Quotes from book
Industrial Society and Its Future

Industrial Society and Its Future
Theodore Kaczynski

He was a gifted mathematician, one of the youngest people to ever teach at Berkeley, a product of the CIA's MKUltra program while a student at Harvard, a recluse and a part-time philosopher. He was also a terrorist, known to the FBI by the acronym UNABOM (UNiversity and Airline BOMBer), thus the media moniker UNABOMBER. His manifesto, "Industrial Society & Its Future" is, in part, the disturbed rantings of a neo-Luddite, as well as a critical analysis of late, modern capitalism and the ills of an over-consumptive society seemingly hell-bent on its own destruction.

Theodore Kaczynski photo

“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)

Theodore Kaczynski photo

“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)

Theodore Kaczynski photo

“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)

Theodore Kaczynski photo

“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)

Theodore Kaczynski photo

“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)

Theodore Kaczynski photo

“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)