Originally posted by parabellum:
The line between genius and madness is often so blurred as to be indistinguishable.
Ted Kaczynski was probably insane, but he was certainly a genius. Nearly thirty years ago he predicted our modern society. Have you read his manifesto? I am not advocating his goal and I am certainly not advocating his methods. Nevertheless, how many of us have examined his words, rather than relying upon a synopsis by the news media??
Industrial Society and its FutureNotice the use of the terms "leftists" and "social justice".
quote:
12. Those who are most sensitive about “politically incorrect” terminology are not the average
black ghetto-dweller, Asian immigrant, abused woman or disabled person, but a minority of
activists, many of whom do not even belong to any “oppressed” group but come from privileged
strata of society. Political correctness has its stronghold among university professors, who have
secure employment with comfortable salaries, and the majority of whom are heterosexual white
males from middle- to upper-middle-class families.
13. Many leftists have an intense identification with the problems of groups that have an image
of being weak (women), defeated (American Indians), repellent (homosexuals) or otherwise
inferior. The leftists themselves feel that these groups are inferior. They would never admit to
themselves that they have such feelings, but it is precisely because they do see these groups as
inferior that they identify with their problems. (We do not mean to suggest that women, Indians,
etc. are inferior; we are only making a point about leftist psychology.)
14. Feminists are desperately anxious to prove that women are as strong and as capable as
men. Clearly they are nagged by a fear that women may not be as strong and as capable as men.
15. 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 every one’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 4
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.
17. Art forms that appeal to modern leftish intellectuals tend to focus on sordidness, defeat and
despair, or else they take an orgiastic tone, throwing off rational control as if there were no hope
of accomplishing anything through rational calculation and all that was left was to immerse oneself
in the sensations of the moment.
18. Modern leftish philosophers tend to dismiss reason, science, and 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.
19. The leftist is not typically the kind of person whose feelings of inferiority make him a braggart,
an egotist, a bully, a self-promoter, a ruthless competitor. This kind of person has not wholly lost
faith in himself. He has a deficit in his sense of power and self-worth, but he can still conceive of
himself as having the capacity to be strong, and his efforts to make himself strong produce his
unpleasant behavior.1 But the leftist is too far gone for that. His feelings of inferiority are so
ingrained that he cannot conceive of himself as individually strong and valuable. Hence the
collectivism of the leftist. He can feel strong only as a member of a large organization or a mass
movement with which he identifies himself.
20. Notice the masochistic tendency of leftist tactics. Leftists protest by lying down in front of
vehicles, they intentionally provoke police or racists to abuse them, etc. These tactics may often
be effective, but many leftists use them not as a means to an end but because they prefer
masochistic tactics. Self-hatred is a leftist trait.
21. Leftists may claim that their activism is motivated by compassion or by moral principles, and
moral principle does play a role for the leftist of the oversocialized type. But compassion and
moral principle cannot be the main motives for leftist activism. Hostility is too prominent a
component of leftist behavior; so is the drive for power. Moreover, much leftist behavior is not
rationally calculated to be of benefit to the people whom the leftists claim to be trying to help. For
example, if one believes that affirmative action is good for black people, does it make sense to
demand affirmative action in hostile or dogmatic terms? Obviously it would be more productive 5
to take a diplomatic and conciliatory approach that would make at least verbal and symbolic
concessions to white people who think that affirmative action discriminates against them. But
leftist activists do not take such an approach because it would not satisfy their emotional
needs. Helping black people is not their real goal. Instead, race problems serve as an excuse for
them to express their own hostility and frustrated need for power. In doing so they actually harm
black people, because the activists’ hostile attitude toward the white majority tends to intensify
race hatred.
22. If our society had no social problems at all, the leftists would have to invent problems in order
to provide themselves with an excuse for making a fuss.
...and:
quote:
33. Human beings have a need (probably based in biology) for something that we will call
the power process. This is closely related to the need for power (which is widely recognized) but
is not quite the same thing. The power process has four elements. The three most clear-cut of
these we call goal, effort and attainment of goal. (Everyone needs to have goals whose attainment
requires effort, and needs to succeed in attaining at least some of his goals.) The fourth element is
more difficult to define and may not be necessary for everyone. We call it autonomy and will
discuss it later (paragraphs 42-44).
34. Consider the hypothetical case of a man who can have anything he wants just by wishing for
it. Such a man has power, but he will develop serious psychological problems. At first he will
have a lot of fun, but by and by he will become acutely bored and demoralized. Eventually he may
become clinically depressed. History shows that leisured aristocracies tend to become
decadent. This is not true of fighting aristocracies that have to struggle to maintain their
power. But leisured, secure aristocracies that have no need to exert themselves usually become
bored, hedonistic and demoralized, even though they have power. This shows that power is not
enough. One must have goals toward which to exercise one’s power.
35. Everyone has goals; if nothing else, to obtain the physical necessities of life: food, water and
whatever clothing and shelter are made necessary by the climate. But the leisured aristocrat
obtains these things without effort. Hence his boredom and demoralization.
...and:
quote:
200. Until the industrial system has been thoroughly wrecked, the destruction of that system must
be the revolutionaries’ only goal. Other goals would distract attention and energy from the main
goal. More importantly if the revolutionaries permit themselves to have any other goal than the
destruction of technology, they will be tempted to use technology as a tool for reaching that other
goal. If they give in to that temptation, they will fall right back into the technological trap, because
modern technology is a unified, tightly organized system, so that, in order to retain some
technology, one finds oneself obliged to retain most technology, hence one ends up sacrificing
only token amounts of technology.
201. Suppose for example that the revolutionaries took “social justice” as a goal. Human nature
being what it is, social justice would not come about spontaneously; it would have to be
enforced. In order to enforce it the revolutionaries would have to retain central organization and
control. For that they would need rapid long-distance transportation and communication, and
therefore all the technology needed to support the transportation and communication systems. To
feed and clothe poor people they would have to use agricultural and manufacturing
technology. And so forth. So that the attempt to insure social justice would force them to retain
most parts of the technological system. Not that we have anything against social justice, but it
must not be allowed to interfere with the effort to get rid of the technological system.
202. It would be hopeless for revolutionaries to try to attack the system without using some
modern technology. If nothing else they must use the communications media to spread their
message. But they should use modern technology for only one purpose: to attack the technological system.
And that, gentlemen, is just a sample.
