Industrial Society and Its Future: The Unabomber Manifesto

In the 1990s, several bombs were mailed to locations across the US and detonated. 

The bomber was Ted Kaczynski, known to the FBI as “The Unabomber”.

Calling himself FC (Freedom Club), Kaczynski sent a political manifesto to prominent newspapers, threatening to continue his crime spree if his message was not published. The FBI recommended publication in the hopes that some reader might pick up a clue to the bomber’s identity.

The consensus on the manifesto itself, separated from its grisly origins, is that it paints an oddly compelling description of how modern technological society is rapidly encroaching on our freedoms and happiness. It proclaims that mankind will not be happy unless we cast off all technology since the industrial revolution and return to a pre-industrial society. Only then, FC claims, will our lifestyles be in sync with our biological needs; only then, will the tensions and stresses of the modern world evaporate. 

We offer this published version of Kaczynski’s manifesto not to endorse its ideas or its author, but to acknowledge its status as an important historical document. Additionally, this manifesto has become something of a classic in political thought and is required reading on some university campuses. We seek to provide an audiobook version for these students.