Industrial Society and Its Future PDF

Industrial Society and Its Future PDF Details
PDF Name	Industrial Society and Its Future PDF
No. of Pages	58
PDF Size	0.35 MB
Language	English
Category	English
Source	web.cs.ucdavis.edu
Download Link	Available ✔
Downloads	17

If Industrial Society and Its Future is a illigal, abusive or copyright material Report a Violation. We will not be providing its PDF or any source for downloading at any cost.

Industrial Society and Its Future

Dear users, today we are going to provide an Industrial Society and Its Future PDF for all of you. Industrial Society and Its Future is one of the books. The full name of this book is The Unabomber Manifesto: Industrial Society and Its Future. Industrial Society and Its Future, widely called the Unabomber Manifesto.

It is a 35,000-word essay by Theodore John Kaczynski. Theodore John Kaczynski is also known as the Unabomber.  He was born on 22 May 1942 in Chicago, Illinois the United States. He is an American domestic terrorist and former mathematics professor. He was a mathematics prodigy but abandoned his academic career in 1969 to pursue a primitive life.

This book was originally published on 19 September 1995. This book was written by Ted Kaczynski. This wonderful book got a 4.7/5 rating on Amazon.in and a 3.9/5 rating on Goodreads. This book is also liked by 93% of Google users. If you want to know more related to this topic then you can read ahead.

Industrial Society and Its Future PDF

Introduction

1. 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, but they have destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings to indignities, and have led to widespread psychological suffering and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world.

2. 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.

3. If the system breaks down the consequences will still be very painful. But the bigger the system grows the more disastrous the results of its breakdown will be, so if it is to break down it had the best break down sooner rather than later.

4. We, therefore, advocate a revolution against the industrial system. This revolution may or may not make use of violence; 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.

5. In this article we give attention to only some of the negative developments that have grown out of the industrial-technological system. Other such developments we mention only briefly or ignore altogether. This does not mean that we regard these other developments as 2 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.

The Psychology of Modern Leftism

6. 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.

7. But what is leftism? During the first half of the 20th-century leftism could have been practically 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 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.

8. Even so, our conception of leftism will remain a good deal less clear than we would wish, 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.

Feelings of Inferiority

9. 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 in determining the direction of modern leftism.

10. When someone interprets as derogatory almost anything that is said about him (or about groups with whom he identifies) we conclude that he has inferiority feelings or low self-3 esteem. This tendency is pronounced among minority rights activists, whether or not they belong to the minority groups whose rights they defend.

11. 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 but come from privileged strata of society.

Over Socialization

12. Psychologists use the term “socialization” to designate the process by which children are trained to think and act as society demands. A person is said to be well socialized if he believes in and obeys the moral code of his society and fits in well as a functioning part of that society.

13. The moral code of our society is so demanding that no one can think, feel and act in a completely moral way. For example, we are not supposed to hate anyone, yet almost everyone hates somebody at some time or other, whether he admits it to himself or not. Some people are so highly socialized that the attempt to think, feel and act morally imposes a severe burden on them.

14. Oversocialization can lead to low self-esteem, a sense of powerlessness, defeatism, guilt, etc. One of the most important means by which our society socializes children is by making them feel ashamed of behaviour or speech that is contrary to society’s expectations. If this is overdone, or if a particular child is especially susceptible to such feelings, he ends by feeling ashamed of himself.

15. We argue that a very important and influential segment of the modern left is oversocialized and that their over socialization is of great importance in determining the direction of modern leftism. Leftists of the oversocialized type tend to be intellectuals or members of the upper-middle class.

The Power Process

16. Human beings have a need (probably based on biology) for something that we will call the power process. This is closely related to the need for power (which is widely recognized) but is not quite the same thing. The power process has four elements. The three most clear-cut of these we call goal, effort and attainment of the goal.

17. Consider the hypothetical case of a man who can have anything he wants just by wishing for it. Such a man has power, but he will develop serious psychological problems. At first, he will have a lot of fun, but by and by he will become acutely bored and demoralized. Eventually, he may become clinically depressed.

History shows that leisured aristocracies tend to become decadent. This is not true of fighting aristocracies that have to struggle to maintain their power. But leisured, secure aristocracies that have no need to exert themselves usually become bored, hedonistic and demoralized, even though they have power. This shows that power is not enough.

Surrogate Activities

18. But not every leisured aristocrat becomes bored and demoralized. For example, the emperor Hirohito, instead of sinking into decadent hedonism, devoted himself to marine biology, a field in which he became distinguished. When people do not have to exert themselves to satisfy their physical needs they often set up artificial goals for themselves.

In many cases, they then pursue these goals with the same energy and emotional involvement that they otherwise would have put into the search for physical necessities.

19. We use the term “surrogate activity” to designate an activity that is directed toward an artificial goal that people set up for themselves merely in order to have some goal to work toward, or let us say, merely for the sake of the “fulfilment” that they get from pursuing the goal. Here is a rule of thumb for the identification of surrogate activities.

Autonomy

20. Autonomy as a part of the power process may not be necessary for every individual. But most people need a greater or lesser degree of autonomy in working toward their goals. Their efforts must be undertaken on their own initiative and must be under their own direction and control.

21. It is true that some individuals seem to have little need for autonomy. Either their drive for power is weak or they satisfy it by identifying themselves with some powerful organization to which they belong.

22. But for most people it is through the power process—having a goal, making an autonomous effort and attaining the goal—that self-esteem, self-confidence and a sense of power are acquired.

Sources of Social Problems

23. Any of the foregoing symptoms can occur in any society, but in modern industrial society, they are present on a massive scale. We aren’t the first to mention that the world today seems to be going crazy. This sort of thing is not normal for human societies.

There is good reason to believe that primitive man suffered from less stress and frustration and was better satisfied with his way of life than modern man is. It is true that not all was sweetness and light in primitive societies.

24. We attribute the social and psychological problems of modern society to the fact that that society requires people to live under conditions radically different from those under which the human race evolved and to behave in ways that conflict with the patterns of behaviour that the human race developed while living under the earlier conditions.

25. Among the abnormal conditions present in modern industrial society are excessive density of population, isolation of man from nature, excessive rapidity of social change and the breakdown of natural small-scale communities such as the extended family, the village or the tribe.

Strategy

26. The technophiles are taking us all on an utterly reckless ride into the unknown. Many people understand something of what technological progress is doing to us yet take a passive attitude toward it because they think it is inevitable.

27. As we stated in paragraph 166, the two main tasks for the present are to promote social stress and instability in industrial society and to develop and propagate an ideology that opposes technology and the industrial system. When the system becomes sufficiently stressed and unstable, a revolution against technology may be possible.

28. It will be objected that the French and Russian Revolutions were failures. But most revolutions have two goals. One is to destroy an old form of society and the other is to set up the new form of society envisioned by the revolutionaries.

Revolution is Easier than Reform

29. We hope we have convinced the reader that the system cannot be reformed in such a way as to reconcile freedom with technology. The only way out is to dispense with the industrial-technological system altogether. This implies revolution, not necessarily an armed uprising, but certainly a radical and fundamental change in the nature of society.

30. People tend to assume that because a revolution involves a much greater change than reform does, it is more difficult to bring about than reform is. Actually, under certain circumstances, revolution is much easier than reform. The reason is that a revolutionary movement can inspire an intensity of commitment that a reform movement cannot inspire.

31. Reform is always restrained by the fear of painful consequences if changes go too far. But once a revolutionary fever has taken hold of a society, people are willing to undergo unlimited hardships for the sake of their revolution. This was clearly shown in the French and Russian Revolutions.

Human Suffering

32. The industrial system will not break down purely as a result of revolutionary action. It will not be vulnerable to revolutionary attacks unless its own internal problems of development lead it into very serious difficulties. So if the system breaks down it will do so either spontaneously, or through a process that is in part spontaneous but helped along by revolutionaries.

33. In the second place, one has to balance struggle and death against the loss of freedom and dignity. To many of us, freedom and dignity are more important than a long life or avoidance of physical pain. Besides, we all have to die sometime, and it may be better to die fighting for survival, or for a cause than to live a long but empty and purposeless life.

34. In the third place, it is not at all certain that survival of the system will lead to less suffering than the breakdown of the system would. The system has already caused and is continuing to cause, immense suffering all over the world.

Ancient cultures, which for hundreds of years gave people a satisfactory relationship with each other and with their environment, have been shattered by contact with an industrial society, and the result has been a whole catalogue of economic, environmental, social and psychological problems.

The Future

35. But suppose now that industrial society does survive the next several decades and that the bugs do eventually get worked out of the system so that it functions smoothly. What kind of system will it be? We will consider several possibilities.

36. First let us postulate that computer scientists succeed in developing intelligent machines that can do all things better than human beings can do them. In that case, presumably, all work will be done by vast, highly organized systems of machines and no human effort will be necessary. Either of two cases might occur.

37. If the machines are permitted to make all their own decisions, we can’t make any conjectures as to the results, because it is impossible to guess how such machines might behave. We only point out that the fate of the human race would be at the mercy of the machines. It might be argued that the human race would never be foolish enough to hand over all power to machines.

38. On the other hand it is possible that human control over the machines may be retained. In that case, the average man may have control over certain private machines of his own, such as his car or his personal computer, but control over large systems of machines will be in the hands of a tiny elite – just as it is today, but with two differences.

Due to improved techniques, the elite will have greater control over the masses; and because human work will no longer be necessary the masses will be superfluous, a useless burden on the system. If the elite is ruthless they may simply decide to exterminate the mass of humanity.

You can download the Industrial Society and Its Future PDF by clicking on the following download button.

Industrial Society and Its Future PDF Download Link

Report This

If the download link of Gujarat Manav Garima Yojana List 2022 PDF is not working or you feel any other problem with it, please Leave a Comment / Feedback. If Industrial Society and Its Future is a illigal, abusive or copyright material Report a Violation. We will not be providing its PDF or any source for downloading at any cost.