The Unabomber Manifesto: Industrial Society and Its Future

Without exonerating Ted Kaczynski, his thoughts on techno-industrial society and modern man’s increasing dependence on technological innovation - to the detriment of individual, and sometimes collective, freedoms - warrants consideration amongst even his most ardent critics. His acts are unforgivable, but his thoughts aren’t worthless. Considering that he was able to predict all the current issues swirling in the national dialogue - over-dependence on technology, factions using these advances for political gain, and the inability for modern man to stop “progressing” to detriment of his freedoms, psychological health, and planetary health - I think he deserves recognition even if his thoughts are quite brief. I’d say this reading is best paired with “Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow” and “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humans” by Yuval Noah Harari. I’ve recently read these myself and found Harari’s writings an interesting pair for this manifesto.

Recently, I watched a four part series on Netflix about Ted Kaczynski titled “Ted Kaczynski in his own words”. His essay has helped me to further understand how he viewed our world during his time ‘in the woods’. I do not in any way shape form condone his bombing campaign. I have empathy, compassion and sympathy for the people he killed and maimed both physically and mentally for the rest of their lives. It is a horrific tragedy what happened to these innocent people. But, Kaczynski does bring up some very prescient points about the negative effects technology has on humans relative to our mental, emotional and spiritual well being. I bit choppy and fragmented in many parts; the essay was well worth my time to read.

Long winded justification of rejecting modern society. Interesting, insightful for the first 80-ish paragraphs, but sort of loses its novelty at that point. Fails to really address the emotional and spiritual elements of being — and looks at humanity through a fractured lens.

Tons of misspellings and misprints. Who in the heck edited this?

Genius. Intellectual. A brilliant FACTUAL account of what society has become. A few minor details that need to be corrected. Otherwise a brilliant piece of literature.

The version contains some mistakes which I highly recommend to correct them as soon as possible.

I know it was written by an infamous serial killer but this book is a conversation starter. Makes you wonder about our society today.