A review by wbt_1995
Technological Slavery by Theodore John Kaczynski

informative medium-paced

5.0

Logical, lucid, and direct: these are the beginning words of the synopsis for Technological Slavery: Enhanced Edition, Volume 1 by Dr. Theodore Kaczynski. These words are indeed quite an apt description of this volume of writings. Contained within are various letters, essays, writings, and expansive notes elucidating Kacznyki’s arguments thoroughly and clearly, including the ground-breaking manifesto, Industrial Society and Its Future.

The “Enhanced” aspect of this volume is not simply a fresh coat of paint, along with the expansive and informative notes, Technological Slavery contains large amounts of sources and citations at the end of every section. Furthermore, the manifesto alone has received many improvements and quality upgrades. From grammar corrections to changes in italicization, to restoring whole sentences and words which in the past, sloppy editions were published by online copiers and indolent editors.

Along with the seminal manifesto, Industrial Society and Its Future, Technological Slavery contains many other writings and letters to various correspondents that expound Kaczyski’s many thought-provoking and revolutionary ideas. In the section titled “Letters to Dr. David Skrbina,” Kaczynski addresses and counters, clearly and logically, many dissenting arguments to the anti-tech worldview in his correspondence with Dr. David Skrbina, a former philosophy professor at the University of Michigan. Furthermore, in other letters to various other correspondents, Kaczynski explains and elaborates on his severely critical stance on technology, the industrial-technological system, and the urgent need for a revolutionary movement to force its downfall. Not only does he elucidate the nature of the technological system as one that is inexorably interconnected in all subsystems to constitute a unified, monolithic whole, but he also explains history within the context of general trends subject to “objective forces'' like geography and biology.

Additionally, another piece included within Technological Slavery is Kaczysnki’s meticulous explanation of how so-called “activists” actually aid the technological system in its quest to impose radical social changes: This is "The System’s Neatest Trick." He explains that valuable revolutionary force and fervor from would-be revolutionaries is diverted away from serious threats and into safe and useful outlets for the industrial system. Kaczynski explains that by tradition younger activists take up old causes like the fight against discrimination, and victimization issues, such as homophobia and racism, for example, and that these are causes that actually aid the System. This is because, with modern technologies like rapid, long-distance communication and transportation, it is in the System’s best interests that different types of people, who are now intermingling with one another, get along. Interracial and intersexual conflicts, for example, would impair the smooth, orderly functioning of the technological social machine. Thus, activists aid the System in fighting for these “causes,” and, by their extreme methods and proposed solutions to these “problems,” keep anger and frustration from more reactionary elements focused on them instead of on the System.

Conclusively, Technological Slavery is indeed “logical, lucid, and direct.” Furthermore, it is a volume of writings meticulously crafted and wrought with some of the most important and revolutionary ideas of our times. Dr. Kacznyki’s arguments remain air-tight and well-founded. With many sources and robust refutations of counter-arguments, Technological Savery stands as the quintessential volume for those critical of technology and of the society it has brought about.