roundtable: Re: FW: Unabomber manifesto text online? (fwd)

roundtable: Re: FW: Unabomber manifesto text online? (fwd)

Re: FW: Unabomber manifesto text online? (fwd)

Vigdor Schreibman - FINS (fins@access.digex.net)
Mon, 25 Sep 1995 13:10:53 -0400 (EDT) 

Date: Mon, 25 Sep 1995 13:10:53 -0400 (EDT)
From: Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>
To: roundtable@cni.org
Subject: Re: FW: Unabomber manifesto text online? (fwd)
In-Reply-To: <v02110100ac8bcd72600e@[204.17.139.147]>
Message-Id: <Pine.SUN.3.91.950925121553.22070B-100000@access4.digex.net>


On Sun, 24 Sep 1995, Red Boucher wrote:
> 
> Vigdor,
> 
> How would you deal with Unabomber's?  I believe like aircraft 
> highjacking, it has and will create copycats?

  Red,

  I would not sustain the murderous conduct of the Unabomber and likely
copycats, by accepting negotiations based on threats of murder, but move 
decisively to deal with the underlying problem.

  The basic message of the Unabomber and others similarly at war with
society (e.g., the Oklahoma bomber), I would say, is the complaint that
the failures of the technological civilization have become impossible to
correct--warranting a complete overthrow or some other irrational or
desperate response--because the small number of individuals and groups who
are running the country (citing a New York Times journalist) cannot be
compelled to take those failures seriously.  While the alternative
suggested by the Unabomber is questionable, I believe that many 
reasonable people would agree with the premise. 

  The solution to unilateral decision making is not so obscure, it is the
core substance of democracy both as ends and as means, and we should be
building the social movement to enlarge to the maximum extent practical
the meaningful participation of citizens in the process of decision making
that affect their lives.  There is a good deal of sound knowledge and 
experience on that subject available or obtainable.  

  Nevertheless, there is an abundance of evidence that this society is
moving swiftly in an antidemocratic direction, with radical enlargement of
economic monopoly/oligopoly consolidation, social alienation/atomization,
and ecological degradation.  Moreover, this antidemocratic movement seems
to have coopted some of the most trusted public interest leadership, as
high praise for the Westinghouse/CBS merger (described as a "heavenly"
development) disclosed last week. 

Vigdor Schreibman - FINS <fins@access.digex.net>

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