Digital Story Narrative - Kaczynski

Ted Kaczynski was, at one point, considered to be a mathematical prodigy and potential genius in the field. He enrolled in Harvard University at the tender age of sixteen and, after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan, went on to teach mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley. But this young, intelligent professor was not satisfied with his potential-filled life and, after only two years at Berkeley, moved to a log cabin in Lincoln, Montana and became the Unabomber. 

For nearly two decades, Kaczynski terrorized members of the academic and airline communities with homemade explosives. Finally, after seriously injuring twenty-three people and injuring three, the Unabomber was caught in Montana and has been in prison ever since. 

But Kaczynski was more than your average terrorist. He was a Neo-Luddite, one of the more radical ones to say the least. Neo-Luddism is a belief system which found its basis in the original Luddites, English factory workers led by Ned Ludd who were frustrated with the new system materializing as a result of the Industrial Revolution. Today, two centuries after the original Luddites destroyed factory machines, the Neo-Luddite movement is one which stands for environmentalism and against technological progress. 

Kaczynski’s infamous Unabomber’s Manifesto was sent to a number of major publications, including The New York Times and The Washington Post in September of 1995. In this pamphlet, which was more than 50 pages, Kaczynski criticized many of the, what he saw as, negative aspects of contemporary society. He wrote of increased stress and frustration found throughout humanity as a result of isolation from nature, rapid social change, and breakdown of communities. Kaczynski believed that, as a result of technological innovation, society had developed widespread feelings of “low self-esteem, depressive tendencies and defeatism”. Kaczynski’s intense belief system and high intellect combined to form the Unabomber. 

It is difficult for me to imagine how someone could be filled with such hatred towards others’ beliefs that they would be willing to kill for it. There is a big part of me which wonders what Kaczynski’s thought process was before, during, and after his time as the Unabomber. There is also a part of me which is frightened by the psychology of such a terrorist. But my biggest fear is that more Ted Kaczynskis will emerge as we continue to progress as a technological society. While it will be difficult to hinder the advancements that are being made in the fields of technology, it will be equally difficult to hinder the resistances to such innovations. The only hope that we have for the future of these resistances is that they will be peaceful and passive and nothing at all like that of the Unabomber.