unibomber-manifesto

INDUS'TRlAL SOCIETY AND ITS FunJRE
mnarb about leftism are not meanl to apply to cvery individual leftisl but to desctibe the general
charw::ter of leftism as a movemem. And the genen&i cha.nu:ter of a movement is not necessarily
determined by the numerical proportions of the various kinds of people involved in the movcment.
224. The people who rise to positions of power in leftist movements lend to be leftists of the most
power-hullgry type because power-hUl1gry people are tOOle who strive ha:rdest to gel into positions of
power. Once the power-hungry Iypes have captured control ohhe movemem, there are many leftists
of a gentler breed who inwardly disapprove of many of the actions of the leaden. bUI cannot bring
themselves to oppose them. They NEED lbeit faith in the movemeN, And because they cannol give
up thiJ faith they go along with the leaden. True, SOME leftists do have the guts to oppose thc
totalitarian tendencies thai emergc, but thcy gcm:nuly lose. because the power-hungry types are
bencr ore are mOle ruthlcss and Machiavellian and have taken care to build themselvci a
mona power base.
225. These phenomena appeared clearly in Russia and other COWltries thai were taken over by
left:isu. Similady, before the inakdoWli of communi.Jm in the USSR. lcllisb types in the West would
liCldom criticiu thai countt)'. If prodded thcy would admit thai the USSR did many wrong things,
but then they would try to find e.xCUSts for the oommunilts and begin talking about tho fault$ of the
Welt. They alwaY' opposed Western mililaJy reaiJtarlce to oonununisl aggression. Lellish Iypes all
over the world viaorou.dy prolC$tcd lho US milituy aclion in Vietnam, bUI whcn the USSR invaded
Afghanistan they did nothina. Noc thai they approved of the Soviet actions; but because of their
lellist faith, thcy just couldn't bear to pue thcmselvCl in opposition to commwUstn. Today, in those of
our uuivenities w Kpolilical correanessM bu become dominanr., there are probably many leftish
rypcs who privudy disapprove of the lupPression of ac.adc:mic freedom, but they go along with it
anyway.
226. ThUl (be fact thai many individual leftists are personally mild and fairly tolerant people by no
means preventlleftism u & whole fonn havina & totalitarian tendency.
227. OW' discussion of 1eftUm has a serious weakness. It. is still far from clear what we mean by the
won! "leftUt." Thetc deem't seem to be much we can do about this. Today leftism is fragmcnted into
a wbole specttum of activin movements. Yet not all activist movemellU are lelWt, and some activist
rnovemenu (e.g .. , radical environmentalism) sum to include both penonalities of tbe leftist type and
pcnonalltiu of thoroughly u.n-leItist types who ought to know better th&n to coUabora1e with lelllil5.
VarieliCi of leftisu fade out gradually into varietiCI of non-leftists and we oUfldves would often be
hard-pressed 10 decide whether a given individual iJ or is not aleftisl To the extent that it is defined
at all, oW' conception of lefIi5m is defined by the di.scussioo of it that we have given in ttW article.
IUd we can only advise the reader to use his own judgemeru in ded.ding wbo is a leftist.
228. Bue it will be helpful to list some criteria fOf diagnosing leftism. These criteri& cannot be applied
in a cut and dried manuet. Some individu.al.J may meet lOme of the criteria without being leftists.
iOme leftists may IlOC meet any of the criteria. Aglin. you just have to use yoW' judgemeru.
229. The leftist is oriented toward lugC£Cale collectivUm. He emphasizes the duey of the indiyidual
to serve lOciety and the duty of 50Ciety to take e&nI of the individual. He has a negative attitude
toward individuali.Jm. He 0&0 a mora1iJtic tone. He tends to be for IWl control. for sex
education and ocher ycbologicaUy MenlighlCOCd" educadonal methods, for planning. for affll1llll..ive
action, for multicultural..i5m. He tends to identify with victims. He tends to be against competition
and against violence, bue be ofteo finds e.xc\lSCl for those leftists wbo do commit violence. He is fond
of usina the conunon cuc.h. oftbe Idt lib MJacism, " "5C:Xism . .. Mhomopoobia, " "capitalism,"
"imperialism," MneocoloDialism M "genocide," MIOcial change.," "social justice," "social responsibility."
Maybe the best diagnostic trail of the leftisl is his tendency to sympathize with the following
movemellU: feminism, gay rl&hts, ethnic rlghtl, diAbiJity rights, animal righu political conectncss.
Anyone who Ittoogly Iympalhizea with ALL ofthesc movements is almost cenain\y aleftisL J(j
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THE UNABOMBER
230. The more dangerous Ieftisu, thlt is" those who are most power-hungry, are of\en chanct.erl.ud
by arrogance or by a dogmatic approach 10 ideology. However. the most dangerous leftists of all may
be certain oversodalizc:d types who avoid irritating displays of aggressivenesl and refrain from
advertising their leftism. but work quietly and WlObtnuively to promote collectivist ValUC5,
"cnlightened" psychological techniqucs for socialil:ing children, dependence of the individual OD. the
system. and so forth. Thl:le crypto-Ieftists (as we may call them) Ipproximate certain boDIKCOis
types as far as practical. action ill concerned, but differ from them in psychology, Ideology and
motivalion. The ordinlU)' bourgeois trics 10 bring people under control of the l)'5tem in order to
p1"otect his way ofhle, or hc does so simply because his attimdea are conventional The crypto-leftist
tries to bring people under control of the sy5tem because he is a True Believer in a collectivistic
ideology. The trypto-leftist is differentiated from the Iverage leftist of the oversoclaliztd type by the
fOel thal: his rebellious impLilse is weaker and he is more secutdy socialized. He is differentiated from
the ordinary well-socialized boW'geois by the fact that them is some deep lack within him that makes
it necessary for him to devotc himsclf to a cause and immene himself In I collectivity. And maybe
his (wcU-sLlbl.imated) drive for power is stronger than that of the avtfllie bourgcois.
FINAL NOTE
231. Throughout lhia article we've lluuic imprecise statements and statements thal: ought to have had
all sorts of qaalifications and reSCIVations attached to them; and some of our StalemellU may be
Da.J.ly false. Lac.k of sufficient information and the need fot brevity made it impossible for \U to
fonnulate our assertions more precisely or add all the necessary qualificarions. And of coune in a
discusrion of this kind one must rely heavily on inluilive judgement, and that can sometimes be
wrong. So we don't claim that thia article expresses more than a crude approximation to the truth.
232. AU the same we are reasonably confident that the general outli of the plctum we have
painted here are roughly comet We have portrayed leftism in it.!: modem form as a phenomenon
peculiar 10 our time and as a symptom of the disruption of the power procelL But we might possibly
be wrong about this. Ovenocialized types who try to satisfy their drive for power by imposing their
morality on everyone have certainly been around for a long time. But we nnNK that the dcdsi.ve
role played by feelings of inrcriority, low !df-esteem. powerlc$SntU, identification with victims by
people who are not themselves victims, is a pecu1illrity of modem leftism. Identificarlon with victims
by people not themselves victinu can be seen to some extent in 19th century leftism and early
Christianity but as far as we can make out, symptolIU of low self-esteem, etc., w not nearly 50
evident in these movements, or in any ocher move menU, u they are in modem leftism. But we are
not in a position to assert confidently that no such movements have existed prior to modem leftism.
This is a significant question to which historians ought to give their anention.
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