3 ms·

Were the Unabomber’s Predictions About Technology Correct?

7 points by gardenfelder 4y ago

gardenfelder 4y ago
For reference, here is the manifesto: http://editions-hache.com/essais/pdf/kaczynski2.pdf http://editions-hache.com/essais/pdf/kaczynski2.pdf
- loa_in_ 4y ago
  "Throughout this article we’ve made imprecise sta tements and statements that ought to have had all sorts of qualifications and reservations attached to them; and some of our statements may be flatly false. Lack of suf ficient information and the need for brevity made it im possible for us to formulate our assertions more precisely or add all the necessary qualifications. And of course in a discussion of this kind one must rely heavily on intui tive judgment, and that can sometimes be wrong. So we don’t claim that this article expresses more than a crude approximation to the truth. 232. All the same, we are reasonably confident that the general outlines of the picture we have painted here are roughly correct. Just one possible weak point needs to be mentioned. We have portrayed leftism in its modern form as a phenomenon peculiar to our time and as a symptom of the disruption of the power process. But we might pos sibly be wrong about this. Oversocialized types who try to satisfy their drive for power by imposing their morality on everyone have certainly been around for a long time. But we THINK that the decisive role played by feelings of infe riority, low self-esteem, powerlessness, identification with victims by people who are not themselves victims, is a pe culiarity of modern leftism. Identification with victims by people not themselves victims can be seen to some extent in 19th century leftism and early Christianity, but as far as we can make out, symptoms of low self-esteem, etc., were not nearly so evident in these movements, or in any other movements, as they are in modern leftism. But we are not in a position to assert confidently that no such movements have existed prior to modern leftism. This is a significant question to which historians ought to give their attention."
mr_woozy 4y ago
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7 points by gardenfelder 4y ago

For reference, here is the manifesto: http://editions-hache.com/essais/pdf/kaczynski2.pdf http://editions-hache.com/essais/pdf/kaczynski2.pdf

loa_in_ 4y ago
"Throughout this article we’ve made imprecise sta tements and statements that ought to have had all sorts of qualifications and reservations attached to them; and some of our statements may be flatly false. Lack of suf ficient information and the need for brevity made it im possible for us to formulate our assertions more precisely or add all the necessary qualifications. And of course in a discussion of this kind one must rely heavily on intui tive judgment, and that can sometimes be wrong. So we don’t claim that this article expresses more than a crude approximation to the truth. 232. All the same, we are reasonably confident that the general outlines of the picture we have painted here are roughly correct. Just one possible weak point needs to be mentioned. We have portrayed leftism in its modern form as a phenomenon peculiar to our time and as a symptom of the disruption of the power process. But we might pos sibly be wrong about this. Oversocialized types who try to satisfy their drive for power by imposing their morality on everyone have certainly been around for a long time. But we THINK that the decisive role played by feelings of infe riority, low self-esteem, powerlessness, identification with victims by people who are not themselves victims, is a pe culiarity of modern leftism. Identification with victims by people not themselves victims can be seen to some extent in 19th century leftism and early Christianity, but as far as we can make out, symptoms of low self-esteem, etc., were not nearly so evident in these movements, or in any other movements, as they are in modern leftism. But we are not in a position to assert confidently that no such movements have existed prior to modern leftism. This is a significant question to which historians ought to give their attention."

mr_woozy 4y ago

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