A review by wbtmlu
Technological Slavery by Theodore John Kaczynski

informative slow-paced

5.0

Many people today who realize that there is a problem ingrained in the very nature of the modern system fail to see the basis on which the system is formed, and therefore, in an attempt to rebel against the system, expend their energy on nonessential issues which have little to no effect on the system itself. This is the point which Ted Kaczynski, author of Technological Slavery, expounds in the essay “Hit Where It Hurts” As Kaczynski claims: 

          “Many radicals fall into the temptation of focusing on nonessential issues, like racism, sexism, and sweatshops, because it is easy. They pick an issue on which the system can afford to compromise and on which they will get support from people like Ralph Nader, Winona LaDuke, the labor unions, and all the other pink reformers. Perhaps the system, under pressure, will back off a bit, the activists will see some visible result from their efforts, and they will have the satisfying illusion that they have accomplished something. But in reality they have accomplished nothing at all toward eliminating the technoindustrial system.” –Technological Slavery, Volume One (2010) p. 252.

          Kaczynski correctly points out that issues such as racism, sexism, working conditions, forestry, and globalization, while certainly not being positive attributes of the system, are not an integral part of the system, and the system can therefore afford to do without them. In fact, resistance to nonessential components of the system can sometimes, as Kaczynski claims, benefit the system, as the resolution of these contradictions within society may help the system run more smoothly and efficiently. For example, early leftist movements advocated ‘liberating’ women by allowing them to enter the workforce. While, at the time, this may have seemed like a revolutionary change within society, the main result of this was that women were now further ingrained into the technological system, taking on jobs which would help it directly.

          One does not disrupt a system by attacking relatively minor components of the system, but by attacking that which forms the basis of the system. In the case of the modern system, the system that erodes freedoms, creates unfulfilling lives, and destroys the natural environment, it is technology and the processes involved in developing and maintaining it that forms the basis of the system. Therefore, to use Kaczynski’s words:

        “Suppose a bulldozer belonging to a logging company has been tearing up the woods near your home and you want to stop it. It is the blade of the bulldozer that rips the earth and knocks trees over, but it would be a waste of time to take a sledgehammer to the blade. If you spent a long, hard day working on the blade with the sledge, you might succeed in damaging it enough so that it became useless. But in comparison with the rest of the bulldozer the blade is relatively inexpensive and easy to replace. The blade is only the "fist"with which the bulldozer hits the earth. To defeat the machine you must go behind the "fist" and attack the bulldozer's vital parts. The engine, for example, can be ruined with very little expenditure of time and effort by means well known to many radicals.… the ‘bulldozer’ that we have to destroy is modern technology itself.” –Technological Slavery, Volume One (2010), p. 248-249.

        Technological Slavery is a piece of paramount importance which acts as a furthering of the ideas expressed in Kaczynski’s more well known work, Industrial Society and Its Future. In this work, Kaczynski, to a deeper degree than most writings on modern society, examins the nature and ills of the technological system which we live in. This piece is a must read for all of those who are even the slightest concerned over the state of the world and the direction that it is going.