Unabomber Manifesto - ouroboros ponderosa

similarities are the result of a common technology. . ."—L. Sprague de Camp, The Ancient Engineers, Ballentine edition, page 17.The lives of the three bank clerks are not identical. Ideology does havesome effect. But all technological societies, in order to survive, must evolvealong approximately the same trajectory.19. Just think—an irresponsible genetic engineer might create a lot ofterrorists.20. For a further example of undesirable consequences of medicalprogress, suppose a reliable cure for cancer is discovered. Even if thetreatment is too expensive to be available to any but the elite, it will greatlyreduce their incentive to stop the escape of carcinogens into theenvironment.21. Since many people may find paradoxical the notion that a large numberof good things can add up to a bad thing, we will illustrate with an analogy.Suppose Mr. A is playing chess with Mr. B. Mr. C, a Grand Master, is lookingover Mr. A's shoulder. Mr. A of course wants to win his game, so if Mr. Cpoints out a good move for him to make, he is doing Mr. A a favor. Butsuppose now that Mr. C tells Mr. A how to make all of his moves. In eachparticular instance he does Mr. A a favor by showing him his best move, butby making all of his moves for him he spoils the game, since there is nopoint in Mr. A's playing the game at all if someone else makes all his moves.The situation of modern man is analogous to that of Mr. A. The systemmakes an individual's life easier for him in innumerable ways, but in doing soit deprives him of control over his own fate.22. Here we are considering only the conflict of values within themainstream. For the sake of simplicity we leave out of the picture "outsider"values like the idea that wild nature is more important than human economicwelfare.23. Self-interest is not necessarily material self-interest. It can consist infulfillment of some psychological need, for example, by promoting one's ownideology or religion.24. A qualification: It is in the interest of the system to permit a certainprescribed degree of freedom in some areas. For example, economicfreedom (with suitable limitations and restraints) has proved effective inpromoting economic growth. But only planned, circumscribed, limitedfreedom is in the interest of the system. The individual must always be kepton a leash, even if the leash is sometimes long (see paragraphs 94, 97).25. We don't mean to suggest that the efficiency or the potential forsurvival of a society has always been inversely proportional to the amount ofpressure or discomfort to which the society subjects people. That is certainlynot the case. There is good reason to believe that many primitive societiessubjected people to less pressure than the European society did, butEuropean society proved far more efficient than any primitive society andalways won out in conflicts with such societies because of the advantagesconferred by technology.to have some such feelings (possibly more or less repressed) andthat these feelings are decisive in determining the direction ofmodern leftism.11. When someone interprets as derogatory almost anything that issaid about him (or about groups with whom he identifies) weconclude that he has inferiority feelings or low self-esteem. Thistendency is pronounced among minority rights activists, whether ornot they belong to the minority groups whose rights they defend.They are hypersensitive about the words used to designate minoritiesand about anything that is said concerning minorities. The terms"negro," "oriental," "handicapped" or "chick" for an African, an Asian,a disabled person or a woman originally had no derogatoryconnotation. "Broad" and "chick" were merely the feminineequivalents of "guy," "dude" or "fellow." The negative connotationshave been attached to these terms by the activists themselves. Someanimal rights activists have gone so far as to reject the word "pet"and insist on its replacement by "animal companion." Leftishanthropologists go to great lengths to avoid saying anything aboutprimitive peoples that could conceivably be interpreted as negative.They want to replace the world "primitive" by "nonliterate." Theyseem almost paranoid about anything that might suggest that anyprimitive culture is inferior to our own. (We do not mean to imply thatprimitive cultures are inferior to ours. We merely point out thehypersensitivity of leftish anthropologists.)12. Those who are most sensitive about "politically incorrect"terminology are not the average black ghetto-dweller, Asianimmigrant, abused woman or disabled person, but a minority ofactivists, many of whom do not even belong to any "oppressed"group but come from privileged strata of society. Political correctnesshas its stronghold among university professors, who have secureemployment with comfortable salaries, and the majority of whom areheterosexual white males from middle- to upper-middle-classfamilies.13. Many leftists have an intense identification with the problems ofgroups that have an image of being weak (women), defeated(American Indians), repellent (homosexuals) or otherwise inferior.The leftists themselves feel that these groups are inferior. They wouldnever admit to themselves that they have such feelings, but it isprecisely because they do see these groups as inferior that theyidentify with their problems. (We do not mean to suggest that women,Indians, etc. are inferior; we are only making a point about leftistpsychology.)14. Feminists are desperately anxious to prove that women are asstrong and as capable as men. Clearly they are nagged by a fear thatwomen may not be as strong and as capable as men.