Terrorist writings

shonky · Post by **shonky** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 12:35 pm

Read this in Apocalypse Culture 2 the other year (interesting read if you can stomach some of the more repulsive subject matter) and then found it from the Wikipedia link on the Unabomber, Ted Kacynzski.

http://www.sacredfools.org/CrimeScene/C ... sStory.htm

For someone that's generally regarded as a nut (albeit a ridiculously intelligent one), it did seem to be a good allegorical tale.

ifp · Post by **ifp** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 1:00 pm

hmm, not sure i get it. is he saying that the pursuit of human rights etc is causing the downfall of society?

he doesnt seem to offer much of an argument for it

shonky · Post by **shonky** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 1:12 pm

ifp wrote:hmm, not sure i get it. is he saying that the pursuit of human rights etc is causing the downfall of society?

he doesnt seem to offer much of an argument for it

My perception of the text is that there are grave and dangerous perils for mankind environmentally that need to be addressed urgently but humanity is so busy arguing about it's own immediate needs, that the larger dangers are ignored.

Kacynski is known for his back to nature, almost luddite views and is a critic of political correctness, as he believes that it is a form of population control. Whilst most anti-pc writings are generally ways of people being bigoted in one form or another, the original term was used by the KKK of all people in order to address people in the "correct" manner - regardless of whether you hated them or not.

nirz · Post by **nirz** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 1:50 pm

interesting stuff that !

ifp · Post by **ifp** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 4:05 pm

i though he was a white supremacist. did he have views on the environment too?

even so, i don't really see how having liberal views discounts taking action on the environment, if anything "liberals" are more likely to support envirnmenal action

pk- · Post by **pk-** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 7:34 pm

it reads as a sort of libertarian's Tower of Babel story to me; the greater and greater feats of 'seamanship' and the intrinsic dangers that come with them as an allegory for the technological advances of mankind, the cold of the north signifying the cold inhumanity of modern society compared to his romanticised view of a rural, communal life signified by the warmer south.
his own anti-centralisation, anti-compromise politics are pretty obviously signposted.

interesting read, i'd never seen it before!

almost luddite

i thought he was a 'fundamentalist luddite' of sorts?

i mean to say that's what i thought drove him to undertake his campaign, i wasn't aware there was any other goal or agenda that he was pursuing. wasn't he a lecturer in biotechnology or something until he lost the plot?

rickyricardo · Post by **rickyricardo** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 8:30 pm

pk- wrote: i thought he was a 'fundamentalist luddite' of sorts?

i mean to say that's what i thought drove him to undertake his campaign, i wasn't aware there was any other goal or agenda that he was pursuing. wasn't he a lecturer in biotechnology or something until he lost the plot?

He started the bombings to draw attention to his writings, specifically "Industrial Society and It's Future", which is actually a good starting place to pick apart his theories. This story actually seems to be an allegory for the concepts he laid out in the "Feelings of Inferiority" and "Oversocialization" parts of that manifesto, where he rails against the left for abandoning socialist principles in favor of marginal interests (political correctness).

The whole manifesto is worth a good read, however.

shonky · Post by **shonky** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 8:32 pm

You can find out more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unabomber

By the way, I only posted this as I found an article in the Guardian this morning talking about consumerism which reminded me of this. I don't believe the guy was a white supremacist, no mention in this article anyway. You might be talking about the Oklahoma bomber, Timothy McVeigh.

ifp · Post by **ifp** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 8:42 pm

ah thats the one, i just dont know what im talkin about

pk- · Post by **pk-** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 8:50 pm

Industrial Society and It's Future

nice, cheers for that link! i never knew he'd written so much, i'm printing that out now :]

shonky · Post by **shonky** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 9:00 pm

By the way, the original article that made me recall the original post was

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree ... 44,00.html

which I think is also quite a good read if you're interested.

metalboxproducts · Post by **metalboxproducts** » Sun Jul 16, 2006 10:57 pm

This is how i feel.

Terrorist writings

Terrorist writings

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