A review by laonikoss
Technological Slavery by Theodore John Kaczynski

adventurous challenging medium-paced

5.0

Ted Kaczynski has been much maligned by the government and media. He’s been painted as a crazy, mentally ill victim of “MK Ultra” whose ideas are just those of a troubled mind, and thus shouldn’t be taken seriously. However, as the techno-industrial system continues on its downward path, more and more people are recognizing that this narrative is false, that his ideas have value, and are checking out his writing.
Technological Slavery is a collection of his writing which includes the manifesto, “Industrial Society and its Future” (ISAIF), as well as smaller essays and many letters which expand on the ideas expressed in ISAIF. He saw the four main points of all these writings as:
  1. “Technological progress is carrying us to inevitable disaster…
  2. Only the collapse of modern technological civilization can avert disaster…
  3. The political left is technological society’s first line of defense against revolution...
  4. What is needed is a new revolutionary movement, dedicated to the elimination of technological society…” -Ted Kaczynski, Technological Slavery, Volume One (2022), pp. 5-7

Besides ISAIF, the best piece of writing in this book is called “The System’s Neatest Trick.” In it, he explains that the techno-industrial system needs constant, rapid social change to fit with constant, rapid economic/technological change, and that people naturally feel inclined to rebel against the system. The system, seeing the rebellious impulses which might challenge it, captures this rebellious energy and redirects these impulses into instead supporting and strengthening it and furthering its ends. For instance, the system requires harmony between people of different races and religions, as it needs them to work harmoniously together and not upset the stability necessary for its smooth functioning by feuding. Then the “rebel,” instead of genuinely challenging the system in any way, says that the system is racist and needs to change, or not anti-racist enough, and tries to make it more anti-racist. These “rebels” thus assert that society isn’t going far enough in the direction in which the system is already pushing it. They may tell themselves they’re doing good, or “challenging close-minded assumptions,” or whatever else, but in reality all they’re doing is fighting as the “radical” vanguard of the system. The same is true for most other leftist social causes, from feminism to gay and lesbian rights. A side-effect of this process is that many people who resent the dramatic social changes ushered in by the technological system have their attention and resentment distracted away from the system itself and redirected instead at this vanguard of pseudo-radicals who are focused on the most by the media, and are both more open and easier targets. In the meantime, genuinely radical movements are either ruthlessly attacked by the media (with the approval of these pseudo-radicals) or else efficiently suppressed by the system with the assistance of this process.
Ted’s  other pieces of writing cover topics like why mental illness rates are higher in techno-industrial societies than primitive ones, why democracy is dominant in the modern world, why religiosity declines in techno-industrial societies, and many others. For someone who has never read Ted before, it’s best to get this book, read the manifesto, then read whatever else in this book sounds interesting. I would also recommend someone who has only read ISAIF to read this book for a broader sense of his ideas. If you had any objections to specific points, it’s likely that he expanded on those points and addressed your concerns somewhere in here. If you wholeheartedly agree with ISAIF, he expands on what must be done.