[Ayoob]

The Unibomber Manifesto
INTRODUCTION
1. The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life-expectancy of those of us who live in "advanced" countries, but they have destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to widespread psychological suffering (in the Third World to physical suffering as well) and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world. The continued development of technology will worsen the situation. It will certainly subject human beings to greater indignities and inflict greater damage on the natural world, it will probably lead to greater social disruption and psychological suffering, and it may lead to increased physical suffering even in "advanced" countries.

2. The industrial-technological system may survive or it may break down. If it survives, it MAY eventually achieve a low level of physical and psychological suffering, but only after passing through a long and very painful period of adjustment and only at the cost of permanently reducing human beings and many other living organisms to engineered products and mere cogs in the social machine. Furthermore, if the system survives, the consequences will be inevitable: There is no way of reforming or modifying the system so as to prevent it from depriving people of dignity and autonomy.

3. If the system breaks down the consequences will still be very painful. But the bigger the system grows the more disastrous the results of its breakdown will be, so if it is to break down it had best break down sooner rather than later.


http://www.ed.brocku.ca/~rahul/Misc/unibomber.html

And much, much more.

[Tyler_JC]

Wow, no wonder people think we're crazy! "Our" (the quotes are a gesture to JohnDenver, BiGG, and WildWell) philosophy is remarkably similar to that of the unibomber. I hope no one gets any ideas around here to start blowing stuff up...

They already made a movie about this anyway, it's called Fight Club and it's pretty damn good.

[EddieB]

Yeah. I've been reading some psychology textbooks recently and if it weren't for all the facts behind PO it would be easy to call myself delusional for believing it. If only I could find reasonable refutations I'd gladly go back to thinking we still have years and years before any resource shortages manifest themselves.
The Unabomber had some loose wires, but he also was a very smart man.

[TrueKaiser]

umm one thread gloryifying that sick person is enough. if you want to read it i sujest you use the nice search button.

[0mar]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TrueKaiser', 'u')mm one thread gloryifying that sick person is enough. if you want to read it i sujest you use the nice search button.

[Ayoob_Reloaded]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('TrueKaiser', 'u')mm one thread gloryifying that sick person is enough. if you want to read it i sujest you use the nice search button.

[Terran]

Read this a while ago, it does sum up some points, but he was still ahead of people of his time.

[hoplite]

Therefore, small computer shops must be blown up?

I just don't get it, this guy was anti society, anti technology (which is actually our only chance now if you think about it) yet he chooses targets like a small computer shop? WTH?

Anybody remember what else Kasinski <sic> attacked? All I remember is the litle computer shop where he killed that guy at in Auburn, CA (I think).

As noble as his "manifarsto" is, he really amounted to nothing more than a sniveling little coward, I don't understand how he escaped the death penalty...a true zealot would have relished the opportunity for martyrdom...

[Terran]

I think I do recall he attacked some enginerring department of some university.
But he lived a life out on a small plot of land, without the need to technology to survive. The only piece of technology he had was the typewriter to publish his manifesto. He was able to evade capture for so long, until his brother reconized the manifesto as his writing, and reported him.

[TheTurtle]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('hoplite', 'T')herefore, small computer shops must be blown up?

I just don't get it, this guy was anti society, anti technology (which is actually our only chance now if you think about it) yet he chooses targets like a small computer shop? WTH?

Anybody remember what else Kasinski <sic> attacked? All I remember is the litle computer shop where he killed that guy at in Auburn, CA (I think).

As noble as his "manifarsto" is, he really amounted to nothing more than a sniveling little coward, I don't understand how he escaped the death penalty...a true zealot would have relished the opportunity for martyrdom...

[SupplyConcerns]

I hope we can seperate his deeds from his philosophy. Because I will admit that I find the Unabomber's writing style to be compelling, and he tackles ideas that I haven't seen well-articulated before (especially his view on the "liberal psychology". And I'm a liberal myself).

[hoplite]

Wrong, he didnt deliver them all through the mail, he placed one by hand near a small computer shop, thats how we got the sketch this idiot is using for his avatar.

[k_semler]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('The Unabomber Manifesto', '1')5. Leftists tend to hate anything that has an image of being strong, good and successful. They hate America, they hate Western civilization, they hate white males, they hate rationality. The reasons that leftists give for hating the West, etc. clearly do not correspond with their real motives. They SAY they hate the West because it is warlike, imperialistic, sexist, ethnocentric and so forth, but where these same faults appear in socialist countries or in primitive cultures, the leftist finds excuses for them, or at best he GRUDGINGLY admits that they exist; whereas he ENTHUSIASTICALLY points out (and often greatly exaggerates) these faults where they appear in Western civilization. Thus it is clear that these faults are not the leftist's real motive for hating America and the West. He hates America and the West because they are strong and successful.

16. 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 needs for them, take care of them.He is not the sort of person who has an inner sense of confidence in his own ability tosolve his own problems and satisfy his own needs. The leftist is antagonistic to theconcept of competition because, deep inside, he feels like a loser.

[Rhinestones]

The Unabomber Manifesto wrote:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '4')9. For primitive societies the natural world (which usually changes only slowly) provided a stable framework and therefore a sense of security. In the modern world it is human society that dominates nature rather than the other way around, and modern society changes very rapidly owing to technological change. Thus there is no stable framework.

50. The conservatives are fools: They whine about the decay of traditional values, yet they enthusiastically support technological progress and economic growth. Apparently it never occurs to them that you can't make rapid, drastic changes in the technology and the economy of a society with out causing rapid changes in all other aspects of the society as well, and that such rapid changes inevitably break down traditional values.

[k_semler]

49 I agree with completely, an electronic box is my best friend now. (my computer). 50 OTOH, Pass it around man! That must be some powerful shit you got and I want!

[TheTurtle]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('hoplite', 'W')rong, he didnt deliver them all through the mail, he placed one by hand near a small computer shop, thats how we got the sketch this idiot is using for his avatar.

[Taskforce_Unity]

Depends on your point of view. I never really did understood the "innocent" part

Because someone doesn't know stuff, does that make him less or more valuable?

On what grounds do we treat people as "innocent" what change of value is there in that word?

[dduck]

Interesting thread. My take on the unibomber is that he is intelligent but lacks depth of historical and ecological knowledge, as well as being a failure in the socialization department.
His view of technology and it's role in human development and the modification (destruction?) of our environment is very simplistic.
The role of rules (or the lack of them) in the rise and collapse of past civilizations (many of which collapsed because of abuse of the environment which supported them) is far more important than the level of technology extant at the time. As soon as fire and edged weapons and tools became available, how a society governed itself and controlled the exploitation of resources became increasingly important.
Presumably, our main advantage over pond scum is the ability to formulate and enforce laws governing the way we live together and conserve the environment that supports us. THAT is the big failure of humanity to date. We don't have a world government and we are behaving like the Easter Islanders of not so long ago.

Aloha
dduck

[TheTurtle]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Taskforce_Unity', 'D')epends on your point of view. I never really did understood the "innocent" part

Because someone doesn't know stuff, does that make him less or more valuable?

On what grounds do we treat people as "innocent" what change of value is there in that word?

[I_Like_Plants]

Kaczynski's actions are why he's a fucking idiot.

If he'd polished his Manifesto a bit, maybe on some cheap-ass word processor from Goodwill, and published it, he may have changed some minds. Look at how Thoreau did with his little account of his life at Walden Pond. Kaczynski did indeed live a very low-energy lifestyle, and his brother did too, down in Mexico, for several years. A good account of how that was done would change many more minds than blowing up stuff (and people).

This is why the guy was sick, and I mean mentally. He wasn't able to get along at his math department, he wasn't able to hold a simple job at an insulation company his brother fixed him up with, he wasn't even able to ask a gal working there out for a date - instead he sent her pornographic and insulting writings which got him fired.

He wasn't even that good at living out in the woods - it's a pretty shabby setup he had, the bare minimum. Someone serious about living in the woods would have built a more "human" setup, I'm sure Thoreau's was much better.

There are some good points made in his Manifesto but they've been made in other places, by other people, and written better too. His Manifesto just looks profound or parts of it do, to a lot of Americans because good, right-thinking and properly raised Americans have been kept safe from any education that doesn't have to do with holding a job and reading street signs (and it's even doubtful about the street signs).