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Theodore Kaczynski Quotes

Theodore John Kaczynski , also known as the Unabomber , is an American domestic terrorist, anarchist, and former mathematics professor. He was a mathematics prodigy, but he abandoned an academic career in 1969 to pursue a primitive lifestyle. Between 1978 and 1995, he killed three people and injured 23 others in an attempt to start a revolution by conducting a nationwide bombing campaign targeting people involved with modern technology.

In 1971, Kaczynski moved to a remote cabin without electricity or running water near Lincoln, Montana, where he lived as a recluse while learning survival skills in an attempt to become self-sufficient. He witnessed the destruction of the wilderness surrounding his cabin and concluded that living in nature was untenable; he began his bombing campaign in 1978. In 1995, he sent a letter to The New York Times and promised to "desist from terrorism" if The Times or The Washington Post published his essay Industrial Society and Its Future, in which he argued that his bombings were extreme but necessary to attract attention to the erosion of human freedom and dignity by modern technologies that require large-scale organization.

Kaczynski was the subject of the longest and most expensive investigation in the history of the Federal Bureau of Investigation . Before his identity was known, the FBI used the acronym UNABOM to refer to his case, which resulted in the media naming him the "Unabomber". The FBI and Attorney General Janet Reno pushed for the publication of Industrial Society and Its Future, which led to a tip from Kaczynski's brother David, who recognized the writing style.

After his arrest in 1996, Kaczynski tried unsuccessfully to dismiss his court-appointed lawyers because they wanted him to plead insanity in order to avoid the death penalty, as he did not believe that he was insane. In 1998, a plea bargain was reached under which he pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Wikipedia  

✵ 22. May 1942
Theodore Kaczynski photo

Works

Industrial Society and Its Future
Theodore Kaczynski: 49 quotes21 likes

Famous Theodore Kaczynski Quotes

“The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"Introduction", item 1
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“An antitechnological movement that focused on the elimination of capitalism would gain little in return for an enormous expenditure of energy. What is worse, by focusing on capitalism the movement would distract its own and other people's attention from the far more important objective of bringing down the technological system itself.”

Theodore Kaczynski

Source: Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How (2016), p. 211

“But what first motivated me wasn’t anything I read. I just got mad seeing the machines ripping up the woods.”

Theodore Kaczynski

Interview with Earth First! in Administrative Maximum Facility Prison, Florence, Colorado, USA, (June 1999)
Interviews

“Consistent failure to attain goals throughout life results in defeatism, low self-esteem or depression.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"The Power Process", item 36
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“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.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"Introduction", item 3
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“The development of a society can never be subject to rational human control.”

Theodore Kaczynski

Source: Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How (2016), p. 7

Theodore Kaczynski Quotes about people

“To judge from the Internet postings that people have sent me, probably most of what you learned [about me] was nonsense.”

Theodore Kaczynski

Letter to J. N.
The Road to Revolution (2008)

“There are many people today who see that modern society is heading toward disaster in one form or another, and who moreover recognize technology as the common thread linking the principal dangers that hang over us.”

Theodore Kaczynski

Source: Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How (2016), p. 1

“There are two kinds of morality—the kind of morality that one imposes on oneself and the kind of morality that one imposes on others. For the first kind of morality, that is, for self-restraint, I have the greatest respect. The second kind of morality I do not respect except when it constitutes self-defense. (For example, when women say that rape and wife-beating are immoral, that is self-defense.) I have noticed that the people who try hardest to impose moral code on others (not in self-defense) are often the least careful to abide by that moral code themselves.”

Theodore Kaczynski

"Morality and Revolution"
The Road to Revolution (2008)

“The big problem is that people don't believe a revolution is possible, and it is not possible precisely because they do not believe it is possible.”

Theodore Kaczynski

Interview from primitivism.com http://www.primitivism.com/kaczynski.htm <br class="br">Interviews

“Some people have low susceptibility to advertising and marketing techniques. These are the people who aren't interested in money. Material acquisition does not serve their need for the power process.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"How Some People Adjust", item 81
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“A mistake that most people make is to assume that the more followers you can recruit, the better. That's true if you are trying to win an election. A vote is a vote regardless of whether the voter is deeply committed or just barely interested enough to get to the polls. But when you're building a revolutionary movement, the number of people you have is far less important than the quality of your people and the depth of their commitment. Too many lukewarm or otherwise unsuitable people will ruin the movement.”

Theodore Kaczynski

Letters to David Skrbina
The Road to Revolution (2008)

Theodore Kaczynski Quotes

“Smashing up McDonald's or Starbuck's is pointless. Not that I give a damn about McDonald's or Starbuck's. I don't care whether anyone smashes them up or not. But that is not a revolutionary activity. Even if every fast-food chain in the world were wiped out the techno-industrial system would suffer only minimal harm as a result, since it could easily survive without fast-food chains. When you attack McDonald's or Starbuck's, you are not hitting where it hurts.”

Theodore Kaczynski

"Technology Is The Target", point 2
Hit Where It Hurts (2002)

“It is not possible to make a LASTING compromise between technology and freedom, because technology is by far the more powerful social force and continually encroaches on freedom through REPEATED compromises.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"Technology Is A More Powerful Social Force Than The Aspiration For Freedom", item 125
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“Rebellion against technology and civilization is real rebellion, a real attack on the values of the existing system. But the green anarchists, anarcho-primitivists, and so forth (The "GA Movement") have fallen under such heavy influence from the left that their rebellion against civilization has to great extent been neutralized. Instead of rebelling against the values of civilization, they have adopted many civilized values themselves and have constructed an imaginary picture of primitive societies that embodies these civilized values.”

Theodore Kaczynski

Letter to M. K.
The Road to Revolution (2008)

“A new kind of society cannot be designed on paper. That is, you cannot plan out a new form of society in advance, then set it up and expect it to function as it was designed to do.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"Some Principles of History", paragraph 104
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“One does not have freedom if anyone else (especially a large organization) has power over one, no matter how benevolently, tolerantly and permissively that power may be exercised. It is important not to confuse freedom with mere permissiveness.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"The Nature of Freedom", paragraph 94
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“We are not supposed to hate anyone, yet almost everyone hates somebody at some time or other, whether he admits it to himself or not.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"Oversocialization", item 25
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“Never lose hope, be persistent and stubborn and never give up. There are many instances in history where apparent losers suddenly turn out to be winners unexpectedly, so you should never conclude all hope is lost.”

Theodore Kaczynski

Interview with Ted Kaczynski http://web.archive.org/web/20061003044754/www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk/profiles/ted.html <br class="br">Interviews

“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.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"Introduction", item 2
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“No, what worries me is that I might in a sense adapt to this environment and come to be comfortable here and not resent it anymore. And I am afraid that as the years go by that I may forget, I may begin to lose my memories of the mountains and the woods and that's what really worries me, that I might lose those memories, and lose that sense of contact with wild nature in general. But I am not afraid they are going to break my spirit.”

Theodore Kaczynski

Answer given when he was asked if he was afraid of losing his mind in prison. Interview with Ted Kaczynski http://web.archive.org/web/20061003044754/www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk/profiles/ted.html <br class="br">Interviews

“In any case it is not normal to put into the satisfaction of mere curiosity the amount of time and effort that scientists put into their work.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"The Motives of Scientists", item 87
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“And then there are unthinking, animal types who seem to be satisfied with a purely physical sense of power (the good combat soldier, who gets his sense of power by developing fighting skills that he is quite content to use in blind obedience to his superiors).”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"Autonomy", item 43
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“Imagine a society that subjects people to conditions that make them terribly unhappy, then gives them the drugs to take away their unhappiness. Science fiction? It is already happening to some extent in our own society. It is well known that the rate of clinical depression had been greatly increasing in recent decades. We believe that this is due to disruption of the power process, as explained in paragraphs 59-76. But even if we are wrong, the increasing rate of depression is certainly the result of SOME conditions that exist in today's society. Instead of removing the conditions that make people depressed, modern society gives them antidepressant drugs. In effect, antidepressants are a means of modifying an individual's internal state in such a way as to enable him to tolerate social conditions that he would otherwise find intolerable.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

Yes, we know that depression is often of purely genetic origin. We are referring here to those cases in which environment plays the predominant role.
"Control of Human Behavior", item 145
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“I must tell you that mathematicians are not scientists, they are artists…. Apart from the most elementary mathematics, like arithmetic or high school algebra, the symbols, formulas and words of mathematics have no meaning at all. The entire structure of pure mathematics is a monstrous swindle, simply a game, a reckless prank. You may well ask: "Are there no renegades to reveal the truth?" Yes, of course. But the facts are so incredible that no one takes them seriously. So the secret is in no danger.”

Theodore Kaczynski

The Net: The Unabomber, LSD and the Internet https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLqrVCi3l6E <br class="br">Interviews

“Those who are most sensitive about "politically incorrect" terminology are not the average black ghetto-dweller, Asian immigrant, abused woman or disabled person, but a minority of activists, many of whom do not even belong to any "oppressed" group but come from privileged strata of society.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"Feelings of Inferiority", item 12
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“Its is important, too, to realize that deadly violence among primitives is not even remotely comparable to modern warfare. When primitives fight, two little bands of men shoot arrows or swing war-clubs at one another because they want to fight; or because they are defending themselves, their families, or their territory. In the modern world soldiers fight because they have been brainwashed into believing in some kook ideology such as that of Nazism, socialism, or what American politicians choose to call "freedom". In any case the modern soldier is merely a pawn, a dupe who dies not for his family or his tribe but for the politicians who exploit him. If he's unlucky, maybe he does not die but comes home horribly crippled in a way that would never result from an arrow- or a spear-wound. Meanwhile, thousands of non-combatants are killed or mutilated. The environment is ravaged, not only in the war zone, but also back home, due to the accelerated consumption of natural resources needed to feed the war machine. In comparison, the violence of primitive man is relatively innocuous.”

Theodore Kaczynski

"The Truth about Primitive Life"
The Road to Revolution (2008)

“The ultimate goal of a revolutionary movement today must be the total collapse of the worldwide technological system.”

Theodore Kaczynski

Source: Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How (2016), p. 138

“The two psychological tendencies that underlie modern leftism we call feelings of inferiority and oversocialization. Feelings of inferiority are characteristic of modern leftism as a whole, while oversocialization is characteristic only of a certain segment of modern leftism; but this segment is highly influential”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"The Psychology of Modern Leftism", item 9
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“Many years ago I used to read books like, for example, Ernest Thompson Seton's Lives of Game Animals to learn about animal behavior. But after a certain point, after living in the woods for a while, I developed an aversion to reading any scientific accounts. In some sense reading what the professional biologists said about wildlife ruined or contaminated it for me. What began to matter to me was the knowledge I acquired about wildlife through personal experience.”

Theodore Kaczynski

in Defining Danger: American Assassins and the New Domestic Terrorists
Interviews

“The techno-industrial system is exceptionally tough due to its so-called "democratic" structure and its resulting flexibility. Because dictatorial systems tend to be rigid, social tensions and resistance can be built up in them to the point where they damage and weaken the system and may lead to revolution. But in a "democratic" system, when social tension and resistance build up dangerously the system backs off enough, it compromises enough, to bring the tensions down to a safe level.”

Theodore Kaczynski

"Why The System Is Tough", point 4
Hit Where It Hurts (2002)

“In modern industrial society only minimal effort is necessary to satisfy one's physical needs.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"Surrogate Activities", item 40
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“Crowding, rapid change and the breakdown of communities have been widely recognized as sources of social problems. But we do not believe they are enough to account for the extent of the problems that are seen today.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"Sources Of Social Problems", item 53
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“It is important not to confuse freedom with mere permissiveness.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"The Nature of Freedom", item 94
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“A theme that appears repeatedly in the writings of the social critics of the second half of the 20th century is the sense of purposelessness that afflicts many people in modern society.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"Disruption Of The Power Process In Modern Society", item 64
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“The concept of “mental health” in our society is defined largely by the extent to which an individual behaves in accord with the needs of the system and does so without showing signs of stress.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"Restriction on Freedom is Unavoidable in Industrial Society", item 119
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“People … can think of nothing better to do than to continue attacking particular evils while vaguely hoping that their work will somehow help to solve the overall problem of technology. In reality their work is counterproductive, because it distracts attention from the technological system itself as the underlying source of the evils and leads people to focus instead on problems of limited significance that moreover cannot be permanently solved while the technological system continues to exist.”

Theodore Kaczynski

Source: Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How (2016), p. 1

“The technophiles are taking us all on an utterly reckless ride into the unknown. Many people understand something of what technological progress is doing to us yet take a passive attitude toward it because they think it is inevitable. But we (FC) don't think it is inevitable. We think it can be stopped, and we will give here some indications of how to go about stopping it.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"Strategy", item 180
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“To those who think that all this sounds like science fiction, we point out that yesterday's science fiction is today's fact. The Industrial Revolution has radically altered man's environment and way of life, and it is only to be expected that as technology is increasingly applied to the human body and mind, man himself will be altered as radically as his environment and way of life have been.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"Control of Human Behavior", item 160
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“There are two kinds of morality—the kind of morality that one imposes on oneself and the kind of morality that one imposes on others.”

Theodore Kaczynski

For the first kind of morality, that is, for self-restraint, I have the greatest respect. The second kind of morality I do not respect except when it constitutes self-defense. (For example, when women say that rape and wife-beating are immoral, that is self-defense.) I have noticed that the people who try hardest to impose moral code on others (not in self-defense) are often the least careful to abide by that moral code themselves.
"Morality and Revolution"
The Road to Revolution (2008)

“And then there are unthinking, animal types who seem to be satisfied with a purely physical sense of power”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

the good combat soldier, who gets his sense of power by developing fighting skills that he is quite content to use in blind obedience to his superiors
"Autonomy", paragraph 43
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“It seems amazing that those who advocate energy conservation haven't noticed what happens: As soon as some energy is freed up by conservation, the technological world-system gobbles it up and demands more. No matter how much energy is provided, the system always expands rapidly until it is using all available energy, and then it demands still more.”

Theodore Kaczynski

Source: Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How (2015), p. 56

“As technology progresses and globalization grows more pervasive, the world-system becomes ever more complex and more tightly coupled, so that a catastrophic breakdown has to be expected sooner or later.”

Theodore Kaczynski

Source: Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How (2015), p. 49

“Where (as today) problems of transportation and communication do not constitute effective limitations on the size of the geographical regions over which self-propagating systems operate, natural selection tends to create a world in which power is mostly concentrated in the possession of a relatively small number of global self-propagating systems.”

Theodore Kaczynski

Source: Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How (2015), p. 47

“In the short term, natural selection favors self-propagating systems that pursue their own short-term advantage with little or no regard for long-term consequences.”

Theodore Kaczynski

Source: Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How (2015), p. 44

“Thus it is clear that the human race has at best a very limited capacity for solving even relatively straightforward social problems. How then is it going to solve the far more difficult and subtle problem of reconciling freedom with technology?”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"Simpler Social Problems Have Proved Intractable", paragraph 138
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“A further reason why industrial society cannot be reformed in favor of freedom is that modern technology is a unified system in which all parts are dependent on one another. You can’t get rid of the "bad" parts of technology and retain only the "good" parts.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

The ‘Bad’ Parts of Technology Cannot Be Separated From the ‘Good’ Parts, paragraph 121
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“The system does not and cannot exist to satisfy human needs. Instead, it is human behavior that has to be modified to fit the needs of the system.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"Restriction on Freedom is Unavoidable in Industrial Society", paragraph 119
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

“People do not consciously and rationally choose the form of their society. Societies develop through processes of social evolution that are not under rational human control.”

Theodore Kaczynski book Industrial Society and Its Future

"Some Principles of History", paragraph 106
Industrial Society and Its Future (1995)

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