TrueLife - Technological Slavery: Ted Kaczynski’s Warning and the Rise of the Machine Mind (Reading #1)

Starting point is 00:00:01 Darkness struck, a gut-punched theft, Sun ripped away, her health bereft. I roar at the void. This ain't just fate, a cosmic scam I spit my hate. The games rigged tight, shadows deal, blood on their hands, I'll never kneel. Yet in the rage, a crack ignites, occulted sparks cut through the nights. The scars my key, hermetic and stark. To see, to rise, I hunt in the dark, fumbling, fear. Heiress through ruins maze, lights my war cry, born from the blaze.

Starting point is 00:00:49 The poem is Angels with Rifles. The track, I Am Sorrow, I Am Lust by Codex Seraphini. Check out the entire song at the end of the cast. Technological... Industrial Society and its future. For those of you that are not aware of Mr. Kaczynski, he was the Unabomber. And Harvard graduates, graduate of, I believe he was in the Harvard LSD studies as well. Mathematician turned in by his brother.

Starting point is 00:01:38 And he had some fascinating ideas on the future of technology. And that's where we're going to get into his philosophy and get into some of his ideas. kind of go through and point out some areas in which he may have been correct and some ways in which he may have not been correct. So it should be fun. I find his writings to be peculiar in their authenticity. It seems they're very genuine. What he's saying is something he truly believes. and he presents a lot of evidence to back it up. And it is a angle that is rarely spoken of. So without getting too much further into the weeds,

Starting point is 00:02:36 let's just go ahead and start it here. The industrial revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life expectancy of those of us who live in advanced countries. 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.

Starting point is 00:03:14 The continued development of technology will worsen the situation. It will certainly subject human beings 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. There's a lot in there, right? Let's just go over a little bit of it here. Would you agree that it has destabilized society?

Starting point is 00:03:45 I would think so. The ever-widening gap in education, finance, literacy, health, clearly has been radicalized during the Industrial Revolution. Has it subjected human beings to indignities? Well, I think we all have added to that. I'm talking to you on an iPhone. iPhones made at Foxcon in China where people live in the buildings like dorms and they have nets outside their

Starting point is 00:04:32 dwelling so people don't jump off the roof and kill themselves or so that when people jump off the roof they land in a net it is to be fair quite unfulfilling and I think a lot of people are subjected to indignities. Although it's not just in the third world. I mean, increasingly in advanced societies, in the United States people that are treated like cogs and wheels and they are treated as if they are numbers instead of people. It has definitely inflicted severe damage on the natural world.

Starting point is 00:05:26 And it's odd. It's, you know, the promise of tech is that it will, it will make the world better. However, there has been continued development. However, it has worse in the situation. I mean, it's clear-cutting a forest. You could argue that fracking has made us energy independent. However, it's also polluted a lot of water.

Starting point is 00:05:53 The industrial technological system may survive or it may break down. If it survives, it may eventually achieve a low level of physical and psychological suffering. But only after passing through a long, and very painful period of adjustment and only at the cost of permanently reducing human beings and many other living organisms to engineered products and mere cogs in the social machine. Furthermore, if the system survives, the consequences will be inevitable. There is no way of reforming or modifying the system so as to prevent it from depriving people of dignity and autonomy. I think we're at those crossroads right now.

Starting point is 00:06:39 Are we going to see the industrial technological system survive or is it going to break down? If the system breaks down, the consequences will still be very painful. But the bigger the system grows, the more disastrous results. Or its breakdown will be. So if it is to break down, it had best breakdown sooner rather than later. Now here is what Kaczynski was advocating for. we therefore advocate a revolution against the industrial system. This revolution may or may not make use of violence.

Starting point is 00:07:22 It may be sudden, or it may be a relatively gradual process spanning a few decades. We can't predict any of that. But we do outline in a very general way the measures that those who hate the industrial system should take in order to prepare the way for a revolution against that form of society. This is not to be a political revolution. Its object will be to overthrow, not governments, but the economic and technological basis of the present society. In this article, we give attention to only some of the negative developments

Starting point is 00:08:00 that have grown out of the industrial technological systems, such developments we mention only briefly or ignore altogether. This does not mean that we regard these other developments, developments as unimportant. For practical reasons, we have to confine our discussion to areas that have received insufficient public attention or in which we have something new to say. For example, since there are well-developed environmental degradation, I'm sorry, since there are well-developed environmental and wilderness movements, we have written very little about environmental degradation or the destruction of wildness. even though we consider these to be highly important.

Starting point is 00:08:50 Okay, so just remember, I'm reading here, I'm going to give you some commentary. Of course, I don't endorse all of these thoughts. However, I think his thoughts are important enough to lay out there. 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. But what is leftism?

Starting point is 00:09:30 During the first half of the 20th century, leftism could practically have been identified with socialism. Today the movement is fragmented and it is not clear who can properly be called a leftist. when we speak of leftists in this article, in this article, in this article, we have in mind mainly socialists, collectivists, politically correct types, feminists, gay, and disability activists, animal rights activists, and the like. But not everyone who is associated with one of these movements is a leftist. What we are trying to get at in discussing leftism is not so much a movement or an ideology, as a psychological type, or rather a collection of related types. Thus what we mean by leftism will emerge more clearly in the course of our discussions of leftist psychology. Even so, our conception of leftism will remain a good deal less clear than we would wish.

Starting point is 00:10:35 But there doesn't seem to be any remedy for this. All we are trying to do here is indicate in a rough and approximate way, the two psychological tendencies that we believe are the main driving force of modern leftism. We by no means claim to be telling the whole truth about leftist psychology. Also, our discussion is meant to aptly. Also, our discussion is meant to apply to modern leftism only. We leave open the question of the extent to which our discussion could be applied to the leftist of the 19th and early 20th centuries. The two psychological tendencies that underlie modern leftism, we call feelings of inferiority and overssocialization.

Starting point is 00:11:28 Feelings of inferiority are characteristic of modern leftism as a whole, while overssocialization is characteristic only of a certain segment of modern leftism. But this segment is highly influential. feelings of inferiority. Has there a person out there that's never felt inferior? I think that's part of the human condition, right? I mean, it seems like how everybody has that feeling. It just comes down to how you deal with that feeling. It's important to know that there's always going to be someone better than you.

Starting point is 00:12:17 There's always going to be someone smarter than you. There's always going to be someone working harder than you. And that, but that also probably means that you're better than some people, that you're working harder than other people, that you're smarter than other people. A good rule of thumb is to think that you're probably not the best and you're definitely not the worst. You're probably somewhere in the middle. And yeah, you're inferior in a lot of ways. Just the vast number of people on this planet. And if you want to try to find a support group because you're so,

Starting point is 00:12:55 inferior, like, stop trying to find a support group and start getting better at things. Find something you love to do and get good at it. That's how you got to do. You'll decrease those feelings of inferiority. By feelings of inferiority, we mean not only inferiority feelings in the strict sense, but a whole spectrum of related traits. Low self-esteem, feelings of powerlessness, depressive tendencies, defeatism, guilt, self-hatred, etc. We argue that modern leftists tend to have some such feelings, possibly more or less repressed, and that these feelings are decisive

Starting point is 00:13:38 in determining the direction of modern leftism. I would agree. I think that's accurate. When someone interprets as derogatory, almost anything that is said about him, or about groups with whom he identifies, we conclude that he has an inferiority feeling, feelings of low self-esteem. Have you ever met anybody like that? No matter what you say, they take it as like a slur against them. Oh, are you saying this? Oh, so what you're saying

Starting point is 00:14:09 is this? Remember that Arctic? Did you guys ever see the interview with Jordan Peterson and the young lady from the European lady over there? They were like in this debate and she just kept trying to frame what he was saying is. So what you're saying is, so what you're saying is, so what you're saying is. So what you're saying is. And he's like, no, no, that's what you're saying. I didn't say any of that. What you're trying to do is just take what I said, completely change it around, and then throw it back to me like it was my words. He's like, that's a complete logical fallacy. It's a, it's a fascinating debate, actually. And I think it underscores what this gentleman's talking about. Actually, I'll try to, I'll try to put a link in the show notes so you guys can

Starting point is 00:14:54 check it out. It's fascinating to see an example of exactly what this guy's talking about. And she would totally fit the category of a leftist. This tendency is pronounced among minority rights activists whether or not they belong to the minority groups whose rights they defend. Remember Rachel Dazel, like the white girl? She was in charge of like the whole Africa. She was in charge of like a minority group somewhere, but she wasn't even a minority. This tendency is pronounced among minority rights activists whether or not they belong to the minority groups whose rights they defend.

Starting point is 00:15:32 They are hypersensitive about the words used to designate minorities and about anything that is said concerning minorities. The terms oriental, handicap, or chick for an African, an Asian, a disabled person, or a woman originally had no derogatory connotation. Broad and Chick were merely the feminine equivalence of guy, dude or fellow. The negative connotations have been attached to these terms by the activists themselves. Some animal rights activists have gone so far as to reject the word pet and insist on its replacement by animal companion. Leftish anthropologists go to great lengths to avoid saying anything about primitive

Starting point is 00:16:22 peoples that could conceivably be interpretive as negative. They want to replace the word primitive with. non-literate. They seem almost paranoid about anything that might suggest that any primitive culture is inferior to our own. We do not mean to imply that primitive cultures are inferior to ours. We merely point out the hypersensitivity of leftist anthropologists. Those who are most sensitive about politically incorrect terminology are not the average black ghetto, dweller, Asian immigrant, abused woman, or disabled person. But a minority of activists, many of whom do not even belong to any oppressed group,

Starting point is 00:17:04 but come from privileged strata of society. Political correctness has its stronghold among university professors who have secure employment and comfortable salaries, and the majority of whom are heterosexual white males from middle to upper-class families. That's fascinating to think about. I was recently watching a video and it was a panel of people from the World Health Organization

Starting point is 00:17:37 and they were all white people, every one of them. And they were talking about development in the United States. And this gentleman from Harvard, who was a white guy, probably mid-50s, I don't know how much Harvard professors make, but let's say he's making, he's got to be making over $100,000. He probably has some side gigs where he goes and speaks.

Starting point is 00:18:12 He had mentioned multiple books that he's written. Let's say he's doing $300K a year. And what this gentleman was talking about was how unfair it is for white people to have such privileged positions. Okay, now think about what I'd have said. Here's a white guy teaching at a prestigious school, making tons of money, selling books,

Starting point is 00:18:43 talking about how unfair it is for white people to do what he does. Now, he never once in that discussion advocated stepping down. He never once said, you know what, I should move aside and allow someone else to have my position. What he said was that uneducated white people, people that don't teach at Harvard, people that don't write books, people that don't have his level of privilege, but are white, these people are white nationalists, and these people are all racist, and they're the problem with America. And it was, like, I had to watch it a few times, like, just this guy is, it was like the ultimate irony. Like here's this guy that is saying to the world, hey, white people are the huge problem.

Starting point is 00:19:41 They have all this fucking privilege. And this is the guy that had the most. And instead of taking a look in the mirror and saying, well, dude, why don't you step aside then? He was just aiming all his anger towards people in potentially like poor neighborhoods or people that had lower income. or maybe people that didn't have as much education as he had. And so it just seemed to me to be part of the problem. You know what I mean? Like it just seemed to me to be, it was just odd.

Starting point is 00:20:22 It was really odd. Back to the book. Many leftists have an intense identification with the problems of groups that have an image of being weak, defeated, repellent. or otherwise inferior. The leftists themselves feel that these groups are inferior. They would never admit to themselves that they have such feelings. But it is precisely because they do see these groups as inferior that they identify with their problems.

Starting point is 00:20:53 We do not mean to suggest that women, Indians, minorities are inferior. We are only making a point about leftist psychology. That's an interesting point. to see these other groups, to see a lot of other groups, as in, I mean, that's, like, you, if you feel you have to protect people, then you feel like you're superior to them.

Starting point is 00:21:24 Like, I should help out these people because I'm better than them. You know, it's, it's a logical fallacy, right? Feminists are desperately anxious to prove that women are as strong and as capable of men. Clearly, they are nagged by a fear that women may not be as strong

Starting point is 00:21:44 and as capable of men. Leftists tend to hate anything that has an image of being strong, good, and successful. They hate America. They hate Western civilization. They hate white males. They hate rationality.

Starting point is 00:22:00 Let me just pause here for a minute. This is not my... Like, I'm not saying... I'm reading this book. These are not my thoughts. My thoughts of the commentary that goes by, but just for anybody listening to me, me, the word, all the words you hear are not mine. I'm reading this book, so don't judge me

Starting point is 00:22:21 too hard on this, all right? Leftists need to hate anything that has an image of being strong, good and successful. They hate America. They hate Western civilization. They hate white males. They hate rationality. The reasons that leftists give for hating the West, etc., clearly do not correspond with their real motives. They say, they hate the West because it is warlike, imperialistic, sexist, ethnocentric, and so forth. But where these same faults appear in socialist countries, or in primitive cultures, the leftist finds excuses for them. Or at best, he grudgingly admits that they exist, whereas he enthusiastically points out and often greatly exaggerates these faults where they appear in Western civilization. Thus, it is clear that these faults are not the

Starting point is 00:23:09 leftists' real motive for hating America and the West. He hates America and the West, but he hates America and the West, because they are strong and successful. Words like self-confidence, self-reliance, initiative, enterprise, optimism, etc. play little role in the liberal and leftist's vocabulary. The leftist is anti-individualistic, pro-collectivist. He wants society to solve everyone'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

Starting point is 00:23:42 in his ability to solve his own problems and satisfy his own needs. The leftist is antagonistic to the concept of competition because deep inside he feels like a loser. Art forms that appeal to modern leftist intellectuals tend to focus on sordidness, defeat, and despair, or else they take an orgiastic tone,

Starting point is 00:24:07 throwing off rational control as if there were no hope of accomplishing anything through rational calculation, and all that were left were to immerse oneself in the sensation of the moment, moment. 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

Starting point is 00:24:42 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. They attack these concepts because of their own

Starting point is 00:25:03 psychological needs. For one thing, their attack is an outlet for hostility, and to be extent that it is successful, it satisfies the drive for power. More importantly, the leftist hates science and rationality because they classify

Starting point is 00:25:19 certain beliefs as true, i.e. successful, superior, and other beliefs as false, i.e. failed, inferior. The leftist feelings of inferiority runs so deep that he cannot tolerate any classification of some things as successful or superior and other things as failed or inferior. This also underlies the rejection by many leftists of the concept of mental illness and the utility of IQ tests. Leftists are antagonistic to genetic explanations of human abilities or behavior because such explanations tend to make some persons appear superior or inferior to others. Leftists prefer to give society the credit or blame for an individual's ability or lack of it. Thus, if a person is inferior, it is not his fault but societies because he has not been brought up properly. That's kind of the whole epigenetics debate, right?

Starting point is 00:26:20 The leftist is not typically the kind of person whose feelings of inferiority make him a braggard, an egoist, a bully, a self-promoter, a ruthless competitor. This kind of person has not wholly lost faith in himself. He has a deficit in his sense of power and self-worth, but he can still conceive of himself as having the capacity to be strong, and his efforts to make himself strong produce his unpleasant behavior. But the leftist is too far gone for that. His feelings of inferiority are so ingrained that he cannot conceive of himself as individually strong and valuable. Hence the collectivism of the leftist.

Starting point is 00:27:01 He can feel strong only as a member of a large organization or a mass movement with which he identifies himself. Notice the masochistic tendency of leftist tactics. Tactics. Leftist protests by laying down in front of vehicles. They intentionally provoke police or racist to abuse them. These tactics may often be effective, but many leftists use them not as means to an

Starting point is 00:27:28 end, but because they prefer masochistic tactics. Self-hatred is a leftist trait. Leftists may claim that their activism is motivated by compassion or by moral principles, and moral principle does play a role for the leftist in the over-sorseless socialized type, but compassion and moral principle cannot be the main motives for leftist activism. Hostility is too prominent, a component of leftist behavior. So is the drive for power. Moreover, much leftist behavior is not rationally calculated to be of benefit to the people whom the leftist claim to be trying to help. For example, if one believes that affirmative

Starting point is 00:28:14 action is good for black people, does it mean? makes sense to demand affirmative action in hostile or dogmatic terms, obviously it would be more productive to take a diplomatic and conciliatory approach that would make at least verbal and symbolic concessions to white people who think that affirmative action discriminates against them. But leftist activists do not take such an approach because it would not satisfy their emotional needs. Helping black people is not their real goal. Instead, race problems serve as an excuse for them to express their own hostility and frustrated need for power. In doing so, they actually harm black people because the activist hostile attitude toward the

Starting point is 00:28:58 white majority tends to intensify race hatred. If our society had no social problems at all, the leftists would have to invent problems in order to provide themselves with an excuse for making a fuss. We emphasize that the foregoing does not pretend to be an accurate description of everyone who might be considered a leftist. It is only a rough indication of a general tendency of leftism. So that is the beginning of the industrial society and its future. And we've covered feelings of inferiority. The next section is going to be about over-socialization.

Starting point is 00:29:38 You know, I think it's fascinating. As we get further and further into the arguments of Theodore Ted Kaczynski, You're going to see how this particular personality type operates in the world of technology. And it's fascinating to, just to dig down in... Look, this guy was a... Like I said, I don't agree with everything he said, but the guy's not dumb. This guy was operating on a level that most of us will never have the capacity to do so. And sometimes people that are really fucking smart are really fucking scary.

Starting point is 00:30:30 And that's where I would put this guy. There's some uncomfortable truths. There's a lot of things that we're going to get into here that people they're not going to want to hear. They're not going to want to believe. And I am not here to tell you what this guy's saying is true. What I'm here to do is just expose you to this guy's writing. So, Theodore Ted Kaczynski, technological slavery, volume one. we are in the beginnings of industrial society in its future.

Starting point is 00:30:59 That's all we got for today. We back at you guys. Tomorrow. Aloha.

TrueLife - Technological Slavery: Ted Kaczynski’s Warning and the Rise of the Machine Mind (Reading #1)

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