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georgier1 's review for:
Industrial Society and Its Future
by Theodore John Kaczynski
i went into this thinking that perhaps he had a few good points, there's no way thousands of people on the internet praise a terrorist for no reason! right?
i think completely separate from the context of kaczynski's life and his crimes, this manifesto still fails completely. he spends half the book complaining about leftists, yet forgets to actually fully plan out the revolution he wants to enact. he had no idea what would happen if we were to completely destroy the current social structure and destroy technology, and even acknowledged that his actions would likely make society even more restrictive, completely contradicting his whole argument about why freedom is so important. what makes it worse is the fact that his entire 'motive' for the death and injury he caused was an afterthought. he mentions in his journals before his first attack that his reasons for killing people was "simply [for] personal revenge". revenge for what i might ask, but this fact illustrates how little he actually cared about freedom for everyone, as he was completely willing to take that away from people for his own "personal revenge" against the system. how does murdering a computer store owner he had never met achieve this??? how does almost shooting your neighbours 3 year old daughter because she annoyed you help to fight against the system??? good questions!
that is to say that his manifesto was not 'new' or 'before its time' (star wars: a new hope had the exact same anti-technology mindset in 1977 without murdering anyone to spread the message.) it is not 'revolutionary' or 'life-changing' and definitely does not in any way absolve him of his crimes. it is the excuses of murderer trying to justify his actions through the guise of 'bettering society in the long run' as a means to rally more people against each other and create destruction. ted kaczynski was clearly a very lonely, mentally unwell man, who took that out on other, innocent people because he hated everyone. he was able to live his 'primitive lifestyle' due to the financial support of his father, and expected everyone to do the same. this manifesto makes incredibly generalised, sweeping claims about society's structure (but mainly the people in it, who have no other choice?) and even admits that his claims may be "flatly false," which completely diminishes any actual arguments made. people who praise this manifesto and ted kaczynski as a person clearly have not read the manifesto, read about the case, or are just plain dumb because the amount of hypocrisy and contradictions within the manifesto alone are shocking. kaczynski had the resources and opportunity to live his dream away from society in nature on his own and being fully self-sufficient, yet gave that all up to wreak terror and harm among the population and spent a majority of his life locked up in a prison with people he despised and no access to nature. nature that i dont believe he cared for as much as he claimed, moreso the only alternative to human society, as he claims that nature and survival is all that is needed to be fulfilled in life and people who engage in 'surrogate activities' like art or literature do so because life in modern society is not fulfilling enough on its own. yet didnt ted write this book, a piece of literature if you will, while living in his cabin in the woods?? didnt he build bombs and write books and journal entries and paint?? seems like nature wasnt all that fulfilling!
also cmon this guy wants to get rid of any kind of medicine as it doesnt allow for 'natural selection'.......... speaks for itself i think.
i think completely separate from the context of kaczynski's life and his crimes, this manifesto still fails completely. he spends half the book complaining about leftists, yet forgets to actually fully plan out the revolution he wants to enact. he had no idea what would happen if we were to completely destroy the current social structure and destroy technology, and even acknowledged that his actions would likely make society even more restrictive, completely contradicting his whole argument about why freedom is so important. what makes it worse is the fact that his entire 'motive' for the death and injury he caused was an afterthought. he mentions in his journals before his first attack that his reasons for killing people was "simply [for] personal revenge". revenge for what i might ask, but this fact illustrates how little he actually cared about freedom for everyone, as he was completely willing to take that away from people for his own "personal revenge" against the system. how does murdering a computer store owner he had never met achieve this??? how does almost shooting your neighbours 3 year old daughter because she annoyed you help to fight against the system??? good questions!
that is to say that his manifesto was not 'new' or 'before its time' (star wars: a new hope had the exact same anti-technology mindset in 1977 without murdering anyone to spread the message.) it is not 'revolutionary' or 'life-changing' and definitely does not in any way absolve him of his crimes. it is the excuses of murderer trying to justify his actions through the guise of 'bettering society in the long run' as a means to rally more people against each other and create destruction. ted kaczynski was clearly a very lonely, mentally unwell man, who took that out on other, innocent people because he hated everyone. he was able to live his 'primitive lifestyle' due to the financial support of his father, and expected everyone to do the same. this manifesto makes incredibly generalised, sweeping claims about society's structure (but mainly the people in it, who have no other choice?) and even admits that his claims may be "flatly false," which completely diminishes any actual arguments made. people who praise this manifesto and ted kaczynski as a person clearly have not read the manifesto, read about the case, or are just plain dumb because the amount of hypocrisy and contradictions within the manifesto alone are shocking. kaczynski had the resources and opportunity to live his dream away from society in nature on his own and being fully self-sufficient, yet gave that all up to wreak terror and harm among the population and spent a majority of his life locked up in a prison with people he despised and no access to nature. nature that i dont believe he cared for as much as he claimed, moreso the only alternative to human society, as he claims that nature and survival is all that is needed to be fulfilled in life and people who engage in 'surrogate activities' like art or literature do so because life in modern society is not fulfilling enough on its own. yet didnt ted write this book, a piece of literature if you will, while living in his cabin in the woods?? didnt he build bombs and write books and journal entries and paint?? seems like nature wasnt all that fulfilling!
also cmon this guy wants to get rid of any kind of medicine as it doesnt allow for 'natural selection'.......... speaks for itself i think.