American domestic terrorist, mathematician and anarchist (1942–2023)
Theodore John Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber (May 22, 1942 – June 10, 2023) was an American terrorist and former mathematics professor. After leaving modern society in 1971, between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski killed three people and injured 23 others in a nationwide mail bombing campaign against people he believed to be advancing modern technology and the destruction of the environment. He authored Industrial Society and Its Future, a 35,000-word manifesto and social critique opposing industrialization, rejecting leftism, and advocating for a nature-centered form of anarchism. After promising to desist from terrorism in a letter sent to The New York Times if his manifesto was published by the Times or The Washington Post, it appeared in the latter in September 1995, leading to his identification and capture. Following the FBI's most expensive manhunt in its history, he pleaded guilty to all charges in 1998 and was sentenced to eight consecutive life terms in prison without the possibility of parole.
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74. We suggest that modern man’s obsession with longevity, and with maintaining physical vigor and sexual attractiveness to an advanced age, is a symptom of unfulfillment resulting from deprivation with respect to the power process. The “mid-life crisis” also is such a symptom. So is the lack of interest in having children
El entusiasmo por el «progreso» es un fenómeno particular de la forma moderna de sociedad, y parece no haber existido antes del siglo XVII, más o menos.
211. En la última parte de la Edad Media, había cuatro civilizaciones importantes que estaban igualmente «avanzadas»: Europa, el mundo islámico, India, y el Lejano Oriente (China, Japón, Corea). Tres de estas civilizaciones permanecieron más o menos estables y sólo Europa se dinamizó. Nadie sabe porque Europa lo hizo en este periodo, los historiadores tienen sus teorías, pero sólo son especulaciones. De todas formas, está claro que el desarrollo rápido hacia una forma tecnológica de la sociedad sólo ocurre bajo condiciones especiales.
It is conceivable that our environmental problems (for example) may some day be settled through a rational, comprehensive plan, but if this happens it will be only because it is in the long-term interest of the system to solve these problems. But it is NOT in the interest of the system to preserve freedom or small-group autonomy.
Modern leftish philosophers tend to dismiss reason, science, objective reality and to insist that everything is culturally relative. It is true that one can ask serious questions about the foundations of scientific knowledge and about how, if at all, the concept of objective reality can be defined. But it is obvious that modern leftish philosophers are not simply cool-headed logicians systematically analyzing the foundations of knowledge. They are deeply involved emotionally in their attack on truth and reality. They attack these concepts because of their own psychological needs. For one thing, their attack is an outlet for hostility, and, to the extent that it is successful, it satisfies the drive for power. More importantly, the leftist hates science and rationality because they classify certain beliefs as true (i.e., successful, superior) and other beliefs as false (i.e., failed, inferior). The leftist’s feelings of inferiority run so deep that he cannot tolerate any classification of some things as successful or superior and other things as failed or inferior. This also underlies the rejection by many leftists of the concept of mental illness and of the utility of IQ tests. Leftists are antagonistic to genetic explanations of human abilities or behavior because such explanations tend to make some persons appear superior or inferior to others. Leftists prefer to give society the credit or blame for an individual’s ability or lack of it. Thus if a person is “inferior” it is not his fault, but society’s, because he has not been brought up properly.
"Words like "self-confidence", "self-reliance", "initiative", "enterprise", "optimism", etc., play little role in the liberal and leftist vocabulary. The leftist is anti-individualistic, pro-collectivist. He wants society to solve everyone's problems for them, satisfy everyone's needs for them, take care of them. He is not the sort of person who has an inner sense of confidence in his ability to solve his own problems and satisfy his own needs. The leftist is antagonistic to the concept of competition because, deep inside, he feels like a loser. He can feel strong only as a member of a large organization or a mass movement with which he identifies himself."
The problems of the leftist are indicative of the problems of our society as a whole. Low self-esteem, depressive tendencies and defeatism are not restricted to the left. Though they are especially noticeable in the left, they are widespread in our society. And today’s society tries to socialize us to a greater extent than any previous society. We are even told by experts how to eat, how to exercise, how to make love, how to raise our kids and so forth.