learn
survival skills in an attempt to become self-sufficient. He
decided to begin a bombing campaign after watching the
wilderness around his home get destroyed by development. From
1978 to 1995, Kaczynski sent 16 bombs to targets including
universities and airlines, killing three people and injuring
23.
In 1995, Kaczynski mailed several letters, some to his
former victims, outlining his goals. Kaczynski also sent a
letter to The New York Times on April 24, 1995, and promised
“to desist from terrorism” if the Times or The
Washington Post published his manifesto verbatim. In his
Industrial Society and Its Future (also called the
“Unabomber Manifesto”), he argued that his bombings
were extreme but necessary to attract attention to the erosion
of human freedom necessitated by modern technologies requiring
large-scale organization. There was a great deal of controversy
as to whether it should be done.
A subsequent letter threatening to kill more people was
sent and the United States Department of Justice recommended
publication out of concern for public safety. The pamphlet was
then published by The New York Times and The Washington Post on
September 19, 1995, with the hope that someone would recognize
the writing style.
Throughout the manuscript, produced on a typewriter
without the capacity for italics, Kaczynski capitalizes entire
words in order to show emphasis. He always refers to himself as
either “we” or “FC” (Freedom Club),
though he appears to have acted alone. Writer Henry Holt notes
that Kaczynski’s writing, despite its irregular
hyphenation, is virtually free of any spelling or grammatical
error, in spite of its production on a manual typewriter
without the benefit of a word processor or spell-checker.
Industrial Society and Its Future begins with
Kaczynski’s assertion that “the Industrial
Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the
human race.” The first sections of the text are devoted
to psychological analyses of various groups—primarily
leftists and scientists—and of the psychological
consequences for the individual of life within the
“industrial-technological system.” The later
sections speculate about the future evolution of this system,
argue that it will inevitably lead to the end of human freedom,
call for a “revolution against technology,” and
attempt to indicate how that might be accomplished.