This was the scariest text I’ve had to read yet. In a previous post I wondered if all conspiracy theories read like the SCUM Manifesto and Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This text shows that this is not the case. Industrial Society and Its Future, or the Unibomber’s Manifesto, is actually very intelligently written. You can see that in the way he writes and his own credentials. His criticism of higher education likely comes from his experience going through college and as a professor. This is different from other criticisms as they usually come from ‘outsiders’ while Kaczynski could be considered an ‘insider.’ He also makes some very grounded points about problems with society today. He mentions inherent class differences as well as the future of genetic composition, both real problems today.
This isn’t to say Kaczynski is the sanest and most rational person. He is the unibomber after all. He strawmans the left to the point of acknowledging that not all leftists are as bad as he’s describes them. The left in general seems to be portrayed very negatively in these sorts of conspiracy texts, the Anarchist Cookbook and Protocols of the Elders of Zion as examples. Kaczynski also makes numerous flaws in his arguments, the main ‘big flaw’ being his connection of economic status and culture. He also does not seem to be able to look back at the past and identify more relevant problems back then that overtook modern problems, he just notices that modern problems weren’t a problem today. The book in general alternates between crazy and scarily close to reality in its arguments. Some of what he’s saying is being regurgitated today, for better or for worse.