Industrial Society and Its Future

[Second Summer]

Industrial Society and Its Future is the title of the manifesto written by Ted Kaczynski, the American mathematician, social critic, anarchist, Neo-Luddite, and terrorist.

Some will undoubtedly write it off as the work of a madman -- after all his 17 year-long bombing campaign killed 3 people and injured 23 more. But I think that is much too simple and convenient. From reading the Wikipedia article on Kaczynski, it's obvious that his manifesto is related to and influenced by larger schools of thought in political philosophy such as e.g. eco-anarchism and anarcho-primitivism, so many of the ideas in the manifesto are supported by more respected writers as well.

Here are some quotes for discussion.

1. The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life-expectancy of those of us who live in “advanced” countries, but they have destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to widespread psychological suffering (in the Third World to physical suffering as well) and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world. The continued development of technology will worsen the situation.

A lot one can agree with here?

9. The two psychological tendencies that underlie modern leftism we call “feelings of inferiority” and “oversocialization.” Feelings of inferiority are characteristic of modern leftism as a whole, while oversocialization is characteristic only of a certain segment of modern leftism; but this segment is highly influential.

This is perhaps more difficult to agree with ...

25. The moral code of our society is so demanding that no one can think, feel and act in a completely moral way. For example, we are not supposed to hate anyone, yet almost everyone hates somebody at some time or other, whether he admits it to himself or not. Some people are so highly socialized that the attempt to think, feel and act morally imposes a severe burden on them. In order to avoid feelings of guilt, they continually have to deceive themselves about their own motives and find moral explanations for feelings and actions that in reality have a non-moral origin. We use the term “oversocialized” to describe such people.

He goes on to say that the results of oversocialization can be low self-esteem, a sense of powerlessness, defeatism, and guilt.

Supposedly the manifesto is under copyright, so there is a limit to how much I can quote from it, but the full manifesto is available here for anyone interested.

 

[mlp]

"Severe damage on the natural world" I can agree with, but if he thinks that human beings weren't subjected to indignities, that societies were stable, etc. before industrialization, he's living in cloud cuckoo land.

 

[Second Summer]

"Severe damage on the natural world" I can agree with, but if he thinks that human beings weren't subjected to indignities, that societies were stable, etc. before industrialization, he's living in cloud cuckoo land.

Sure, I can only assume he thinks it's worse now than before the industrial revolution.

What do you make of his assertion that “feelings of inferiority” (paragraphs 10-23) and "oversocialization" (paragraphs 24-32) are two psychological tendencies that underlie modern leftism? I think I've read posts by people on the far right saying the same, probably borrowing the terms from Kaczynski, but without embracing the other parts of the manifesto.

 

[yakherder]

I think feelings of inferiority have dominated the hierarchy of almost every society since the dawn of civilization. Civilization created the necessity for leadership, ownership, structure, etc. No matter where you are in this hierarchy, there will always be someone to be jealous of. I would describe oversocialization in a similar manner, with the supposed negative aspects of it being the result of civilization. Most societies rely on social pressure and influence to enforce it's customs, laws, etc. As much as we like to kid ourselves into believing we're individuals, our absolute reliance on society is in fact one of a few major defining characteristics of humans. Structure is necessary, and it is unrealistic to rely on the law alone to enforce it. That's where conformity comes in. Social pressure typically performs the bulk of this role. Whether one agrees with that or not, it certainly isn't something unique to leftism.

1. The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life-expectancy of those of us who live in “advanced” countries, but they have destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to widespread psychological suffering (in the Third World to physical suffering as well) and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world. The continued development of technology will worsen the situation.

Replace "Industrial Revolution" with "civilization" and I could almost agree with this, provided we accept that what one considers to be a "disaster" is a matter of opinion.

The guy is not an idiot, but he's not insightful either. Anyone can look at society and point their finger at it's problems, and most people find it comforting to blame their weaknesses on things out of their control. He doesn't have any solutions though. He didn't honestly believe that what he was doing was going to provide any benefit to society. He did it for other reasons, and just happens to be doing an above average job of rationalizing his craziness to himself.

 

[Pickle Juice]

1. The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life-expectancy of those of us who live in “advanced” countries, but they have destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to widespread psychological suffering (in the Third World to physical suffering as well) and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world. The continued development of technology will worsen the situation.

This I agree with. I don't think he's claiming humans haven't suffered from indignities in pre-Industrial Revolution societies, just noting that industrialization has done nothing to improve the world. Though I haven't read his entire manifesto. I think that observation stands on its own as a valid observation, without assuming he's comparing today with yesterday. The whole idea behind industrialization was to improve conditions for humans. It has failed for the most part.

9. The two psychological tendencies that underlie modern leftism we call “feelings of inferiority” and “oversocialization.” Feelings of inferiority are characteristic of modern leftism as a whole, while oversocialization is characteristic only of a certain segment of modern leftism; but this segment is highly influential.

I'm apolitical, so I am not familiar with the left/right dichotomy. I think feelings of inferiority are characteristic of most modern humans living in industrialized nations.

25. The moral code of our society is so demanding that no one can think, feel and act in a completely moral way. For example, we are not supposed to hate anyone, yet almost everyone hates somebody at some time or other, whether he admits it to himself or not. Some people are so highly socialized that the attempt to think, feel and act morally imposes a severe burden on them. In order to avoid feelings of guilt, they continually have to deceive themselves about their own motives and find moral explanations for feelings and actions that in reality have a non-moral origin. We use the term “oversocialized” to describe such people.

I agree that the overriding drive for many people is to avoid feeling guilty and to always appear right. So many people want to continue to do what it pleases them to do, without examining the truth that they simply have no other reason to do the things they do except that it's because they want to do them and feel entitled to both the wanting and the doing. As they are made aware that some of these things are harmful to others, instead of changing, they merely resort to all kinds of mental gymnastics to show that there is nothing wrong with what they want, and they have nothing to feel guilty about.

I rather think though that this isn't caused by a demanding moral code, but one that isn't demanding enough. My own moral code is pretty simple - don't do it to others if you wouldn't like them doing it to you - and I don't find it demanding at all, but I suppose demanding is all in the eye of the beholder.

 

[Snowcone]

The Industrial Revolution fixed everything for me.

 

[yakherder]

I don't consider 4500 BC to 1800 AD to be a very good measure of good times. I think I'd rather take either post industrial revolution world or pre stone age world and skip everything in between