Sunday, May 15, 2016

The Unabomber's Manifesto on Industrial Society & Its Future, 1995

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. It will certainly
   subject human beings to greater indignities and inflict greater damage
   on the natural world, it will probably lead to greater social
   disruption and psychological suffering, and it may lead to increased
   physical suffering even in "advanced" countries.
 
   2. The industrial-technological system may survive or it may break
   down. If it survives, it MAY eventually achieve a low level of
   physical and psychological suffering, but only after passing through a
   long and very painful period of adjustment and only at the cost of
   permanently reducing human beings and many other living organisms to
   engineered products and mere cogs in the social machine. Furthermore,
   if the system survives, the consequences will be inevitable: There is
   no way of reforming or modifying the system so as to prevent it from
   depriving people of dignity and autonomy.
 
   3. If the system breaks down the consequences will still be very
   painful. But the bigger the system grows the more disastrous the
   results of its breakdown will be, so if it is to break down it had
   best break down sooner rather than later.

Full post: http://retrofilms.in/forum/436/The_Unabomber's_Manifesto_on_Industrial_Society_&_Its_Future,_1995


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