I am reading an infamous essay. It is called Industrial Society and Its Future. It is by Ted Kaczynski. A man known as the unabomber. So far it is brilliant. It seems like it is written by a very intelligent somewhat crazy paranoid person. I am sure many here have read it already but I am only just discovering it this morning. I think it would be very interesting to a traditional Catholic. So far I am only on page 6 of 34 but it is very interesting.

So far he claims that liberals suffer from inferiority complexes and are oversocialized. Society gives them so many rules to follow and those rules are contradictory and these contradicitons together with the feelings of inferiority lead to basically insanity.

So far, this is what he says of conservatives:

"The conservatives are fools: They whine about the decay of traditional values, yet they enthusiastically support technological progress and economic growth. Apparently it never occurs to them that you can’t make rapid, drastic changes in the technology and the economy of a society without causing rapid changes in all other aspects of the society as well, and that such rapid changes inevitably break down traditional values."

"Therefore two tasks confront those who hate the servitude to which the industrial system is reducing the human race. First, we must work to heighten the social stresses within the system so as to increase the likelihood that it will break down or be weakened sufficiently so that a revolution against it becomes possible. Second, it is necessary to develop and propagate an ideology that opposes technology and the industrial system. Such an ideology can become the basis for a revolution against industrial society if and when the system becomes sufficiently weakened. And such an ideology will help to assure that, if and when industrial society breaks down, its remnants will be smashed beyond repair, so that the system cannot be reconstituted. The factories should be destroyed, technical books burned, etc."

I recall Bishop Williamson having noted this was "worth reading."

My impression at the time was that:

1) The manifesto was very good in identifying the dehumanizing aspects of industrial society

2) But was always just a bit off on the moral side

3) Because of his atheism

4) And it was precisely this atheism which skewed his moral compass

5) In such a manner that his intellect was good, insofar as he accurately perceived the cause of the problem (the dehumanizing effects of industrial society)

6) But unaided by the religious conscience and the moral judgment that rightly formed conscience elicits, he adopted an "ends justifies the means" course of action

Which is all another way of saying that, had he only been Catholic, he might not have become a murderer, and the good points he made regarding industrial society's impact on man would not have been dismissed because of his low moral character:

God never entered into his calculus or worldview, except insofar as it was perceived as a Marxian-like "opiate of the Masses."

That's how he ended up a killer.

But for 85% of the Manifesto, it is, as His Excellency said, "worth reading."