Theodore Kaczynski, more commonly known as the Unabomber, is the one of the most famous domestic terrorists in the US. In 1995, he pressured several prominent US newspapers to publish his famous work, “Industrial Society and Its Future”, quickly gaining popularity among “green” radicals. This essay will prove that Kaczynski’s views are true and that the industrial revolution was a tragedy for the human race, taking away fulfillment and causing unhappiness for the larger population.
One of the Unabomber’s claims that are central to his vision is that technology has taken away people’s ability to control their lives. To prove that claim, the author gives several examples, such as nuclear accidents, carcinogens in food, wars, and pollution. These things can happen to any person, and preventing or mitigating them is outside of a normal person’s reach. On the other hand, a person who lived in the prehistoric era was a master of his destiny. If, for example, they were attacked by a wild animal, they would be able to defend themselves (Moen, 2018). Thus, according to Theodore Kaczynski, technological advancement has introduced problems that are impossible for a common person to manage.
Thus, the industrial society, according to Kazcynsky, takes away the concept of a “power process”. The power process is a term invented by the author, which is a requirement for human beings for their lives to be meaningful. This includes a goal, efforts put to pursue that goal, achievement of that goal, and autonomy in pursuing the goal (Kadavy, 2022). However, due to the complexity of the industrial society, most issues that are meaningful for a person to get rid of are impossible to get rid of following the power process. As a person’s life depends on decisions made by other people, and they cannot affect it in a meaningful way without the help of others, they have no control over them (Kadavy, 2022). Instead, people turn to things that are under their control and require minimal effort, which will be described in more detail below. Hence, the industrial society has imposed barriers that disrupt the power process, taking away people’s autonomy and making them depend on it.
Moreover, the author argues that technology has made people’s lives dull and monotonous, and thus drives them to pursue meaningless goals. The activities that most people engaged in preindustrial times were aimed at their immediate needs, such as food and shelter, and as a by-product had given people fulfillment. On the other hand, the meaningless activities mentioned in the Manifesto are called “surrogate activities”, which are not aimed at satisfying real needs, but only at providing fulfillment. Surrogate activities result from the ease with which a person can sustain themselves in the modern world (Moen, 2018).
According to Kaczynski, the most common example of a surrogate activity is the accumulation of wealth. The author stresses that people persuade themselves that they need excess wealth even though they don’t, and this gives them something to aim for, as sustaining their basic needs gives them no fulfillment anymore. However, as surrogate activities involve no real struggle, they do not give a person a sense of accomplishment, thus causing modern society to suffer (Moen, 2018). Thus, because sustaining basic needs requires no real struggle, people turn to surrogate activities that provide no fulfillment.
Moreover, Kaczynski’s idea of surrogate activities largely stems from Desmond Morris’s concept of Stimulus Struggle. Morris, in his book named “The Human Zoo”, portrays the struggles of “opportunist” species, such as dogs and apes, when they are kept in zoos. These species, due to their nature, must discover ways to stay stimulated even after the zookeepers have met all of their other demands because they have evolved neurological systems that detest inactivity (Fleming, 2021).
If not, they’ll get bored, drowsy, and eventually neurotic. Kaczynski contends that those who can have whatever they want without effort frequently experience boredom and demoralization. Modern humans continuously struggle to obtain stimulation through surrogate activities due to modern society, which guarantees the physical necessities to everyone in exchange for only minimal effort, being like a zookeeper (Fleming, 2021). Thus, according to Morris and Kaczynski, modern society acts like a zoo for humans, causing them similar struggles to what animals face when kept in cages.
Moreover, Kaczynski stresses that labor is growing more meaningless with the development of technology. Kaczynski discusses the pursuit of money in contemporary culture from a fundamentally anti-capitalist perspective. He states that people are not connected to their jobs and are treated like inanimate objects that serve the requirements of industry rather than their own immediate needs. Since people work for capital as opposed to basic needs, there is a disconnect between labor and product. Modern work just serves as a surrogate activity, bringing no fulfillment and only serving the goals of the industrial elite (Westerman, 2020). Thus, Kaczynski states that the modern laborer is alienated from their work, which is a surrogate activity that brings them no value.
Thus, despite bringing convenience, technological advancements took away safety and fulfillment from the life of the general population. Due to the nature of the industrial society, a normal person’s life depends on the decisions of others, thus robbing them of their power process. To offset this, individuals turn to surrogate activities, that fail at bringing them fulfillment, only causing more unhappiness. Moreover, modern jobs act as surrogate activities as well, as they require no real struggle and only serve the goals of the elite. Thus, the industrial revolution and its consequences truly have been a disaster for the human race.
References
Fleming, S. (2021). The Unabomber and the origins of anti-tech radicalism. Journal of Political Ideologies, 27(2), 207-225. Web.
Kadavy, D. (2022). Summary: Industrial Society and Its Future (The Unabomber Manifesto) – Love Your Work, Episode 279. Kadavy. Web.
Moen, O. M. (2018). The Unabomber’s ethics. Bioethics, 33(2), 223-229. Web.
Westerman, S. (2020). The Philosophy of Environmental Revolution: Walden, the Unabomber, and Finding Existential Purpose in Nature [Unpublished bachelor’s theses]. Skidmore College.