Ted Kaczynski
Former mathematician and domestic terrorist known as the Unabomber · 1942–2023
Kaczynski was a former mathematics professor who carried out a mail-bombing campaign from 1978 to 1995 that killed three people and injured 23. His manifesto, Industrial Society and Its Future, called for revolution against the technological system.
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Estimated from their documented words and actions. A simplification, not a verdict.
He idealised small, autonomous communities free of large-scale organisation.
He dismissed electoral politics and called for revolution led by a small committed minority.
He argued that industrial society imposes surveillance and control that destroy personal autonomy.
No strong recorded view on international cooperation.
He used bombings to pursue his aims and argued that violent revolution against the system was justified.
No strong recorded view on immigration.
No strong recorded view on wealth distribution; he treated economic questions as secondary to technology.
He opposed large, centrally organised institutions of every kind.
No strong recorded view on trade.
He was not religious and grounded his argument in nature and autonomy rather than faith.
A large part of his manifesto attacked leftism and what he called its psychology.
He called for the total destruction of industrial technology.