“Unabomber: In His Own Words" (2020)
Industrial Society and its Future.
Sean Maguire (Robin Williams) “Hey Gerry. In the 1960’s there was a young man who graduated from the University of Michigan. Did some brilliant work in mathematics, specifically bounded harmonic functions. Then he went on to Berkeley. Was Assistant Professor. Showed amazing potential. Then he moved to Montana and blew the competition away!”
Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard) “Yeah, so who was he?”
Sean Maguire “Ted Kaczynski”
Gerald Lambeau “Never heard of him”
Sean Maguire “Hey Timmy!”
Timmy (Richard Fitzpatrick) “Yo!”
Sean Maguire “Who’s Ted Kaczynski?”
Timmy “Unabomber”
“Good Will Hunting” (1997)
Any excuse to quote from this incredible film!
The Unabomber (so named for the UNA of the Universities and Airlines Ted Kaczynski originally targeted in his 17 year reign of terror between 1978 and 1995 that ultimately cost three human lives and the injuring and maiming of many more) took his own life just six short months ago at the age of 81 after spending 37 years rightly deprived of one of the many things he treasured the most: his freedom. Following his arrest and capture in 1996, Kaczynski, who inscribed the initials “FC” (Freedom Club) on many of his bombs, was also denied the secluded forests of Montana where he resided in a small wooden cabin to be replaced by a SuperMax prison from where he would only be released in the final months of a life mired in controversy, conspiracy theory, notoriety and semi cult hero status, and a life he reportedly ended by his own hand whilst in the final stages of cancer.
I’ve read his (in)famous manifesto (good luck if you choose to do so too!) entitled “Industrial Society and its Future” as well as reading a number of books on Kaczynski and the highly recommended TV series “Manhunt: Unabomber” from 2017, but this four part mini-series delves further once more into the past with interviews with his brother, members of the FBI task force charged with catching him as well as Kaczynski himself in never before heard audio recordings from within prison.
Having a lifelong macabre interest in serial killers and true crime, the Kaczynski case has long intrigued me in relation to his manifesto and the anti-human and industrial mechanisation direction our society was thundering toward in the mid 1990’s let alone 3 decades later and for the obvious if difficult to explain and comprehend: How a 16 year old genius with an IQ of 167 can be accepted into Harvard University at high school age, become a respected published author on the most baffling of mathematical equations and problems, become Assistant Professor nearing lifelong tenure, to then “drop out” of society altogether, live “off the grid” way before it became a societal luxury mainly for the uber wealthy, to then target the people and industrial systems he sees as wreaking havoc on our planetary home and the larger human family.
Although Kaczynski states categorically in the audio interviews here that his experiences at Harvard did not have any detrimental effect on his mental well-being, one can only wonder what long term effects were inflicted upon a still teenage young boy who volunteered for a 3 year study, and 200 hours, whereby he participated in a psychological study that could and should be argued as a continuation of the “MK Ultra” mind control programme of the CIA. The MK is reportedly to be the Germanic spelling of “Mind Kontrolle” but what is declassified and far from being a pesky conspiracy theory is the technique of breaking down a subject’s mind and psyche, fracturing it into more compliant compartments to take over and control the mind and the human being as a whole.
Despicable. Reprehensible. And far from being a conspiracy theory, this isn’t an excuse and nor did Kaczynski use it as one, but from teenage wunderkind to Assistant Professor at UC Berkeley to mass (mind controlled?) killer?
Our industrialised society rolls on at such a quickening pace we fail to notice it any more and its future simply doesn’t need us. The fourth industrial revolution doesn’t need humans to, pun intended, man the machines.
They have machines to do that now.
Machines.
In charge of the machines.
Think I’ll go and watch “Good Will Hunting” again!
Thanks for reading.