Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
informative
medium-paced
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
Teds characterization of the left and right of the modern industrial society is accurate and scathing. In this he takes a good long look at the industrial revolutions effects on modern mans mindsets and lack of power and control over our selves. within a system that does not care for us and refuses to relinquish control to those of us in it, it is impossible to find fulfillment in taking part in the system. This system is actively seeking to strip you of your control over yourself and conforming to it will only remove your own happiness. Ted advocates for reform or revolution and attacking the system while it's weak to reform our world in a more human way to ensure net happiness and security for all. while the revolution seems to be taking some time I think taking this work in conjunction with other essays like Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer and other essays and think pieces about reciprocity and finding meaning within ourselves and not these systems can ensure some great change for the individual. along with a great foundation of where to start from once said revolution may or may not come. Needless to say taking part in these systems as they exist now does not serve to enrich your life. I recommend taking as little part as possible in it. define who you are and what you support. do not confirm to new rules and restrictions that are placed on you that you do not agree with. this system of control is illusory and should be treated as such
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
1.5 stars.
You know that meme that says "hurr hurr electricity and technology bad and thomas edison was a witch!!" ? This is that meme, but stretched out into a 232-point manifesto by a disgruntled spree killer who lacked any sort of ability to make friends.
Let's cut the shit: Ted Kaczynski is a very smart man. No one can deny that -- his contributions to mathematics are astounding; I've read just the abstract of his PhD dissertation on Boundary Functions and his brilliance is evident. What is also true, is that Kaczynski was not able to acclimate himself to the rapid rise of technology and, coupled with the painfully evident fact that he is a white man who is very smart in certain skills and also very alienated (for reasons perhaps only known to him), instead of embracing a thriving movement dedicated to the overthrow of capitalism -- the rapidly rising movement of the left in disrupting high tech capitalism, he instead rejected all of it and attempted some "third path" in which he deemed all modern technology bad and any attempts to control it, even from the left, as "totalitarian and evil". How silly.
Kaczynski continually contradicts himself through this manifesto. He repeatedly attacks Marxism, the USSR, Vietnam, China, the DPRK, and Cuba, as "useless and totalitarian", even going so far as to praising the downfall of the USSR (perhaps for 2 reasons -- he hates socialism and hates technology, so the fall of a socialist grasp of technology which plunged Russia into the capitalist poverty state it is today, made him very happy -- interesting how he doesn't find poverty cruel), and yet, his views on his "revolution", that is, the overthrow of the industrial age, his strategies he suggests, are all taken from strategies OF Marxism, of strategies utilized by Lenin, by Mao, etc.
His continued attacks on "leftism" (which he never really defines and, if pressed on this issue, would probably equate leftism and liberalism which are incompatible) as being results of psychological repression, of feeling inadequate and inferior, show his true colors: Kaczynski is a right-wing type who goes so far as to equate anarchism with being right-wing (he doesn't say this outright but heavily implies it), and sees "leftism" and social justice as larger threats to the development of technology than say, capitalism. Which is the true threat behind the rapid development of high tech technology.
There are moments in this where Kaczynski veers onto a path that I would even agree with -- technology can be responsible for the overworking and overstimulation of society, and for the rise of exhaustion and depression on the world that is exploited -- sure! I can agree with that. But what Kaczynski repeatedly gets wrong again and again is that it is technology in the hands of capitalism that is responsible for this. It is very well known that Cuba, Vietnam, the DPRK, and the USSR, all thrived (and with the omission of the USSR, which no longer exists, continue to thrive) in developing technology, because they used it for the collective good of the people. But that's the issue -- Kaczynski hates collectivism; he is a staunch individualist which is (to use his own "psychology lesson" against him) rooted in inferiority and fears of inadequacy against the undeniable process of dialectical materialism. Kaczynski, if he did so knowingly, having used tenets of Marxism in his strategies for "revolution", should know dialectical materialism and dialectic as a whole: everything, including nature, is constantly in motion. Things are always developing, never to be the same as they were. That includes the raw material and modes of production that create those raw materials into constantly-evolving forms of technology! But he doesn't know this. Or he refuses to admit it. Time and society cannot regress -- even those of us "hard line" Communists who speak of the pre-capitalist, pre-feudalist world, which was communal, know that the world we fight for will not look like that communal world that existed thousands and thousands of years ago. It will look vastly different as humanity evolves and thus, our needs evolve.
Kaczynski makes a critical error in his assumption that if the industrial society were simply overthrown, the world would return to a hunter-gatherer-style society. That society already existed, Ted. And it was successful for a time, but dialectics dictates that needs of humanity evolve and therefore, modes of production and suitable answers to these needs also evolve. Would Kaczynski have, had he existed thousands of years ago, complained about the invention of the wheel as simply being "a distraction"? Probably!
That's another thing: Kaczynski's continued insistence that subjects such as science, art, and even his own specialty, mathematics, are "surrogate activities", hobbies or activities that distract from what "the human really wants": to hunt, fish, gather food, and reproduce. Again, those were wants and needs thousands of years ago, in a time that no longer exists -- science is necessary for the development of humanity; without science, there is no medicine, no adequate healthcare, no nothing. Imagine looking at a lightbulb and thinking "the person who created this was just distracting themselves from their deep, longing desire to go kill and eat a deer!" Give me a break.
But again, Kaczynski makes notice of how developing technology has violently impacted the Third World. Correct! It absolutely has, but again, he fails to say exactly who is behind this -- technology is not an autonomous being, it is a series of processes that help propel society forward if in the right hands - but in this case, it is capitalism and the elite bourgeois' grip on high technology, that impacts the Global South, the Third World. Unsurprisingly, Kaczynski eventually drops his faux concern and seems to strike fear into only himself in saying that it would be disastrous if the Global South got their hands on the high technology of the imperialist empires.
Is this the worst thing I've ever read? No. Is it anything noteworthy? Perhaps if you want a glimpse into the absolutely absurd world of anarcho-primitivism, as a start, I suppose this works.
Oh, and I couldn't roll my eyes hard enough at Kaczynski's insistence that pre-colonial Indigenous societies were "monarchies". Also him indirectly blaming the leftist rise in technology on gay people, feminists, disabled persons, fat people, and "ugly people" (I did a double take reading that) really just show his lack of understanding in these topics.
You know that meme that says "hurr hurr electricity and technology bad and thomas edison was a witch!!" ? This is that meme, but stretched out into a 232-point manifesto by a disgruntled spree killer who lacked any sort of ability to make friends.
Let's cut the shit: Ted Kaczynski is a very smart man. No one can deny that -- his contributions to mathematics are astounding; I've read just the abstract of his PhD dissertation on Boundary Functions and his brilliance is evident. What is also true, is that Kaczynski was not able to acclimate himself to the rapid rise of technology and, coupled with the painfully evident fact that he is a white man who is very smart in certain skills and also very alienated (for reasons perhaps only known to him), instead of embracing a thriving movement dedicated to the overthrow of capitalism -- the rapidly rising movement of the left in disrupting high tech capitalism, he instead rejected all of it and attempted some "third path" in which he deemed all modern technology bad and any attempts to control it, even from the left, as "totalitarian and evil". How silly.
Kaczynski continually contradicts himself through this manifesto. He repeatedly attacks Marxism, the USSR, Vietnam, China, the DPRK, and Cuba, as "useless and totalitarian", even going so far as to praising the downfall of the USSR (perhaps for 2 reasons -- he hates socialism and hates technology, so the fall of a socialist grasp of technology which plunged Russia into the capitalist poverty state it is today, made him very happy -- interesting how he doesn't find poverty cruel), and yet, his views on his "revolution", that is, the overthrow of the industrial age, his strategies he suggests, are all taken from strategies OF Marxism, of strategies utilized by Lenin, by Mao, etc.
His continued attacks on "leftism" (which he never really defines and, if pressed on this issue, would probably equate leftism and liberalism which are incompatible) as being results of psychological repression, of feeling inadequate and inferior, show his true colors: Kaczynski is a right-wing type who goes so far as to equate anarchism with being right-wing (he doesn't say this outright but heavily implies it), and sees "leftism" and social justice as larger threats to the development of technology than say, capitalism. Which is the true threat behind the rapid development of high tech technology.
There are moments in this where Kaczynski veers onto a path that I would even agree with -- technology can be responsible for the overworking and overstimulation of society, and for the rise of exhaustion and depression on the world that is exploited -- sure! I can agree with that. But what Kaczynski repeatedly gets wrong again and again is that it is technology in the hands of capitalism that is responsible for this. It is very well known that Cuba, Vietnam, the DPRK, and the USSR, all thrived (and with the omission of the USSR, which no longer exists, continue to thrive) in developing technology, because they used it for the collective good of the people. But that's the issue -- Kaczynski hates collectivism; he is a staunch individualist which is (to use his own "psychology lesson" against him) rooted in inferiority and fears of inadequacy against the undeniable process of dialectical materialism. Kaczynski, if he did so knowingly, having used tenets of Marxism in his strategies for "revolution", should know dialectical materialism and dialectic as a whole: everything, including nature, is constantly in motion. Things are always developing, never to be the same as they were. That includes the raw material and modes of production that create those raw materials into constantly-evolving forms of technology! But he doesn't know this. Or he refuses to admit it. Time and society cannot regress -- even those of us "hard line" Communists who speak of the pre-capitalist, pre-feudalist world, which was communal, know that the world we fight for will not look like that communal world that existed thousands and thousands of years ago. It will look vastly different as humanity evolves and thus, our needs evolve.
Kaczynski makes a critical error in his assumption that if the industrial society were simply overthrown, the world would return to a hunter-gatherer-style society. That society already existed, Ted. And it was successful for a time, but dialectics dictates that needs of humanity evolve and therefore, modes of production and suitable answers to these needs also evolve. Would Kaczynski have, had he existed thousands of years ago, complained about the invention of the wheel as simply being "a distraction"? Probably!
That's another thing: Kaczynski's continued insistence that subjects such as science, art, and even his own specialty, mathematics, are "surrogate activities", hobbies or activities that distract from what "the human really wants": to hunt, fish, gather food, and reproduce. Again, those were wants and needs thousands of years ago, in a time that no longer exists -- science is necessary for the development of humanity; without science, there is no medicine, no adequate healthcare, no nothing. Imagine looking at a lightbulb and thinking "the person who created this was just distracting themselves from their deep, longing desire to go kill and eat a deer!" Give me a break.
But again, Kaczynski makes notice of how developing technology has violently impacted the Third World. Correct! It absolutely has, but again, he fails to say exactly who is behind this -- technology is not an autonomous being, it is a series of processes that help propel society forward if in the right hands - but in this case, it is capitalism and the elite bourgeois' grip on high technology, that impacts the Global South, the Third World. Unsurprisingly, Kaczynski eventually drops his faux concern and seems to strike fear into only himself in saying that it would be disastrous if the Global South got their hands on the high technology of the imperialist empires.
Is this the worst thing I've ever read? No. Is it anything noteworthy? Perhaps if you want a glimpse into the absolutely absurd world of anarcho-primitivism, as a start, I suppose this works.
Oh, and I couldn't roll my eyes hard enough at Kaczynski's insistence that pre-colonial Indigenous societies were "monarchies". Also him indirectly blaming the leftist rise in technology on gay people, feminists, disabled persons, fat people, and "ugly people" (I did a double take reading that) really just show his lack of understanding in these topics.
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
tense
Very convincing at first but quickly deescalates into unpolished anti-leftist and primal arguments that seem hardly applicable to our society. It’s absurd to provoke a revolution against technological implications of the industrial era and then vaguely imply that in 500-1000 years it might just get back to how it was. It sounds like Ted wants to turn back the clock and erase the richness of history and the mistakes humanity has done on the way. Surrogate activities are artificial, yea, but they do broaden human culture. At any rate, a lot of food for thought.