Industrial Society and Its Future
The Industrial Revolution and its consequences
have been a disaster for the human race. They have
greatly increased the Iife-expectancy of those of us who
live in “advanced” countries, but they have destabilized
society, have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human
beings to indignities, have led to widespread psychological
suffering (in the Third World to physical suffering
as well) and have inflicted severe damage on the natural
world. The continued development of technology will
worsen the situation. It will certainly subject human being
to greater indignities and inflict greater damage on the
natural world, it will probably lead to greater social disruption
and psychological suffering, and it may lead to increased
physical suffering even in “advanced” countries
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THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MODERN LEFTISM
Almost everyone will agree that we live in a deeply
troubled society. One of the most widespread manifestations
of the craziness of our world is leftism, so a discussion
of the psychology of leftism can serve as an introduction
to the discussion of the problems of modern society
in general.
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The two psychological tendencies that underlie
modern leftism we call “feelings of inferiority” and “oversocialization”.Feelings of inferiority are characteristic of modern leftism as a whole, while oversocialization is characteristic only of a certain segment of modern leftism; but this segment is highly influential.
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Words like “self-confidence”, “self-reliance”,“initiative”, “enterprise”, “optimism”, etc., play little role in the liberal and leftist vocabulary. The leftist is antiindividualistic,pro-collectivist. He wants society to solve every one’s problems for them, satisfy everyone’s needs for them, take care of them. He is not the sort of person who has an inner sense of confidence in his ability to solve his own problems and satisfy his own needs. The leftist is antagohistic to the concept of competition because, deep inside, he feels like a loser.
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Modern leftish philosophers tend to dismiss reason,
science, objective reality and to insist that everything
is culturally relative. It is true that one can ask serious
questions about the foundations of scientific knowledge
and about how, if at all, the concept of objective reality
can be defined. But it is obvious that modern leftish philosophers are not simply cool-headed logicians systematically analyzing the foundations of knowledge. They are deeply involved emotionally in their attack on truth and
reality.
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The degree of crowding that exists today
and the isolation of man from nature are consequences
of technological progress. All pre-industrial societies were
predominantly rural. The Industrial Revolution vastly increased the size of cities and the proportion of the population that lives in them, and modern agricultural technology has made it possible for the Earth to support a far denser population than it ever did before.
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The conservatives are fools: They whine about
the decay of traditional values, yet they enthusiastically
support technological progress and economic growth. Apparently it never occurs to them that you can’t make rapid,drastic changes in the technology and the economy
of a society without causing rapid changes in all other aspects of the society as well, and that such rapid changes
inevitably break down traditional values.
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RESTRICTION OF FREEDOM IS UNAVOIDABLE IN
INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY
As explained in paragraphs 65-67, 70-73, modern
man is strapped down by a network of rules and regulations,
and his fate depends on the actions of persons remote from him whose decisions he cannot influence.This is not accidental or a result of the arbitrariness of
arrogant bureaucrats. It is necessary and inevitable in any
technologically advanced society. The system HAS TO regulate
human behavior closely in order to function. At
work people have to do what they are told to do, otherwise
production would be thrown into chaos. Bureaucracies
HAVE TO be run according to rigid rules. To allow any
substantial personal discretion to lower-level bureaucrats
would disrupt the system and lead to charges of unfairness
due to differences in the way individual bureaucrats exercised their discretion. It is true that some restrictions on our freedom could be eliminated, but GENERALLY SPEAKING the regulation of our lives by large organizations is necessary for the functioning of industrial-technological society. The result is a sense of powerlessness on the part of the average person. It may be, however, that formal regulations will tend increasingly to be replaced by psychological tools that make us want to do what the system requires of us. (Propaganda [14], educational techniques, “mental health” programs, etc.)
The system HAS TO force people to behave in
ways that are increasingly remote from the natural pattern
of human behavior.
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The system does not and cannot exist to satisfy human needs. Instead, it is human behavior that has to be modified to fit the needs of the system. This has nothing
to do with the political or social ideology that may
pretend to guide the technological system. It is the fault
of technology, because the system is guided not by ideology
but by technical necessity. [18] Of course the system
does satisfy many human needs, but generally speaking it
does this only to the extend that it is to the advantage of
the system to do it. It is the needs of the system that are
paramount, not those of the human being.
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There’s soo much more.
Ohh, the Author,
Ted Kaczynski
AKA the “unabomber”
You two may find a number of areas that you can agree on.
Let’s not forget that it was also individuals like J.R.R Tolkien who were against Industrialism. I am pretty sure that many insane individuals were against industrialism, just as I can easily say that many insane individuals were for capitalism.