Anti tech revolution why and how
Anti tech revolution why and how
Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How
Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How is a 2015 book by Theodore John Kaczynski («Ted» Kaczynski). It is published by Fitch & Madison. A second edition was published in 2020 by Fitch & Madison. [1]
Contents
Chapters
The Development of a Society Can Never Be Subject to Rational Human Control
Society is a complex system that can never be subject to rational human control.
Even granting that the behavior of a society is unpredictable in the long term, it may nevertheless be possible to steer a society rationally by means of continual short-term interventions.
However, every complex, large-scale society is subject to internal developments generated by «natural selection» operating on systems that exist within the society.
Why the Technological System Will Destroy Itself
Definitions
Propositions
A corollary to Proposition 2 is:
Human experience suggests:
Why «world peace» will be unstable
Three reasons why «world peace» will be unstable:
Sixth mass extinction
The world is also currently undergoing a «sixth mass extinction.»
Technological utopia
«Techies» also dream of immortality, using the following technological utopia goals in mind.
The first goal is highly improbable, and the final two will cause humans to «be transformed into something totally alien to human beings as we know them today.»
How to Transform a Society: Errors to Avoid
Postulates
Rules
From these postulates we can infer certain rules to which every radical movement should pay close attention.
Strategic Guidelines for an Anti-Tech Movement
Guidelines
Expected pattern
To summarize, the expected pattern for a revolution against the technological system will be something like the following:
Figments of Speculation
What is the fundamental driver that pushes the Earth to becoming a dead planet? How can it be stopped? Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber) presents his answers to these question in his book Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How. This is a summary that follows the main line of argumentation found in the book.
Introduction
Here my goal is to present the flow of the argument for why the technological system is leading to the total destruction of complex life on Earth and why we have to destroy it completely. Also I will briefly summarize rules for a movement that would want to accomplish such a world-transforming goal as well as some strategic guidelines. This is a summary of Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How by Ted Kaczynski.
The Why
The first part of the book tries to answer the question “why are we approaching the destruction of life on Earth?” So what is it in the nature of societies and technology that makes the doom almost inevitable? Why should we destroy the technological society?
We can’t control the development of a society
Looking at history we can find many instances where people tried to predict how events would unfold in the future. For example predicting the changes in economy. What we see is that it is a rule that such predictions are useless at best or even harmful.
Good intentions may lead to disastrous consequences – whenever we try to correct some wrong in the society we are driven by good intentions. But they often backfire leading to much worse outcomes. For example Prohibition in the United States was supposed to decrease alcohol consumption. The result was the formation of gangs and mafia that got wealthy from selling illegally produced strong alcohol.
Complex systems are systems of interconnected elements. They behave in a nonlinear fashion, that is an increase in some parameter (e.g. temperature) may lead to disproportionately huge results. The characteristics of a complex system tell us very little that could help us in guessing what the system will do, we often observe novel behaviors on the scale of the entire systems – so called emerged behaviors.
Chaos theory – many systems (including complex systems) can function in chaotic ways. This means that the behavior is essentially unpredictable in the long run as to predict the behavior of such a system would require very fine measurement of the initial conditions and having an exact mathematical model describing the evolution of the system with respect to time. Neither is possible when we are talking about many interesting systems, such as climate, ecological niches, or societies.
The idea of self-invalidating predictions is a simple one, but deserves our attention. It just means that when you are making a prediction based on your current state, the prediction changes your state, so it becomes invalid. Essentially, you cannot accurately make good predictions about yourself. And any other complex system has this characteristic.
Taking these and other concepts together we can say that a society cannot predict its own behavior in the near future and it cannot really control itself. Moreover we too can’t understand societies enough to steer them in the right direction.
To quote the author:
“(…) [T]he development of societies will forever remain beyond rational human control.” (p. 31)
Technology will be shaped by power-struggles
Technology is now being developed by powerful groups. Essentially these are governments, corporations, organizations that can spend lots of resources (time, money, people) in researching, testing, and perfecting various technologies. These groups, however, are in competition with each other. In the energy domain groups that work on solar panels, coal and gas mining, wind turbines, nuclear power plants all compete against each other to stay in the market and rise above the others. The same is the case in other domains where technology is being developed. When there are power-struggles technology becomes a tool to win over the competition (p. 32). Not the most beneficial technology is being developed but the one that gives a strong competitive advantage over the other groups. Other concerns aren’t really important. We will see more and more technology that serve power, not us.
Self-propagating systems
Kaczynski introduces an interesting concept of a self-propagating system. He creates an analogy between the process of natural selection that we observe in biology and the similar form of selection that we can find in man-made systems (political parties, corporations, governments, religious groups, generally networked groups of people with shared interests). Such systems are competing with each other and the more powerful ones win over the less powerful ones. These groups, like their biological counterparts (for example animal species) self-propagate, that is they grow by recruiting new members, buying out other companies, etc. A corporation is a good example: a corporation can “live” for hundreds of years, changing, growing, while people are hired and fired. These self-propagating systems grow larger and larger. The ones that do not grow are outcompeted by the ones that do (p. 28 – 29, 42 – 55).
Short-term wins over long-term concerns
What’s crucial are two points:
1) A self-propagating system tries out and exploits every opportunity to gain more power. If it doesn’t, the others will do that and they will outgrow it.
2) A self-propagating system is focused on short-term gains. When a few systems are concerned with long-term effects (such as climate change), but one of them is strictly focused on short-term gains regardless of long-term consequences, it will gain major advantage over the others in the near future. This is enough to grow larger than those other ones (p. 44).
These points lead us to a conclusion that self-propagating systems will grow larger and larger and will be more and more ferocious with their use of natural resources ignoring long-term consequences. Ultimately the result will be the total collapse of the world, making it unsuitable for complex life (p. 48).
All systems – including ecological systems, civilizations, power grids – function within certain limits. Crops can’t grow when there is not enough water, but also not when they’re constantly submerged in water. Powerful self-propagating systems, driven by short-term gains, will inevitably push the ecological systems beyond their limits, essentially disrupting the environment beyond repair (p. 48).
Stability is very unlikely
We can think that maybe there is a chance that some fragments of the society that are particularly dangerous (extraction and use of fossil fuels) may indeed collapse and that could solve at least some of the major problems with ongoing climate crisis.
The thing is, societies we live in – with their economies, businesses, industries, factories, modes of transportation, computer systems, government organizations – are increasingly complex. They are subject to chaotic behavior, where slight alterations may lead to disproportionately large changes in the functioning of the system. The branches of societies are tightly coupled – meaning that a failure in one branch of a society can lead to cascading failures spreading across the entire society and even to other societies (p. 49). Such was the case with the global financial crisis that started in 2008 in United States and spread across much of the world.
Knocking out or fixing such a harmful system would likely lead to unpredictable disastrous consequences. An example of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) is interesting as it shows an attempt at fiddling with a complex system (not only the plant itself but its ecological surroundings). The danger of “genetic pollution” (passing of the introduced genes to other species) is rarely raised, but the consequences are impossible to predict (p. 66 – 67). In the area where genetically modified crops are growing sometimes so called “superweeds” emerge (from “GM crops created superweed, say scientists” in The Guardian). These are weeds that caught some of the genes from genetically modified crops and gained resistance to herbicides and abilities to survive harsh conditions.
Even if we could eliminate a harmful self-propagating system and enjoy a relative stability, after some time new groups would pop out, gain power, exploit every loophole in the law, focus on short-term profits. They would quickly catch up to and overtake safer systems (that, for example, use sustainable sources of energy). The stability would once again fall into disarray (p. 49 – 51).
And as we’re in the topic of energy…
We can never have enough energy
We use energy for everything: to produce and process food, for transportation, for research, production of commodities, communication, development of new technologies, maintenance, computer systems. The list could go on. We barely have enough energy sources. The systems we rely on require more. We observe sky rocketing developments in computing, with Big Tech giants the like of Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and others getting bigger and bigger, their data centers – housing tens of thousands of computers each – also getting bigger and more numerous. They are extremely power-hungry. The need electricity to run and they need electricity for cooling. So societies need more energy sources to accommodate this need for electricity. But when this need is met, the systems expand, grow to the limits of what is possible. And the cycle repeats, more energy resources have to be extracted, and they are swallowed by insatiable systems (p. 56).
The problem with Green Energy
There is one more problem with energy. Green energy may be better in many respects than other sources but it is not an ultimate answer to the problem of obtaining energy.
Wind turbines pose two risks. First, they require rare-earth metal called neodymium which has to be extracted and – as other elements – is a limited resource. Second, wind turbines kill many birds that may destabilize the ecosystems by eliminating natural predators for pests (p. 62 – 63).
Harnessing solar energy requires vast spaces to be covered with solar panels. This puts the sourcing of energy with direct competition with smaller life forms that live closer to ground (even on the deserts) or in the oceans (p. 63).
Why the current mass extinction is unique
Unlike in previous mass extinctions, where few factors drove the disasters, the current one is driven by self-propagating systems that will exploit each and every resource at an increasing pace and scope. Nothing will be left untouched (p. 58-61). The systems that are operating currently and the systems that will come about in future are such that they use every possible resource there is (mining of minerals and metals, extraction of petroleum & oil, extraction of natural gas, cutting timber, use of fresh water). And the technologies that are being perfected allow for extraction of natural resources from places that were unavailable or unprofitable for use before, so the systems only continue to carve out more and more of what is left. All the while destroying the environment to get to these resources, poisoning fresh water and underground water reserves, eliminating animal and plant species and entire ecosystems, exacerbating the climate crisis. The destruction of the planet is being done using increasingly complex and sophisticated technologies – technologies that are being upgraded faster and faster, destroying the biosphere faster and faster (p. 63 – 67).
Did you ever wonder what is this “economic growth” that we often hear in the news? The headlines “China’s economy grew 6 percent.” What does this mean and why should we care? To grow the economy China has to build more infrastructure, has to create more jobs, has to produce more commodities, has to provide more services. Meaning: China must extract more natural resources, must damage more of the environment, must worsen the problem with climate change. The economies of other countries grow with different rates. But one thing is clear when we observe that most countries do in fact grow with respect to economy: they are bigger than before and they will likely be bigger in the near future than they are today. It translates to: countries destroy the environment more than before and in the future we can expect that they will destroy it even more than today.
Countries do that because they are only concerned with short-term gains. If one country would focus too much on long-term sustainability the other countries would overwhelm it posing a grave risk to it in terms of technological competitiveness, job security, and even militarily.
The destruction of the environment is getting faster and faster. The scope of this ruin is also getting larger and larger. So the current mass extinction is unique because the destruction is being done on many aspects of the environment and this devastation is accelerating as it is being done by power-hungry self-propagating systems.
Humans are needed only as long as they serve the systems
Humans will be needed only insofar as they are useful to self-propagating systems. When self-propagating systems gain an advantage by using humans or existing with symbiosis with them, the systems will take care of people. But once the costs of maintaining this dependence on humans are too high or the humans are simply no longer useful to a self-propagating system, humans will simply not be a part of the decision making process anymore (p. 70 – 71).
Currently we see increasing automation in warehouses, factories, food production, and even attempts at automating transportation with self-driving cars. This clearly demonstrates that people are becoming increasingly replaced by machines and simply left useless.
There is no need for machines to become very intelligent, let alone match (or even surpass) human intelligence in the general sense. The only thing that is needed for machines to replace humans is for machines to become better at particular things that are required for operation of some powerful self-propagating systems (p. 71).
The How
The second part of the book is concerned with the question “how to dismantle the technological system?” Large sections could be used by many radical movements in pushing their agenda or preparing for a revolution, but there is of course focus on destroying the technological system itself.
Rules for radical movements
Author presents a set of 5 rules that should drastically improve the chances of success of any given radical movement that wants to carry out a revolution.
Rule 1: The movement should select a single, clear, concrete objective. Having a single, clearly stated objective makes it possible to focus on actually achieving it. Having a concrete goal allows the movement to stay on course (p. 90 – 91).
Rule 2: The achievement of the goal must make the society virtually impossible to reverse to the previous way (p. 91). After achieving the objective there could arise organizations that would want to get back to the old scheme of the society, therefore the change must be almost impossible to reverse (p. 108).
Rule 3: Recruit a committed minority of people to organize actual action. After selecting a goal a group has to be formed that will not only preach but focus on taking steps to achieve the goal (p. 91). Organizing people for action is harder than preaching of ideas, because we are flooded with ideas (p. 112-113).
Rule 4: A radical movement should devise means of excluding potential candidates that are unsuitable. Unsuitable members could derail, slow down or otherwise impede the actions of the movement (p. 91 – 92). Too many people with their own incompatible views may lead to the collapse of the movement (113-114).
Rule 5: A radical movement has to achieve the goal as soon as possible, otherwise it may risk becoming corrupt or changing its goals or falling apart. (p. 92). Power attracts opportunists who seek to join any organization for the position or power it gives them (p. 116).
The solution to the technological system
The fundamental source of contention in the world that is driving the world to ruin is the struggle between wild nature and the technological system (p. 124). Therefore the objective should be to “kill” the technological system or at least make it defunct, impaired by attacking communication networks, transportation systems, power grids, computer systems, etc.
When looking through the perspective of the rules:
Rule 1: Clear and precise objective – eliminate technological system.
Rule 2: Change should be irreversible – major destruction of the system or its part should make it impossible to resurrect it for at least hundreds of years.
Rule 3: Organize a movement for action – this part is elaborated on later.
Rule 4: Exclude unsuitable people – some means to do that would have to be found.
Rule 5: Achieve goal fast, before the movement becomes corrupt – destruction is much faster than construction, so it should be possible.
Thus, it should be possible to organize a radical movement to overthrow the technological system (p. 124 – 125).
Strategic guidelines
Strategic guidelines for the movement touch on various aspect of gaining power over alternative organizations, keeping the movement pure (committed to the cause), and many others.
Reputation of the movement
The movement must earn for itself the reputation of being the purest, the most uncompromising, the one with a clear goal and something to show. This way in a time of a major crisis people will turn to this movement to fix the situation (p. 135).
Hardships and sacrifice
Even ordinary people can suffer through hardships when they believe that they are doing this for a noble cause (p. 139).
When a crisis hits
When a major crisis hits, people will lose all confidence in the current system. People will likely not defend the system; this poses an opportunity for the movement (p. 142).
Harnessing anger
Replacement of workers by automation ma lead to apathy, passivity, hopelessness, and anger, “skillful revolutionary leaders can harness people’s anger and frustration and turn it to useful purposes.” (p.144).
Win through commitment and organization
Tiny minority can prevail over a powerful majority by being committed, well organized, with clear goals, and by having an understanding of the dynamics of social movements. The minority can win with the initial power of their political, organizational, and planning skills (p. 145 – 148).
A pattern for an anti-tech revolution
a) the movement establishes structures in many countries,
b) general population will not join due to fear or apathy,
c) when crisis arises people are in disarray and angry, and revolutionaries will tap into this force
d) most people will be motivated to only save themselves,
e) authorities will be in disarray, incapacitated,
f) after bringing down the system in one country, the system will fail in others due to interdependence between countries (cascading failure),
g) revolutionaries have to seize the opportunity when it arises without hesitation (p. 148 – 149).
Avoid moral ambiguity
All the movement’s actions have to be seen as justified. This can be done by ingraining the idea that the cause is a noble one. There cannot be any moral ambiguity so that prompt action is unobstructed (p. 151 – 152).
Morality and values
The values and morality of the old system have to be discarded and replaced by morality and values of the revolutionary movement (p. 154). Recruits to the movement will have to adopt these new values. The message of the movement should be directed not to the average man but to people who are most likely to be receptive to the ideas of the movement (p. 154 – 155).
Respect over likability
“A revolutionary organization should seek not to be liked, but to be respected, and it should have no aversion to being hated or feared.” (p. 155). This way the movement is taken seriously.
Practice organizational skills
Revolutionaries should practice leadership, propaganda, organizing by joining to other political groups (e.g. environmentalist movements) (p. 155) or through publication of a journal (p. 156). Today that would include social media groups, podcasts, YouTube channels, etc.
Unity in action
Criticisms and arguments are fine, but the organization must be totally united when it comes to action (after decisions have been made) (p. 156-158). This way the organization is flexible in thought and planning and strong when it comes to action.
Inspire through world-transforming goal
“(…) [I]t is a serious mistake to set modest goals for a revolutionary movement on the ground that such goals are “realistic.” Only a truly world-transforming goal can inspire people to accept hardship, risk, and sacrifice, and to put forth the extreme effort that will be necessary for the success of any real revolutionary movement in the world today.” (p. 160).
Absolute commitment to the goal
Organization must be self-confident – absolutely determined and believing that they can attain their ultimate goal. But they should be careful when it comes to individual steps, tasks, projects, for carelessness leads to failure. (p. 159-162).
Serious defeats are not necessarily fatal
Even major defeats may be rebound from: either by reorganization, determined continuation and getting back lost power, or other means. Moreover defeats often weed out week members who were not fully committed to the cause (p. 162-166).
Argue to persuade third parties
“Seldom indeed will you succeed in persuading your opponents in an ideological dispute. Therefore, in any such dispute, your arguments should be designed not to persuade your opponents but to influence undecided third parties who may hear or read the arguments.” (p. 169).
Recruit instead of arguing
“The way to prevail over rival radical groups is not to argue with them but to outflank them: Focus on recruiting to your organization any suitable persons who are predisposed to reject modern technology but are undecided among the various factions. Show that your organization is more active and effective than other radical groups. This will bring more people over to your viewpoint than any amount of argument will do.” (p. 168).
Stay within the law
Government will likely know a lot about the organization. The organization should be strictly legal for safety (p.170).
Learn about newest technology
Organization must continually learn about the newest technology to know about spying techniques, crowds control, but also to have technological arsenal to fight the established power structure (p. 174-175).
Why human self-propagating systems are dangerous
Human self-propagating systems (such as organizations, business enterprises, etc.) are especially dangerous because they are very intelligent and they are parts of the extremely powerful, global self-propagating systems (multinational corporations, financial systems, etc.). They can potentially disrupt the entire world (p. 199).
Human volition is a product of society
Most successful organizations mold the volition of their members to their needs. This way the people are subservient to the organization. The organization itself has a competitive advantage over other organizations.
The manipulation of people may be unintentional. No one in the organization may know all the ways in which the people are steered. Such processes emerge through the mechanisms analogous to evolution.
People cannot simply choose to change this and collectively focus on saving the environment, as such processes are strong, many are unconscious and unknown, therefore we have little to no control over them (p.200-201).
Why going after capitalism is a red herring
Yes, getting rid of capitalism would slow the progress of technology and the destruction of nature. However, technological progress would still continue, only slower. The end result would still be the same. For example Soviet Union was a very strong country, technologically. Soviets put satellites into the Earth’s orbit, send a man to space, built nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons. Technology did progress, the environment had to pay the cost (p. 211).
Links, References, Videos, Further Reading
Kaczynski, Theodore John. Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How. Fitch and Madison Publishers (2016).
Shine On You Crazy Diamond: Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How
Uncle Ted: History, Technology, and Prophet-hood:
Recently, I came across an article about how Ted Kaczynski had garnered a new following of acolytes trying to start a new “Neo Primitive” revolution. If you are unfamiliar with Uncle Ted then you might want to click on this handy link to the UNABOMB FBI page for some history. I for one lived through the events of his bombing campaign and read the maifesto “Industrial Society and Its Future” eager to seek some clues as to who the bomber was but I also was struck by some of what the person who would be revealed as Ted Kaczynski, was trying to say about our society and its possible demise from technology. Admittedly I was younger then and I may have lacked some of the nuance in 1995 but, today it is much easier to see what Ted was trying to say using the wrong means to get the message out.
Of course Ted is in fact mentally ill and because of that much of what he is trying to say at the core of his argument is padded with pedantry and a fair bit of sexism, racism, and lack of full clarity. However, once you prize apart some of his concerns you can see his point on how technology has really sort of enslaved human kind and may do so even more as we create more and more tech that we rely on to live. If you are not up for a long and pedantic read, you might want to check out “Manhunt: UNABOMBER” on Netflix to get a sense of where his head was and it turns out, still is. While the show is dramatized the point is brought out well on what Ted was trying to say about technology as a system and how it now is controlling our lives and destroying the environment.
Now back to this article that started my trip down the Kaczynski rabbit hole again. The whole thrust of the piece is that there are people who have latched on to Ted as a prophet of sorts about his ideas on technology and its ill’s today. Some of these people have banded together to start groups or join groups that believe that society will come to an end or that technological society to be precise, will be our collective end. These people have then decided that they need to be “Neo Primitives” living in groups in the woods learning hunter-gatherer skills and living off the land. Yet others though are taking more direct and troubling actions to fight the technological society using anarchist ideals and finally seeking the prophet’s (Ted) guidance on just how to do this.
Within the article these new true believers are seen to have varying levels of angst but it seems from the piece that more than a few of them have reached out to Ted in prison asking him for advice or direction. So far it seems Ted has dealt with them up to a point only to then turn them away and with some vehemence, branded them idiots in his brusque “stop talking to me you idiot” way. However, I suspect that these true believers perhaps got Ted thinking and by 2015 he had published “Anti-Tech Revolution: How and Why” for the masses. This is the most logically sound reason why I think Ted put this book together. It really makes sense if you take into account these people had been trying to get him to lead them but he did not want to be directly linked to them perhaps because if they did carry out revolution, it would come back on him legally. Of course he is in jail forever but I suppose they could impose further sanction on him were he seen as the leader of an anti-tech revolution from inside his cell by proxy of letters to and from the revolutionaries right?
So Ted puts together this how to manual on how to fight the revolution against technology and societies that are based on it. I read all two hundred and fifty dense pages and bring to you all my condensed thoughts on his book. It took a lot of whiskey and coffee in alternating shifts to get through much of what Ted wrote here. Like the “manifesto” it is exceedingly pedantic in style and dense in ideas while being so obtuse at times one has to stop and say “uhhh what?” between the sections of chapters of which there are only four.
But what large chapters they are….
Anti-Tech Revolution: How and Why:
Chapter 1: The Development of a Society Can Never Be Subject to Rational Human Control
Ted spends a LOT of time in the first chapter trying to link evolutionary biology to complex systems to humans and society. The distillate of this chapter is that Ted believes that technological systems and societies are like biological systems in the way Darwinism and evolution chooses the strong or the genetically lucky to live and to thrive. It’s a long long chapter and in the end I had to just shake my head at his bloviation. Just look at the title of the chapter to see how cognitively challenging this line of thought is! Rational human control? Wait, are you saying that society is rational? Ok ok ok, I can see the argument and there is some rationality there but really, the chapter drones on about societies throughout time and the building of society from hunter gatherer to today. It goes on a long winding path with a lot of citations from history, chaos theory, and philosophy that in the end does not really make a convincing argument. What it all boiled down to is this; Societies must be small and not technology based. Basic tools are ok but once you get to agrarian systems and large populations technology is required and then it takes over.
The only area that I enjoyed in this chapter was where he touched on chaos theory in relation to evolution and systems. His contention is that systems are not static and there is a great deal of volatility there. However, I think he missed the part of Chaos theory that lead to Complexity Theory where all the chaos forms a stable system on the macro level. Ted is a Mathematician but I don’t think he is that well read on Chaos theory never mind Complexity and those are two things you have to take into account in societal systems, human nature, and the universe itself.
Chapter 2: Why the Technological System Will Destroy Itself
The second chapter of the treatise is on why any technological system will destroy itself. Basically Ted goes on a bender here about how systems of technology are just rapacious machines that will, in the end, eat up everything the world has to offer in order to grow. This chapter also goes on further into the ideas of natural selection applying to technological systems. I got kinda lost here on this idea because frankly it is not the systems that are doing this, it is the people doing this to propagate the systems they create. Ted seems unable at times to separate the fact that the technology is not the slave but the tool to which we give up power. It is more about the human systems of psychology, society, and evolution that he should be concerned with, not the “systems” that we create.
Honestly the only way that I can see an argument like his being made using “self propagating systems” as he calls them, would be when we actually have a true AI that is self aware and is programmed to evolve and grow. When that happens we are likely screwed in my opinion but that time is not now and this book is not about that. Once again Ted gets lost in the details of citations from Solzhenitsyn to Max Weber. It’s a sea of ideas and is misguided in my opinion. However, I can see my way to his thinking about how we as humans are using technology more and more that in the end is allowing us to destroy the ecology of the planet. Once again though, the technology is just a tool that the humans are using within a society that they created and are expanding, it is not the system that is the problem, it is the humans using the tools without foresight on what they are doing to their surroundings. It is entirely possible to have a technological society and still have balance with ecology. It’s just that we as humans are just not there yet to grok this and really work towards that goal.
Chapter 3: How to Transform a Society: Errors to Avoid
This chapter delves deeply into varying political theories including quotes from Mao Zedong to Sin Fein. All of it though is oriented on groups that attempted to change society for their own system they wanted to install. Honestly most of the groups that Ted cites in this one are not shining examples of open societies or men known for their humanity. This all though dovetails into much of what Ted wants to the revolutionary to understand; “You have to break some eggs to change society” and all these people can be your guides. Ted continues on long diatribes about the failures of certain groups including a scathing review of the current crop of Neo-Luddites and “Techies” that, according to him, believe too much in rainbows and unicorns.
Chapter III Part IV: The Application
Let’s start with Chellis Glendinning’s “Notes Toward a Neo-Luddite Manifesto,” which can be found in an anthology compiled by David
Skrbina.151 Glendinning’s statement of the goals of neo-luddism is long and complicated, and most of the stated goals are hopelessly vague.
Here is a sample:
We favor the creation ef technologies in which politics, morality, ecology,
and technics are merged far the benefit ef life on Earth: Community-based energy sources utilizing solar, wind, and water
technologies-which are renewable and enhance both community relations and respect for nature;
Frankly I agree with Ted here. These people are vague and believers that technology will solve everything. Where Ted and I part is that once again, I think the people are the key, not the destruction of the system. The people need to come to the conclusion that they need to manage the technology and the systems in a way to achieve balance in order to grow and not destroy the balance.
…Then again, I am not mentally ill like Ted.
The takeaway here is that Ted is setting up the argument in the next chapter. That argument basically is that the “revolutionaries” need to steel themselves for the right time to take over if not make that moment happen themselves.
Chapter IV: Strategic Guidelines for an Anti-Tech Movement
The final chapter is really where the rubber meets the road so to speak in this book. As you can tell from the title, Ted is setting the revolutionaries up with a pep talk on how they need to proceed to win the war. The thrust of the chapter is that the revolution needs to be resolute, have a consistent single minded narrative, and to be somewhat ruthless. Of course Ted is careful to not go over the line in this chapter into areas of illegality. No, in fact he calls out in one place that the revolutionaries should not commit crimes while hinting at actions that may very well be criminal to fight the battle.
Ted covers everything from creating small small agile teams of people with the right skills (cells) as well as leveraging media, propaganda, and the very technologies that the movements are to be fighting. Yup, in fact he has a section where he says there should be teams within the revolution who are expert at such technologies and ideas as surveillance, crypto, hacking, etc to be used against the system. I don’t know about you, but a lot of what he is laying out here sounds like a terrorist cell. Of course Ted is using the rubric of the title “revolution” but honestly, how many revolutionaries in your lifetime have been anything other than varying shades of terrorists?
This last chapter is the clearest and yet most couched message to the would be revolutionaries. It is an epistle on how to form a revolutionary cell, create a larger structure on multiple continents, and wait for the right moment to strike. How to strike? Well, for one thing wait until the technology fails and then take over once everyone is demoralized. The other method is to maybe cause the failure of the technological system and then follow through taking over once the people are demoralized. Either way, Ted is advocating for active resistance to technological society and to take measures to fight it and take it over.
It’s really that simple.
All his preambles in the first three chapters are just long winded thought bombs to convince those who frankly, if they are already reading this treatise, are already convinced. But hey, you gotta lay out the premise right? Overall this book tries to brain dump a whole ethos using junk political thought, science, and a smattering of radical action to prep those Neo-Luds out there unable to focus their efforts properly per Ted.
Final Thoughts on Anti-Tech Revolution How and Why:
While I am rather fascinated with some of Ted’s ideas, this book was just a long winded exhortation for someone to take action in Ted’s war on technological society. Since he is incarcerated there is no one carrying out the war he started, and frankly I suspect that kinda rankles him. I am sure that once these kids started reaching out to him (once again read the article “Children of Ted”) it all got stuck in his craw again that no one picked up the fight since his arrest. His manifesto did not reach the right people I guess until now and he is trying to kindle that flame but feels that these kids are all morons so he will teach them with a book.
Speaking of the kids, that article should worry you about these kinds of movements as we see more things going wrong out there climate wise as well as politically. Ted was right about a few things in the manifesto, we are slaves to the technology but we allow ourselves to be. However, in that enslavement we have also become more alone and insular. We have higher rates of depression and we are seeing civility basically coming apart at the seams online while we get a steady feed of advertising and disinformation with a side dish of hate. The technology is allowing our basest of instincts run amok and so far we are ill equipped to do anything about ourselves doing this never mind our aggressors like Russia. No, Ted did have some ideas that are pertinent but his mental state rendered him unable to get the core ideas to the masses without using explosives and terror.
What Ted has laid out here will likely be ingested by the true believers but it is the last chapter that should concern us all. If these Neo-Luds and Eco-Terrorists mesh, then we are likely to see a new kind of Monkey Wrench Gang working out there against the “technological society” at large seen as the enemy of the planet. I know that certain agencies and military branches have already been talking about these kinds of activities ramping up as climate change starts affecting more people. I for one will keep an eye out for this as well because it seems that climate change is only getting worse and the effects are becoming more discernible by the lay people.
Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How
| Author | Theodore John Kaczynski |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Fitch & Madison |
