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                 ByMichaelA. Weinstein 
                                                                                                           telligence,   and  it  doesn't  collapse 
                                                                                                            through an environmental catastrophe, 
           T TOOK ME a long time to get serious 
                                                                                                            human beings "will no longer be a cre­
           about the Unabomber manifesto. 
                                                                                                           ation of nature, or of chance, or of God 
                                                                                                           (depending on your  religious or  philo­
           When it was first published in the 
                                                                                                           sophical opinions), but a manufactured 
       Washington Post, I studiously ignored it. 
                                                                                                            product." 
       A tenured professor of political theory, 
       I'm one of the "oversocialized social theo­
            "'                                                                                                 The notion that the most probable 
       rists  that the Unabomber mocks in the 
                                                                                                           future for the human race, barring ca­
       manifesto ("the theories are designed to 
                                                                                                           lamities, is its replacement by synthesiz­
       serve the needs of the theorists more 
                                                                                                           ed organismsis not unique to the Una­
       than the needs of any people who may be 
                                                                                                           bomber, but is familiar in science fiction, 
       unlucky enough to live in a society on 
                                                                                                           dysptopian literature, neo-Luddite writ­
                            are 
              the theories       imposed"). 
       which 
                                                                                                           ings and academic social theory. The dif· 
          Political  theorists  are  taught  to be 
                                                                                                           ference with the Unabomber is the un­
       skeptical of thought that is current be­
                                                                                                           blinking realism of his analysis. 
       cause it is backed by force. It took one of 
      my students pushing the manifesto on 
                                                                                                                 r 
                                                                                                               Fa from being the "romantic;' that 
      me to get me to look at it, and a colleague 
                                                                                                           the wilderness school of Unabomber in­
      pulling it out of cyberspace and thrusting 
                                                                                                           terpretation promotes,  the  Unabomber 
      it on me to get me to read it carefully. 
                                                                                                           does not beat a retreat to "wild nature," 
                                                                                                           nor  does  he  take  the  equally  utopian 
          The manifesto is the most profound 
                                                                                                           stance  that  we  can  pick  and  choose 
      work of social theory that I have read in 
      "the Clinton era, an incisive diagnosis of                                                           among "good" and "bad" technology. In­
                                                                                     BY ASSOC/A TED PRESS 
      our times and, more importantly, a bril­                                                             stead, he suggests that if the transition to 
      liant prognosis of our future that we ig­                    Theodore Kaczynsld                      a synthesized species is troubled, there 
      nore at the expense of our probity.                                                                  will be a chance to revert to pre-industri­
                                                         the prognosis promised in its title: "In­
                                                                                                           al, not primal, ways of living, in which 
                                                        dustrial Society and its Future." As"the 
          Almost  everyone  who  accords  the 
                                                                                                           freedom, at least, has a chance to exist. 
                                                        Unabomber sees it, we have reached a 
      manifesto intellectual attention regards 
      it as a defense of wilderness values and          decisive crossing point in history. Up un­
                                                                                                              The Unabomber poses harsh alterna­
      environmentalism.  Unabomber suspect              til the 20th century, the devices and orga­
                                                                                                           tives.  Do  we  want  to  go more or  less 
      Theodore Kaczynski is viewed through              nizations that allow us to keep living -
                                                                                                           brutally into a hospice society where we 
      the filters of Thoreau and mountain men.          the technological life-support system -
                                                                                                          are administered technologically while 
      As the neo-Luddite theorist, Kirkpatrick          had to be adapted to the limitations of 
                                                                                                           we wait for the androids to replace us, or 
      Sale, points out, however, that the Una­          the human organism, which meant that 
                                                                                                          do we fight to devolve to a pre-industrial 
      bomber's  championing  of  "wild  na­             they remained servants of their human 
                                                                                                           society ike the Roman Empire or medi­
      ture"is  propaganda  pitting  a  counter­         makers and users. In the 20th century, 
                                                                                                          eval Europe in which most of us could 
      myth of "nature" against the dominant             human beings have developed a life-sup­
                                                                                                          not survive for long or in comfort? In any 
      myth of "technology."                             port system that is no longer limited by 
                                                                                                           case, our jig is up. 
                                                        human  genetic  .... nd  social  inheritance, 
         The Unabomber announces that he 
                                                        but which can increasingly engineer bet­
      doesn't believe in the "nature" myth, but 
                                                        ter organisms than present-day humans 
                                                                                                          Michael A.  Weinstein is a political science pro­
      suggests its  propagation as  a  means  of 
                                                        to care for its survival.                          fessor at Purdue University in West Lafayette, 
      mobilizing popular support to dismantle 
                                                                                                           Ind., and author of "Culture/Flesh" (Rowman 
      the industrial system in case it begins to 
                                                            If industrial society continues on its 
                                                                                                           & Littlefield,  1995) and "Data Trash" (St. Mar· 
      fall from its own contradictions. 
                                                        current course of genetic engineering,             tin's,  1994), books that treat many of the same 
         The importance of the manifesto is             behavior modification and artificial in-          themf.!s as the Unabomber's manifesto. 
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