Someone challenged me a bit about Kaczynski. I read Kaczynski’s Manifesto & commented on it to some extent at the time. I was amazed that anyone could hold those thoughts in this present age. Later, in 2005, I read Harvard and the Unabomber, the education of an American Terrorist. Kaczynski was building himself a better revolution and working at Berkeley while he did it. He left the Berkeley milieu with the Leftist-Environmental mindset that is probably still significant at that University (as well as at Harvard where he was education).
Alston Chase, a former professor of philosophy with degrees from Harvard, Oxford, and Princeton specializes in “intellectual history.” Kaczynski was a fitting subject for his study. He was passionate about his beliefs and logical and coherent in his argument for them. He hypothesized a disestablishing of human civilization to such an extent that what succeeded it would be consistent with the balance of nature – something Al Gore and many others hope for in a vague way without drawing the conclusions Kaczynski did.
I tend to think he saw himself as having the courage to take the “next step” in a Leftist-Environmentalist revolution. He hoped others would see his example, his sacrifice for the cause and follow him. Anders Behring Breivik’s “massacre” of Norwegian civilians was like that. There are all sorts of philosophies and philosophical nuances floating around and it isn’t surprising that some become fanatical converts and decide to take them to excess. Another example is the anti-abortionists who decide to kill doctors. Doing that is repudiated by every organization that opposes abortion, but the murderous “next step” isn’t illogical. The death of doctors who perform abortions will save babies. My opinion about this is that people who propagate philosophical and religious positions that can readily be taken to excess should take responsibility for what they are teaching and at the very least argue persuasively against excess such as Kaczynski’s, Breiviks’s & those who murder abortion doctors. Some people cannot hear about environmental, immigration, and abortion concerns without wanting to do something with them.
Alston interviewed Kaczynski and remained in contact with him. In 1998 Kaczynski wrote, “I suspect that you underestimate the strength and depth of feeling against industrial civilization that has been developing in recent years. I’ve been surprised at some of the things that people have written to me. It looks to me as if our society is moving into a pre-revolutionary situation. (By that I don’t mean a situation in which revolution is inevitable, but one in which it is a realistic possibility.) The majority of people are pessimistic or cynical about existing institutions; there is widespread alienation and directionlessness among young people. . . . Perhaps all that is needed is to give these forces appropriate organization and direction.”
No, something more is needed. Your revolution needs sociopaths who aren’t subject to the Christian morality that gave rise to Western civilization. You, Breivik & the murderers of abortionists fit this description but not enough of Western Civilization has been ripped away for your numbers to be anything but small
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