Title Industrial Society and Its Future

Author Ted Kaczinski

Year Published 1995

Kind of Book Sociology

How strongly I recommend it 8/10 

My Impressions Very thought provoking and eerie look at technology and the ramifications of the industrial revolution.

Date Read June 2021

Big Ideas

Listen to my podcast on the ideas of this book here 

Unknown Terms

FC: The Acronym for freedom club. Kaczinski was the only member of the club, though he writes using the pronoun "we" throughout the manifesto

Leftism: "…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….leftism is not so much a movement or an ideology as a psychological type

Middle-class Vacuity: a sense of purposelessness that afflicts many people in modern society

Surrogate Activity: an artificial goal that a person makes for him or herself when they don't need to exert themselves to fulfill any of their basic needs (food, water, shelter) etc.

Small-scale technology:  technology that can be used by small-scale communities without outside assistance (eg. A knife, a plow)

Organization-dependent technology: technology that depends on large-scale social organization. (eg. Cell phone, a car, anything that requires electricity or gas)