[luddite99]

Thank you for sharing this one, I agree with you that we should be able to discuss ideas on their own merits. I'm only vaguely familiar with Kaczynski's philosophy and his actions, but I look forward to giving this a read over the next 24 hours.

Just looking over the introduction, certainly some strong beliefs there, but it does resonate to some degree. It does feel like this rejection of all-encompassing technological progress in favour of simpler human living is present in a number of modern movements. Things like minimalism, mindfulness and paleo diets spring to mind. But then again, maybe these are all manufactured and part of that same technological/industrial/consumerist wave.

It often feels like I switch on my phone or computer and they are instantly steering my attention towards things which I did not intend and which my simple human mind is too weak to fight against. In an ideal world there'd perhaps exist an OS or browser which has been designed with human weaknesses in mind, something to help one direct their attention to what they initially wanted, and to put walls up where one's attention is likely to spill out into mindless consumption. But it does seem like the world is currently structured in a way that technology is incentivized to give us an overwhelming kind of freedom, both in the sense that one is free to easily give in to personal weaknesses, and also in the sense that corporations are free to prey on these weaknesses.

[zozbot234]

> Things like minimalism, mindfulness and paleo diets spring to mind. But then again, maybe these are all manufactured and part of that same technological/industrial/consumerist wave.

Of course they are. "Rebel", "counter-cultural", "subversive" anti-consumerism is the silliest and most conformist variety of consumerism. :-P

[stuntkite]

Is it? I think it’s people exploring things that are obviously broken. Even if I don’t agree with the methods and sure plenty of people wear it as a fashion. It costs a lot of money to live sparsely and look good while doing it. There is an elitism to plenty of the advertised flavors.

However, it’s pretty hard to escape how globalized disposable culture has stripped many people of tradition, useful sustainable skills, community, health in the food we can consume, and has catastrophically destroyed important and once seemingly inexhaustible natural resources. Corporate abstractions have moved our ability to feed ourselves and build in our local community in favor of branded single use items that once could enrich a wider community to a lesser degree sustainably. Now, due to a confused worship of disruptive extraction we juice a small group of folks into astronomical opulence. Forcing all of us into a minute to minute tax for just existing.

This isn’t just a problem for the poor. The rich are rudderless too. Their children also die deaths of despair due to lack of context and removal from diverse experiences. They spend their whole lives in preparatory intensive training to be the best and miss experiences that create resilience when the world doesn’t open every door. I’m not saying anyone needs to cry for the rich Harvard alum, but the gap means their bubble can only do one thing. Pop.

We have yet to see the full extent of our current supply chain disruption, but I think the Instagram star vegan van dweller trust fund hobo and the kid who just graduated high school in a dying coal mining town will be thinking about minimalism for reasons the same and different. Lack of essential medicines and variety of good shit to eat and drink spark the mind on how you might do more without depending on near literal magic to teleport essentials to you at a rate that our world obviously can’t support any longer.

[zabana]

There's a book written by Ronald E Purser called "McMindfulness: How minfulness became the new capitalist spirituality" that tackles this very question.

Certainly very enlightening.