DR. KEITH ABLOW: THE UNABOMBER WAS EVIL—AND A GENIUS

 According to Dr. Keith Ablow, the national Fox News Network Contributor on psychology and psychiatry for a decade, it is time to revisit Ted Kaczynski’s ideas.

Dr. Ablow points out that Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, was rightly imprisoned for life in 1998.  “During 1978 to 1992, Kaczynski sent explosives through the mail, killing three people and injuring almost two dozen more,” Ablow said.  “That campaign of terror was horrifying and indefensible.  Kaczynski’s ideas, however, which he wrote down in a manifesto called ‘Industrial Society and Its Future,’ were prophetic.”

Dr. Ablow believes our society is racing toward the loss of individual autonomy and that technology and political forces are increasingly eclipsing human rights.  In that context, he says, it is worth revisiting Kaczynski’s ideas.

The New York Times and the Washington Post published “Industrial Society and its Future” on September 19, 1995.  They did so as part of a deal with Kaczynski’s, in exchange for him stopping the bombings.

“Kaczynski wrote that the increasing industrialization of America and the world, and our increasing reliance on technology, would end up short-circuiting the ability of human beings to think for themselves and act on their own ideas and abilities,” Ablow said.  “That is exactly what is happening.

“He also saw the political ‘left’ as embracing these technologies far more than conservatives, because they fit with ‘leftist’ ideas about centralizing power in order to govern and control the masses.”

Ablow points out that Kaczynski saw these “leftists” as psychologically ill.  He believed that they were trying to make up for feelings of personal weakness by banding together and seeking extraordinary means of control in society.

“Watching the development of Facebook,” Ablow said, “as it tracks people’s preferences and streamlines their thinking and punishes them for having certain thoughts and not others, I assume Kaczynski is more certain than ever that his ideas had merit.

“Witnessing average Americans ‘Tweet’ about their daily activities,” Ablow added, “Kaczynski must be shocked at the pace at which technology has tapped the human ego and drained the human soul.

“Thinking about the widespread use of GPS, he must wonder whether anyone realizes that following illuminated maps to get where you are going actually erodes your real sense of direction—on highways and, perhaps, in life.”

“Kaczynski must wonder,” Ablow said, “what it will take for Americans to wake up to the fact that their individuality and autonomy—indeed, what constitutes the core of a human life—is under siege by the very forces he predicted—technology and leftist political leaders.”

Ablow believes it would be wise for as many people as possible to read “Industrial Society and its Future,” by Kaczynski.  

Kaczynski’s work, Ablow noted, despite his deeds, deserves a place alongside “Brave New World,” by Aldous Huxley, and “1984,” by George Orwell.

Dr. Ablow is a New York Times bestselling author and the founder of a groundbreaking way to restore personal liberty and autonomy called Pain-2-Power (www.pain-2-power.com).   He can be reached at info@keithablow.com.