Extracts from Ted Kaczynski’s Journal Series I
“Contains ideas and quotations. #6 contains also some personal material, but not overly intimate.”
#1. June 7, 1969 to Jan 22, 1970
#2. Feb 1, 1970 to Nov. 19, 1970
#3. Nov 30, 1970 to May 14, 1970
#4. June 7, 1971 to Dec 6, 1972
#5. Dec 9, 1972 to Dec 9, 1974
#6. Jan 3, 1975 to May 19, 1975
Introduction
These are journals that I kept over a span of more than twenty-five years. Some contain accounts of my personal experiences. Some are filled with my thoughts and ideas, and quotations from my reading. Some contain mixed materials. The journals are highly reliable, since they are completely honest and nearly all of the information about personal experiences was written down within a few days of the events.
The journals are divided into eight series, as follows:
Series I, #1 through #7
Series II, #1 through #6
Series III, #1 through #8
Series IV, #1
Series V, #1
Series VI, #1 through #5
Series VII, #1 through #4
Series VIII, #1 ...
Series I. Contains ideas and quotations. #6 contains also some personal material, but not overly intimate.
#1. June 7, 1969 to Jan 22, 1970
#2. Feb 1, 1970 to Nov. 19, 1970
#3. Nov 30, 1970 to May 14, 1970
#4. June 7, 1971 to Dec 6, 1972
#5. Dec 9, 1972 to Dec 9, 1974
#6. Jan 3, 1975 to May 19, 1975
#7. Dec 20, 1975 to May 3, 1997
#1. June 7, 1969 to Jan 22, 1970
October 10, 1969
“The ultimate achievement of biocontrol may be the control of man himself ... The controlled subjects would never be permitted to think as individuals. A few months after birth, a surgeon would equip each child with a socket mounted under the scalp and electrodes reaching selected areas of the brain ...”
... I think it is very probable that individual liberty will gradually disappear completely and permanently ... Consider all the evils that are imposed on the individual by the system. To mention a few: air and water pollution; the threat of atomic war; overcrowding and traffic congestion, noise; bureaucratic red tape; the draft; destruction of the wilderness; the omnipresence of vulgar, intrusive, manipulative advertising; etc...Furthermore, the individual living independently can at least reasonably attempt to alleviate his hardships. If he is cold he can make a fire or build a better hut. If game gets scarce he can try, at least, to find an area where it is more plentiful. His decisions count; he is not helpless. But what can the individual do about air pollution or overpopulation? ...The point I am trying to make here is that the important things in an individual’s life are mainly under the control of large organizations; the individual is helpless to influence them ...
... Still more dangerous are scientific advances which make it possible to control people’s minds. Scientists have already had great success in controlling animals by means of electrodes inserted in their brains, and these techniques have even successfully applied to human mental patients ... Psychological techniques for manipulating people also are meeting with increasing success ... Quite likely the invasion of liberty will proceed most quickly in the “education” of children and the “rehabilitation” of criminals and insane people ...
... Sticking electrodes into people’s heads makes us feel squeamish, but what is the difference whether we manipulate a person by sticking electrodes in his head or by educational techniques if both methods are equally effective in engineering his personality? ...
#2. Feb 1, 1970 to Nov. 19, 1970
Page 148
... In my experience, a surprisingly large percentage of the individual’s transactions with the bureaucracy involve some error, delay, or foul up on the part of the bureaucracy.
July 1, 1970: See the “Phoenix Nest” department of the Saturday Review, June 13,1970.
July 4, 1970: Went almost as far north as it is possible to go by road in Alaska only about 50 mi from the Arctic circle.
All the streams I saw had detergent foam in them. The place was mobbed with tourists. Almost every place along the way where it was possible to pull a vehicle off the road there were one or more campers, trailers, or cars parked. Hippies with ostentatious whiskers, tarty girls in skin-tight pants, the whole pile of shit. This makes me want to kill people. It confirms a lesson I have learned elsewhere: there is no place accessible by road where it is possible to get any solitude. Walk half a mile from the road and usually you will find yourself quite alone, because most people are too lazy to walk that far except on a well-marked trail, but anyplace where people can get to without making any physical effort is mobbed.
This is one reason why I hate ...
Page ???
... Though I have had a smoldering and fairly consistent dislike of organized society ever since my middle teens, my hatred of it did not reach full bloom until I was about 24 years old ...
[February 13, 1971]
... It ... seems probable — in fact, almost certain — that in future generations the [OBSCURED TEXT]nine individualist will be eliminated through scientific manipulation of human behavior...
Page 157
... even to the individual himself, except in the trivial matters of wealth and prestige.
Sept. 28, 1970: Not only do rules and regulations continually increase in number; it also becomes more and more difficult to evade them as the efficiency of law enforcement increases. I think a person should have a sporting chance to get away with even murder. I resent the idea that any rule should be so sacred and the power of society so great that it is impossible for it ever to be violated successfully. But eventually technology will probably make law ...
#3. Nov 30, 1970 to May 14, 1970
Page 261
... if you can manage to forget for a time that society is in the process of destroying most of the free country and turning the rest into museum pieces in the form of scientifically managed national parks and national forests.]
To me, ...
March 25, 1971: Pride and self-respect demand that a person be able to physically resist anything that he regards as an intrusion on his rights, rather than being entirely dependent on society for protection. This requires that he have the physical and mental capacity for violence. Of course, when individuals have the capacity for violence, they may at times hurt people. But to me that risk is a price worth paying for a measure of personal pride and independence. Unfortunately, the capacity for aggression will probably be brainwashed out of people within a few decades, by means of the new mind-control techniques....
... have recently read most of the book “Behavior control” by Perry London. London claims ...
Page 276
... have a crude illusion of wilderness independence and they are satisfied with that. But I want the real thing.
My motive for doing what I am going to do is simply personal revenge. I do not expect to accomplish anything by it. Of course, if my crime (and my reasons for committing it) gets any public attention, it may help to stimulate public interest in the technology question and thereby improve the chances of stopping technology before it is too late; but on the other hand most people will probably be repelled by ...
[April 6, 1971]
... My motive for doing what I am going to do is simply personal revenge. I do not expect to accomplish anything by it. Of course, if my crime (and my reasons for committing it) gets any public attention, it may help to stimulate public interest in the technology question and thereby improve the chances of stopping technology before it is too late; but on the other hand most people will probably be repelled by my crime, and the opponents of freedom may use it as weapon to support their arguments for control over human behavior.
I have no way of knowing whether my action will do more good than harm. I certainly don’t claim to be an altruist or to be acting for the "good." (whatever that is) of the human race. I act merely from a desire for personal revenge. Of course, I would like to get revenge on the whole scientific and bureaucratic establishment, not to mention communists and others who threaten freedom, but, that being impossible, I have to content myself with just a little revenge.
These days it is fashionable to ascribe sick-sounding motivations (in many cases correctly, I admit) to persons who commit antisocial acts. Perhaps some people will deny that I am motivated by a hatred for what is happening to freedom. However, I think I know myself pretty well and I think they are wrong. Let me explain more fully. It is quite true that I do not fit into organized society, and that I don’t want to fit into it.
It is quite true that even if science were not advancing and the degree of social organization were not easing, I would still resent organized society, and I would still seek all avenues of temporary or partial escape from it — or total escape if possible. But if it were not for the advance of science I would not rebel to such an extent as to risk severe punishment ...
#4. June 7, 1971 to Dec 6, 1972
Page 29
... decisions in question were senseless, the real reason would be that there are criteria superior to the popular will according to which popular will is judged. Popular will can only express itself within the limits that technical necessities have fixed in advance.”
p. 217: “What is at stake here is all of man’s liberty, the liberty to take chances, even to gamble with the death penalty. We see in this loss of liberty the ...
#5. Dec 9, 1972 to Dec 9, 1974
Page 104
... our tour of toy departments, I found that from a third to a half of the merchandise consisted of aggressive toys (war games or guns), racing cars and dolls! ... The two psychologists, both of them parents, buy toys which encourage ... cooperation rather than aggression ... The two psychologists suggest the following considerations when toy shopping: ... is it psychologically desirable?”
I am in certain respects attracted to aggression, mainly because I desire revenge on society at large. Anyhow, I would like to make the following point. Let us assume, for the moment, that hatred and aggression, like pain, are to be considered undesirable in themselves. But this does not preclude their being regarded as appropriate reactions to certain situations. Presumably everyone seeks to avoid physical or mental pain. Yet many people (including me) would not want to be deprived of the capacity for ...
... sophisticated biotechnology.
Dec. 17, 1972
I think I am not unusual in being disturbed by the present state of society and especially by the accelerating erosion of freedom that seems to be clearly indicated for the future. However, it seems that I get considerably more upset about it than most people do ...
Dec. 25, 1972
... About a year and half ago, I planned to murder a scientist — as a means of revenge against organized society in general and the technological establishment in particular ... Unfortunately, I chickened out. I couldn’t work up the nerve to do it. The experience showed me that propaganda and indoctrination have a much stronger hold on me than I realized. My plan was such that there was very little chance of my getting caught. I had no qualms before I tried to do it, and I thought I would have no difficulty. I had everything well prepared. But when I tried to take the final, irrevocable step, I found myself overwhelmed by an irrational, superstitious fear — not a fear of anything specific, merely a vague but powerful fear of committing the act. I cannot attribute this to a rational fear of being caught. I made my preparations with extreme care, and I figured my chances of being caught were less than, say, my chances of being killed in an automobile accident within the next I am not in the least nervous when I get into my car. I can only attribute my fear to the constant flood of anticrime propaganda to which one is subjected. For example, murderers in TV dramas are always caught, there is always the stern, moralizing sermon on their “twisted minds”, they are small and helpless before the judge, surrounded by police, etc., etc., etc. If I ever do work up the nerve to commit such a murder, I will probably have to do it in a kind of suicidal act my vague, of rage — that is, without making any attempt to avoid being caught. It may be that I can overcome my vague irrational fear of [TEXT OBSCURED] consequences only by saying to myself, "Damn the consequences — this is the end.”
... give us a hint that this may occur in the relatively near future). If you agree that not all laws are good and that disobedience of the law is sometimes justified, you should find this disturbing. And there is more to it than that. Inefficient enforcement of a law — even a law that we would all consider good” and “justified” may accomplish a necessary function, and still leave a certain flexibility that is one of the aspects of freedom. Let’s take a ...
... Proudly he contrasts his ragged self: he who never has acknowledged a superior ... And he turns upon his heel.”
Viktor Frankel, “From Death Camp to Existentialism” (Beacon, 1963), p.67: “Not only creativeness and enjoyment are meaningful. If there is a meaning in life at all, then there [must] must be a meaning in suffering ... Without suffering and death human life cannot be complete.”
March 31, 1973
There is a point beyond which the desire for revenge against society becomes more important than the desire to enjoy that which is worth while in life.
#6. Jan 3, 1975 to May 19, 1975
...
#7. Dec 20, 1975 to May 3, 1997
December 26, 1976
No one shou1d believe anything my parents say about me, as most of what they say about me is grossly distorted or completely nonsensical. Their view of me, and especially of my motivations, is quite divorced from reality. ...
March 26, 1977
Though I have a real affection for my younger brother, I would like to record here my opinion that he is a weakling and a self-deceiver, and that his idealogy is silly and superficial
May 3, 1977
My younger brother may be under the impression that his personal idealogy and mine have a good deal in common, but I think this is incorrect. I see very little in his idealogy (so far as I am familiar with it) that I care for ...
April 22, 1977
... Some time ago — (Last Hov. or Dec.) I sublrltted a llatheJlatical paper for publication, and I cDl rather ashcDled of this. Hot because of any idea that the paper will advance technical progress — I feel confident that it will never have any practical applications, direct or indirect — but because it represents, to a certain degree, a personal surrender to one of the escape mechanisms which keep people distracted so that they can forget the purposelessness, subordination, and indignity of life in a technological society ...