Maris Tiller
FSEM – Forbidden Texts
10/20/2021
The manifesto of the unabomber is an interesting text in that it does not seem to be the ravings of a madman that one might expect from someone who carried out multiple terrorist attacks. In fact, Kaczynski seems to be a very articulate, intelligent man. His predictions of technology going too far and isolating people seems to have come true in our modern society, and his concerns over the disappearance of nature are almost shockingly relevant as we now truly grapple with climate change. Now, I do not think that environmental activists nowadays are calling for nearly as radical changes as Kaczynski was, but it still is interesting that, if anything, the environmental change that Kacyznski was decrying in the 90s has gotten worse.
While I believe there is some truth in Kaczynski’s manifesto, I do not believe it would have had much impact or importance without the notorious terrorist attacks. For one, it would not have been published in major newspapers and read by thousands of people. It also would not have had the impact it did because it would not have been needed to explain the actions of its author. It would have simply been another political manifesto. However, because Kaczynski acted on his ideas and harmed many people in the process, the manifesto is considered to be important in studying why he did these crimes. And of course, it is in that respect. The manifesto sort of acts as a convenient way to understand Kacyznski.
I do not think there is anything inherently dangerous about this text, but it really depends on the person who reads it. Personally, I do not believe any text is inherently dangerous, not even ones that espouse terrible, harmful ideas. Often it is a storm of the person reading the text combined with the actual ideas contained within. Kaczynski calls for the destruction of technology and the return to a more natural state of being, but how many people read this and actually decided to act on this? Kaczynski himself mostly acted against people, not the machines he claimed to hate so much. It’s a very strange dissonance, to me, between Kaczynski’s beliefs and what he actually did. While I have no doubt that he believed what he said in this text, the fact that his terrorist attacks did not fully reflect them is very odd to me.