A Comment on the Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico

Most people blame the disaster on British Petroleum, the oil industry, or big corporations in general. It is true, of course, that the multinationals are greedy, ruthless and dishonest, and that the oil industry, and British Petroleum in particular, bears immediate responsibility for what is happening in the Gulf of Mexico.

However, as modern technology continues to progress, man-made disasters of one kind or another will occur. Supervision, no matter how strict, can never totally prevent such disasters. Not only because irresponsibility, negligence and errors will always exist, but also because the introduction of a new technology inevitably brings consequences that no one can predict in advance, no matter how carefully and responsibly such introduction is carried out.[1] This is why disasters usually come from unsuspected causes. And the greater the potential provided by technology, the greater the disasters that will occur.[2]

So while the immediate cause of the Gulf of Mexico disaster is negligence on the part of British Petroleum, the underlying cause is modern technology itself. People make the mistake of seeing modern problems in isolation: there is a disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, so we have to be tougher on the oil companies; the rate of clinical depression continues to rise, so we need to find better therapies; the planet is warming up, therefore we have to develop new ways of producing electricity; etc. People need to take into account the fact that these problems, and practically all the most serious problems of modern times, are direct or indirect consequences of technological progress.[3] As technology advances, we will be more and more trapped by problems, and we will not be free of these problems until we get rid of the technological system as a whole. If we don't get rid of the technological system, it will get rid of us, sooner or later.

[1] Technological Slavery, Theodore John Kaczynski, Feral House, 2010, pages 93-212. The Road to Revolution, Theodore John Kaczynski, Xenia, 2008, pages 78-79, 177-178.

[2] Technological Slavery, page 278. The Road to Revolution, page 236.

[3] Technological Slavery, page 268. The Road to Revolution, pages. 224-225.