# Ted Kaczynski was right….



## wesleywilliam (Tuesday at 3:51 PM)

Hey
I want to share an essay many of you will agree with. It’s not pretty fyi. The author (Paul Kingsnorth) writes about how our society is heading toward collapse as the powerful believe that technology will solve all our problems; that to save our planet we must use technology even though tech is what brought here in the first place. (Progress trap- internal combustion engine, coal, oil, factories are why the climate is changing).

He’s not explicitly anarchist, but one of his proposed techniques to resist The Machine of “Progress” is too drop out of society. We need more slab cities. To go back to a simpler time. Go back to communities. So I guess he is kind of a primitive-anarchist. I feel my intuition has always felt this, but he’s the first person I’ve read to articulate it in such a precise way.






dark ecology — pk







www.paulkingsnorth.net




dark ecology — pk - https://www.paulkingsnorth.net/dark-ecology


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## wesleywilliam (Tuesday at 9:19 PM)

also, FBI, the unabomber was NOT right about spending bombs in the mail lol


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## born2raizehell (Tuesday at 11:34 PM)

it says to throw away your smartphone, it reminds me of how I used a flip phone for the longest time because I didnt want the new technology. I still had a flip phone in 2016... but then I got this phone and I use it for everything. if anybody should die in the apocalypse its rich people who work for all the advanced tech shit that doesnt improve anybodys life and just furthers the agenda of their corporation... not saying you should blow them up but I can imagine many would starve to death in a real apocalypse scenario! anyway my favorite type of phone still would probably be the side flip phone with the keyboard. those things were solid!!!


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## The Toecutter (Wednesday at 1:17 AM)

wesleywilliam said:


> He’s not explicitly anarchist, but one of his proposed techniques to resist The Machine of “Progress” is too drop out of society.



This has been a goal of mine. It takes a certain baseline of accumulated wealth to even come halfway towards doing this now days, at least if you want to be able to be self reliant. I'm working on it, but not there yet, not even close in fact, but I can see a way toward it.

What is currently called "society" is one highly integrated, systematic grift(paraphrasing Dmitry Orlov). It has been engineered to extract from those who labor for a living, and funnel the surplus value upward to an entrenched aristocracy. Meanwhile, most of the population has been so thoroughly brainwashed that they believe they live in a democracy where their actions have influence upon the major decisions made, not realizing that they in fact live in a corporate-run dictatorship where their lives are micromanaged.

While I agree with Mr. Kaczynski's thesis and points, I'm not exactly anti-technology either as he was, logically inconsistent a position as this may be. What I see to be the problem is FORCED reliance upon technology. The sort of life that Kaczynski has attempted to live has been functionally outlawed, as he watched the world slowly mutate into one giant open-air prison, driven by civilization's reliance upon technology as well as said technology being used as a means of extraction and social control. Technology could instead be a tool of human ascension, if only people controlled it and not the other way around. Kaczynski is probably correct in his assessment that this is impossible, but I posit the problem isn't technology, it is the existence of aristocracy itself along with all of the rules said aristocracy has imposed upon the rest of humanity, presumably for the good of humanity, but in actuality, to its detriment and even possible future extinction.

A lot of people like to dismiss Kaczynski simply because he is a murderer, and will see nothing else of him. These same people will then not object to their tax dollars being sent to mass murderers that they supposedly "voted" for, mass murderers who not only dwarf Kaczynski's kill count, but who have failed to do anything at all with their lives to advance the human condition. Kaczynski, OTOH, has advanced the human condition with his writings and insight. Guess who is in prison, and guess who continues industrial-scale slaughter of people around the globe with impunity while the planet's biosphere faces collapse?


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## wesleywilliam (Yesterday at 8:53 AM)

The Toecutter said:


> While I agree with Mr. Kaczynski's thesis and points, I'm not exactly anti-technology either as he was, logically inconsistent a position as this may be. What I see to be the problem is FORCED reliance upon technology. The sort of life that Kaczynski has attempted to live has been functionally outlawed, as he watched the world slowly mutate into one giant open-air prison, driven by civilization's reliance upon technology as well as said technology being used as a means of extraction and social control. Technology could instead be a tool of human ascension, if only people controlled it and not the other way around. Kaczynski is probably correct in his assessment that this is impossible, but I posit the problem isn't technology, it is the existence of aristocracy itself along with all of the rules said aristocracy has imposed upon the rest of humanity, presumably for the good of humanity, but in actuality, to its detriment and even possible future extinction.


Kingsnorth in his essay I linked he talks about the “progress trap”. No matter who’s in control, we will become reliant on the use of tech itself, which will bring about unexpected consequences. Hunter gatherers got so good at hunting there wasn’t enough left to support the growing population. So then they had to farm, which can support very large populations; but the whims of Mother Nature making a drought, sending in locus, making the weather too cold, too hot will cause a famine. 

The aristocrats serve The Machine of Progress. They believe technological progress is good in itself, that it’s the highest value, their god pretty much. That’s what the transhumanist have been saying, that we as humans are only a step in evolution towards self aware A.I.

When you say tech could be used towards ascension what do you mean by that? Just a better easier life? Or like ascension in getting crazy high tech robot arms and l gs and living for 1000 years? 

IMO technology isn’t either bad or good, it’s how it’s used. What do those in control of it value?


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## wesleywilliam (Yesterday at 8:54 AM)

born2raizehell said:


> it says to throw away your smartphone, it reminds me of how I used a flip phone for the longest time because I didnt want the new technology. I still had a flip phone in 2016... but then I got this phone and I use it for everything. if anybody should die in the apocalypse its rich people who work for all the advanced tech shit that doesnt improve anybodys life and just furthers the agenda of their corporation... not saying you should blow them up but I can imagine many would starve to death in a real apocalypse scenario! anyway my favorite type of phone still would probably be the side flip phone with the keyboard. those things were solid!!!



Haha yeah I remember having a flip phone too, I was the last guy i knew that got a smart phone!


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## The Toecutter (Today at 8:44 AM)

wesleywilliam said:


> Kingsnorth in his essay I linked he talks about the “progress trap”. No matter who’s in control, we will become reliant on the use of tech itself, which will bring about unexpected consequences. Hunter gatherers got so good at hunting there wasn’t enough left to support the growing population. So then they had to farm, which can support very large populations; but the whims of Mother Nature making a drought, sending in locus, making the weather too cold, too hot will cause a famine.
> 
> The aristocrats serve The Machine of Progress. They believe technological progress is good in itself, that it’s the highest value, their god pretty much. That’s what the transhumanist have been saying, that we as humans are only a step in evolution towards self aware A.I.
> 
> ...



Part of the issue that makes progress a trap is that infinite growth on a planet of finite resources is not possible. While ancient hunter-gather societies can be forgiven for not understanding concepts like exponential growth and resource limits, humanity knows better today. If we as a species went to a steady state economy and stopped destroying the last remnants of the natural world in the pursuit of unlimited growth, then not nearly as many traps would be set.

The problem is that the major decision makers never have enough wealth, and it has become such a sickness that with as much abundance as there is in the world, most people still toil and struggle daily and massive wars are fought for resources, all because the abundance is not shared. Aristocracy seeks to maintain a paradigm of constant growth in order to retain their power and control over the rest of humanity, and they will seek to do so no matter the expense to humanity or the planet, and no matter what everyone else wants. This sickness has gotten to the point where human interactions, personal information, biometrics, even human thoughts are being monetized because everything else has been conquered and extracted. New novel ways of exploiting and extracting from human beings keep being invented in pursuit of more for the aristocracy, at the expense of human autonomy. Further, by controlling access to the surplus and hoarding it, the aristocracy can continue to extract from and control everyone else, and they aren't ever going to peacefully give that up. The aristocracy sees themselves as being above their own humanity, hence their push toward transhumanism, and in doing so, actually have willingly forfeited their humanity in exchange for a lesser state of being.

Transhumanism would spell the death knell for humanity, by definition, and is to be fought against at all costs. Kaczynski saw this coming decades ahead of his time, even if perhaps he didn't think industrial civilization would hold out long enough for its initial stages to manifest as they have today.

When I say tech can be used for human ascension, I mean in the sense that it can be used for people to become aware of how the world they live in has been shaped by a small group of self-serving people, perhaps allow the masses of humanity to overthrow these people, and eventually allow everyone to attain a high living standard with minimal toil with a resource footprint that is in balance with what the biosphere can provide, being the double-edges sword that technology is. Will that happen? Probably not. Theoretically, it could. The alternative is that Theodore's predictions for industrial civilization come to pass, and possibly with it, human extinction. If the transhumanists win out, the latter is assured. Finding ways to balance our use of tech with concern for the limitations of the natural world is the middle ground we so desperately need as a species, and there is no room there for a selfish few to hoard most of the Earth's bounty for themselves, as billions of mouths to feed and house is already a more-than Herculean task for the planet. The planet will do just fine without us.



wesleywilliam said:


> Haha yeah I remember having a flip phone too, I was the last guy i knew that got a smart phone!



I still have a $10 flip phone to use for my job. If my employment didn't require it, I'd probably ditch it.


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