MiSTing: Unabomber Manifesto Part 1 2/3
Chris Mayfield
>OVERSOCIALIZATION
Crow: Didn't Hugh Grant get arrested for that?
>
>24. Psychologists use the term "socialization" to designate the process
>by which children are trained
Mike: Here, Billy! Heel! Heel! Good boy.
> to think and act as society demands. A
>person is said to be well socialized if he believes in and obeys the
>moral code of his society
All: [whispering] Conform...conform...conform...
> and fits in well as a functioning part of
>that society.
Tom: Why do I get the feeling that the Unabomber fits into society like
a square peg into a round hole?
> It may seem senseless to say that many leftists are over-
>socialized, since the leftist is perceived as a rebel. Nevertheless,
>the position can be defended.
Crow: Not very well, and not very believably, but it can be defended.
> Many leftists are not such rebels as they
>seem.
Mike: Rebel against Nonconformity.
>
>25. The moral code of our society is so demanding that no one can
>think, feel and act in a completely moral way.
Crow: Thank you for that revelation, Dr. Freud.
> For example, we are not
>supposed to hate anyone, yet almost everyone hates somebody at some
>time or other,
Mike: Such as right now.
> whether he admits it to himself or not. Some people are
>so highly socialized that the attempt to think, feel and act morally
>imposes a severe burden on them.
Crow: Where have I heard this before?
Tom: Talk about reinventing the wheel.
> In order to avoid feelings of guilt,
>they continually have to deceive themselves about their own motives
Mike: Tom, the Unabomber?
Tom: Repression.
Crow: I say projection.
> and
>find moral explanations for feelings and actions that in reality have a
>non-moral origin. We use the term "oversocialized" to describe such
>people. [2]
Mike: Some people use the term "psychoanalysis" to describe what you
just said.
>
>26. Oversocialization can lead to low self-esteem, a sense of
>powerlessness, defeatism, guilt, etc.
Tom: Oral fixations, Oedipal complexes...
> One of the most important means
>by which our society socializes children is by making them feel ashamed
Mike: Nah, that's just being Catholic.
>of behavior or speech that is contrary to society's expectations. If
>this is overdone, or if a particular child is especially susceptible to
>such feelings, he ends by feeling ashamed of HIMSELF.
Crow: I know someone who got his mouth washed out with soap when he was
a kiddie...
> Moreover the
>thought and the behavior of the oversocialized person are more
>restricted by society's expectations than are those of the lightly
>socialized person.
Tom: [Julia Childs] Now you want just a _pinch_ of socialization--not
too much now!
> The majority of people engage in a significant
>amount of naughty behavior.
Mike: Naughty serial killer! Bad! Bad!
> They lie, they commit petty thefts, they
>break traffic laws, they goof off at work,
Crow: They steal white-out and paperclips.
> they hate someone, they say
>spiteful things or they use some underhanded trick to get ahead of the
>other guy.
Tom: [bass beat]
Crow: Bob has a problem. Bob wasted Ted in order to get ahead on the
MacPherson account. Now Bob is going to the big house.
> The oversocialized person cannot do these things, or if he
>does do them he generates in himself a sense of shame and self-hatred.
Mike: I...I tore the tag off my mattress! I'm so ashamed.
>The oversocialized person cannot even experience, without guilt,
>thoughts or feelings that are contrary to the accepted morality; he
>cannot think "unclean" thoughts.
Crow: That bites.
> And socialization is not just a matter
>of morality; we are socialized to confirm to many norms
All: Norms!
> of behavior
>that do not fall under the heading of morality. Thus the oversocialized
>person is kept on a psychological leash
Tom: My ego needs to go walkies.
> and spends his life running on
>rails that society has laid down for him.
Mike: All this from a one-track mind.
> In many oversocialized people
>this results in a sense of constraint and powerlessness that can be a
>severe hardship. We suggest that oversocialization is among the more
>serious cruelties that human beings inflict on one another.
Crow: Aside from mail bombs.
>
>27. We argue that a very important and influential segment of the
>modern left is oversocialized and that their oversocialization is of
>great importance in determining the direction of modern leftism.
Mike: Uh, would that be _left?_
>Leftists of the oversocialized type tend to be intellectuals or members
>of the upper-middle class. Notice that university intellectuals (3)
Tom: All three of them.
>constitute the most highly socialized segment of our society and also
>the most left-wing segment.
>
>28. The leftist of the oversocialized type tries to get off
Crow:
Mike: CROW!!
Crow: What? I didn't say anything!
> his
>psychological leash and assert his autonomy by rebelling. But usually
>he is not strong enough to rebel against the most basic values of
>society.
Mike: A rebel without a clue.
> Generally speaking, the goals of today's leftists are NOT in
>conflict with the accepted morality. On the contrary, the left takes an
>accepted moral principle, adopts it as its own,
Crow: This commandment adopted by the Des Moines JayCees.
> and then accuses
>mainstream society of violating that principle. Examples: racial
>equality, equality of the sexes, helping poor people, peace as opposed
>to war, nonviolence generally, freedom of expression, kindness to
>animals. More fundamentally,
Tom: Thou shalt not steal.
Mike: Thou shalt not kill.
Crow: Thou shalt not covet your neighbor's ass.
> the duty of the individual to serve
>society and the duty of society to take care of the individual. All
>these have been deeply rooted values of our society (or at least of its
>middle and upper classes (4) for a long time.
Mike: How long is a long time?
Crow: Since at least last spring.
> These values are
>explicitly or implicitly expressed or presupposed in most of the
>material presented to us by the mainstream communications media
Tom: Of course, since we all know that everything on TV is just like
real life.
> and the
>educational system. Leftists, especially those of the oversocialized
>type, usually do not rebel against these principles but justify their
Mike: Love?
Crow: Margins?
>hostility to society by claiming (with some degree of truth) that
>society is not living up to these principles.
>
>29. Here is an illustration
Tom: It's a doggie.
> of the way in which the oversocialized
>leftist shows his real attachment to the conventional attitudes of our
>society while pretending to be in rebellion against it.
Mike: What are you pretending to rebel against?
Crow: What do you pretend to have?
> Many leftists
>push for affirmative action, for moving black people into high-prestige
>jobs, for improved education in black schools and more money for such
>schools;
Tom: Well, I can certainly see why this is bad.
> the way of life of the black "underclass" they regard as a
>social disgrace. They want to integrate the black man
Crow: We call it "social calculus."
> into the system,
>make him a business executive, a lawyer, a scientist just like upper-
>middle-class white people. The leftists will reply that the last thing
>they want is to make the black man into a copy of the white man;
Mike: Actually, a photo negative.
>instead, they want to preserve African American culture. But in what
>does this preservation of African American culture consist? It can
>hardly consist in anything more than eating black-style food, listening
>to black-style music, wearing black-style clothing and going to a
>black-style church or mosque.
Crow: Worshipping a black-style God.
Tom: Living in black-style ghettos.
Mike: Existing as black-style stereotypes.
> In other words, it can express itself
>only in superficial matters.
Mike: Ethnicity is only skin deep, but prejudice goes clear to the bone.
> In all ESSENTIAL respects more leftists of
>the oversocialized type want to make the black man conform to white,
>middle-class ideals. They want to make him study technical subjects,
Crow: Would you like to make more money?
>become an executive or a scientist, spend his life climbing the status
>ladder to prove that black people are as good as white. They want to
>make black fathers "responsible." they want black gangs to become
>nonviolent, etc. But these are exactly the values of the industrial-
>technological system. The system couldn't care less what kind of music
>a man listens to,
Tom: Just so long as it isn't John Denver.
> what kind of clothes he wears
Mike: Coed Naked Terrorism.
> or what religion he
>believes in as long as he studies in school, holds a respectable job,
>climbs the status ladder, is a "responsible" parent, is nonviolent and
>so forth. In effect, however much he may deny it, the oversocialized
>leftist wants to integrate the black man into the system and make him
>adopt its values.
Tom: So in other words, being poor, uneducated, violent, etc. is a part
of black culture?
Mike: Don't try to understand him, Tom.
>
>30. We certainly do not claim that leftists, even of the oversocialized
>type, NEVER rebel against the fundamental values of our society.
Crow: However, they almost never do the dishes.
>Clearly they sometimes do. Some oversocialized leftists have gone so
>far as to rebel against one of modern society's most important
>principles by engaging in physical violence. By their own account,
>violence is for them a form of "liberation."
Mike: Pot. Kettle. Black.
> In other words, by
>committing violence they break through the psychological restraints
>that have been trained into them.
Crow: The sad thing is that this guy probably sees himself as a hero for
killing "the enemy" and breaking society's bonds against violence.
> Because they are oversocialized these
>restraints have been more confining for them than for others; hence
>their need to break free of them. But they usually justify their
>rebellion in terms of mainstream values. If they engage in violence
>they claim to be fighting against racism or the like.
Tom: The beatings will continue until morality improves.
>
>31. We realize that many objections could be raised to the foregoing
>thumb-nail sketch of leftist psychology. The real situation is complex,
Crow: However, I am unable to comprehend anything more complex than the
average McDonalds' Happy Meal toy.
>and anything like a complete description of it would take several
>volumes even if the necessary data were available.
Mike: Which it isn't, it having been made up by me to validate my
delusions.
> We claim only to
>have indicated very roughly the two most important tendencies in the
>psychology of modern leftism.
Tom: Does anyone else have a feeling of deja vu?
>
>32. The problems of the leftist are indicative of the problems of our
>society as a whole. Low self-esteem, depressive tendencies and
>defeatism are not restricted to the left.
Mike: You too can enjoy mental disorders in the comfort of your own
home!
> Though they are especially
>noticeable in the left, they are widespread in our society. And today's
>society tries to socialize us to a greater extent than any previous
>society.
Crow: Another enemy of Medicare.
> We are even told by experts how to eat,
Tom: It works better when you put it in your _mouth._
> how to exercise, how
>to make love, how to raise our kids and so forth.
>
>THE POWER PROCESS
Mike: A twelve step program.
>
>33. Human beings have a need
Crow: A need for speed!
> (probably based in biology) for something
>that we will call the "power process." This is closely related to the
>need for power (which is widely recognized) but is not quite the same
>thing. The power process has four elements.
Tom: Fire! Water! Earth! Air!
Crow: Death! Pestilence! War! Famine!
Mike: John! Paul! George! Ringo!
> The three most clear-cut of
>these we call goal, effort and attainment of goal.
Mike: Having already ripped off Freud's psychosocial model, we will now
proceed to claim Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs as our own idea as well.
> (Everyone needs to
>have goals whose attainment requires effort, and needs to succeed in
>attaining at least some of his goals.) The fourth element
Mike: The third force.
Tom: The second sex.
Crow: Who's on first?
> is more
>difficult to define and may not be necessary for everyone. We call it
>autonomy
Crow: I call it "Steve."
> and will discuss it later (paragraphs 42-44).
>
>34. Consider the hypothetical case of a man who can have anything he
>wants just by wishing for it.
Tom: We'll call him "Mr. Gates."
> Such a man has power, but he will develop
>serious psychological problems. At first he will have a lot of fun,
All: Whee!!
> but
>by and by he will become acutely bored and demoralized.
All: [yawn] Ho-hum.
> Eventually he
>may become clinically depressed.
All: [cry] Boo-hoo!
> History shows that leisured
>aristocracies tend to become decadent.
Mike: Get that Veblen fellow on the phone! I've got an idea!
> This is not true of fighting
>aristocracies that have to struggle to maintain their power.
Crow: Here come your USC Fighting Medicis!
> But
>leisured, secure aristocracies that have no need to exert themselves
>usually become bored, hedonistic and demoralized,
Tom: Delusive rhetoric is better the second time around!
> even though they have
>power. This shows that power is not enough.
Mike: You also must be feared.
> One must have goals toward
>which to exercise one's power.
>
>35. Everyone has goals;
Tom: I want to be a dancer.
> if nothing else, to obtain the physical
>necessities of life: food, water and whatever
Mike: You know--essential stuff.
> clothing and shelter are
>made necessary by the climate. But the leisured aristocrat obtains
>these things without effort. Hence his boredom and demoralization.
>
>36. Nonattainment of important goals results in death if the goals are
>physical necessities,
Crow: Yet another earth-shattering revelation courtesy of the Unabomber.
> and in frustration if nonattainment of the goals
>is compatible with survival. Consistent failure to attain goals
>throughout life results in defeatism, low self-esteem or depression.
Mike: And the Democratic party.
>
>37. Thus, in order to avoid serious psychological problems, a human
>being needs goals
Crow: Goooooooaaaaaaals!
> whose attainment requires effort, and he must have a
>reasonable rate of success in attaining his goals.
>
>SURROGATE ACTIVITIES
>
>38. But not every leisured aristocrat becomes bored and demoralized.
Mike: They're only mostly decadent.
>For example, the emperor Hirohito, instead of sinking into decadent
>hedonism, devoted himself to marine biology, a field in which he became
>distinguished. When people do not have to exert themselves to satisfy
>their physical needs they often set up artificial goals for themselves.
Tom: I've just invented the hobby!
>In many cases they then pursue these goals with the same energy and
>emotional involvement that they otherwise would have put into the
>search for physical necessities.
Mike: I cite for examples: Trekkies!
> Thus the aristocrats of the Roman
>Empire had their literary pretentions;
Crow: As do certain UNC students.
> many European aristocrats a few
>centuries ago invested tremendous time and energy in hunting, though
>they certainly didn't need the meat;
Mike: Mmm, venison.
> other aristocracies have competed
>for status through elaborate displays of wealth; and a few aristocrats,
>like Hirohito, have turned to science.
Crow: But nothing can take the place of true love.
>
>39. We use the term "surrogate activity" to designate an activity that
>is directed toward an artificial goal that people set up for themselves
>merely in order to have some goal to work toward,
Tom: A hobby, in other words.
Mike: Yes, but if you don't make it sound really complex and scientific,
people won't take you seriously.
> or let us say, merely
>for the sake of the "fulfillment" that they get from pursuing the goal.
>Here is a rule of thumb for the identification of surrogate activities.
Mike: If it's bigger than a breadbox, it's a surrogate activity.
>Given a person who devotes much time and energy to the pursuit of goal
>X, ask yourself this:
Tom: What is it you get out of MiSTing?
> If he had to devote most of his time and energy
>to satisfying his biological needs, and if that effort required him to
>use his physical and mental facilities in a varied and interesting way,
>would he feel seriously deprived because he did not attain goal X?
Crow: So we'd all be much happier if we were cold, thirsty, hungry, and
scrambling for survival?
Tom: Yep.
> If
>the answer is no, then the person's pursuit of a goal X is a surrogate
>activity. Hirohito's studies in marine biology clearly constituted a
>surrogate activity, since it is pretty certain
Mike: We're pretty certain it's clear.
> that if Hirohito had had
>to spend his time working at interesting non-scientific tasks in order
>to obtain the necessities of life,
Tom: This guy has a weird definition of interesting.
Mike: How can you not think basic survival is not utterly fascinating in
and of itself?
> he would not have felt deprived
>because he didn't know all about the anatomy and life-cycles of marine
>animals.
Crow: Instead, he'd feel deprived as he starved to death.
> On the other hand the pursuit of sex and love (for example) is
>not a surrogate activity,
Mike: Just a hell of a lot of fun.
> because most people, even if their existence
>were otherwise satisfactory, would feel deprived if they passed their
>lives without ever having a relationship with a member of the opposite
>sex.
Crow: Insert gratuitous joke about certain terrorists not getting any.
> (But pursuit of an excessive amount of sex, more than one really
>needs, can be a surrogate activity.)
Tom: The Unabomber's Philosophy in the Bedroom.
>
>40. In modern industrial society only minimal effort is necessary to
>satisfy one's physical needs. It is enough to go through a training
>program to acquire some petty technical skill,
Crow: It only takes four or five years for that ME degree.
> then come to work on
>time and exert very modest effort needed to hold a job.
Mike: Obviously this guy has never pulled a ten hour busboy shift on a
Sunday.
> The only
>requirements are a moderate amount of intelligence,
Tom: Which I lack.
> and most of all,
>simple OBEDIENCE. If one has those, society takes care of one from
>cradle to grave.
Mike: I'm a card carrying member of the faceless masses.
> (Yes, there is an underclass that cannot take physical
>necessities for granted, but we are speaking here of mainstream
>society.)
Crow: Wow! Ignoring most of the world makes supporting any halfcocked
theory a snap!
> Thus it is not surprising that modern society is full of
>surrogate activities. These include scientific work, athletic
>achievement, humanitarian work, artistic and literary creation,
Mike: Building bombs.
Tom: Writing manifestos.
Crow: Making fun of people who write manifestos.
>climbing the corporate ladder, acquisition of money and material goods
>far beyond the point at which they cease to give any additional
>physical satisfaction,
Tom: Actually, basic economic theory rests on the fact that a person's
desires are limitless.
> and social activism when it addresses issues
>that are not important for the activist personally,
Crow: Since we've already shown that no one ever does anything out of
compassion or a sense of justice.
> as in the case of
>white activists who work for the rights of nonwhite minorities. These
>are not always pure surrogate activities,
Tom: They've been diluted with baking power.
> since for many people they
>may be motivated in part by needs other than the need to have some goal
>to pursue. Scientific work may be motivated in part by a drive for
>prestige,
Mike: No...
> artistic creation by a need to express feelings,
Mike: No...
> militant
>social activism by hostility.
Tom: Ding ding ding!
Mike: We have a winner!
> But for most people who pursue them,
>these activities are in large part surrogate activities. For example,
>the majority of scientists will probably agree
Crow: 5 out of 5 psychologists agree: the Unabomber is one messed up
dude.
> that the "fulfillment"
>they get from their work is more important than the money and prestige
>they earn.
Mike: Seeing how all scientists get paid extravagant sums of money, so
physical wealth means nothing to them.
>
>41. For many if not most people, surrogate activities are less
>satisfying than the pursuit of real goals ( that is, goals that people
>would want to attain even if their need for the power process were
>already fulfilled).
Tom: How is that different from a surrogate activity?
Mike: Real goals are things that people _want_ that give them
satisfaction even though they aren't necessary for survival while
surrogate activities are things that people _do_ that give them
satisfaction even though they aren't necessary for survival.
> One indication of this is the fact that, in many or
>most cases, people who are deeply involved in surrogate activities are
>never satisfied, never at rest. Thus the money-maker constantly strives
>for more and more wealth. The scientist no sooner solves one problem
>than he moves on to the next.
Mike: I think our friend is confusing the ends with the means.
> The long-distance runner drives himself
>to run always farther and faster. Many people who pursue surrogate
>activities will say that they get far more fulfillment from these
>activities than they do from the "mundane" business of satisfying their
>biological needs,
Crow: Which seems to me to be perfectly normal, but for some reason
seems to be horribly wrong to Mr. Unabomber.
> but that it is because in our society the effort
>needed to satisfy the biological needs has been reduced to triviality.
Tom: Yes, life was so much better when it was nasty, short, and brutish.
>More importantly, in our society people do not satisfy their biological
>needs AUTONOMOUSLY but by functioning as parts of an immense social
>machine. In contrast, people generally have a great deal of autonomy in
>pursuing their surrogate activities.
Crow: So people should have autonomy, except when they have autonomy?
>
>AUTONOMY
Mike: Aren't they the guys who fought the Decepticons?
>
>42. Autonomy as a part of the power process may not be necessary for
>every individual.
Tom: Damn. I just destroyed my own argument.
> But most people need a greater or lesser degree of
>autonomy in working toward their goals.
Crow: Which they only think are goals, but aren't really goals, because
if they were goals, then my theory would fall apart.
> Their efforts must be
>undertaken on their own initiative and must be under their own
>direction and control. Yet most people do not have to exert this
>initiative, direction and control as single individuals. It is usually
>enough to act as a member of a SMALL group. Thus if half a dozen people
>discuss a goal among themselves
Mike: I'll give you a topic. MST3K is neither M, nor S, nor T, nor 3,
nor K.
> and make a successful joint effort
Tom: Huh, huh. Joint effort, get it? Huh, huh, huh.
> to
>attain that goal, their need for the power process will be served. But
>if they work under rigid orders handed down from above
Mike: The ten commandments?
> that leave them
>no room for autonomous decision and initiative, then their need for the
>power process will not be served. The same is true when decisions are
>made on a collective bases
Crow: Remember, when achieving your need for the power process, dial
1-800-COLLECTIVE.
> if the group making the collective decision
>is so large that the role of each individual is insignificant [5]
>
>43. It is true that some individuals seem to have little need for
>autonomy.
Mike: We call them communists.
> Either their drive for power is weak or they satisfy it by
>identifying themselves with some powerful organization to which they
>belong.
Tom: In America, these are known as sports fans.
Crow: Go Bulls!
> And then there are unthinking, animal types who seem to be
>satisfied with a purely physical sense of power(the good combat
>soldier,
Mike: Schweik.
> who gets his sense of power by developing fighting skills
Crow: I've got Level 7 broadsword.
> that
>he is quite content to use in blind obedience to his superiors).
Tom: [flatly] Wow. What a scathing indictment of the military.
>
>44. But for most people it is through the power process-having a goal,
>making an AUTONOMOUS effort and attaining t the goal-that self-esteem,
>self-confidence and a sense of power are acquired. When one does not
>have adequate opportunity to go throughout the power process the
>consequences are (depending on the individual and on the way the power
>process is disrupted) boredom, demoralization, low self-esteem,
Crow: Bad hair days.
>inferiority feelings, defeatism, depression, anxiety, guilt,
>frustration, hostility, spouse or child abuse, insatiable hedonism,
>abnormal sexual behavior,
Mike: Now the Freudism comes up.
> sleep disorders, eating disorders, etc. [6]
>
[Continued in part 3]
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