Truth Versus Lies

by Theodore John Kaczynski

In Truth versus Lies, the author describes in penetrating prose his undergraduate years at Harvard, his budding activism, and the Cain and Abel nature of his relationship with the brother who eventually turned him in. Kaczynski has said that he would have preferred death to a mental illness defense, which he believed would have ridiculed his life, and -- more seriously -- would have invalidated his activism. In spite of the lethal results of that activism, Kaczynski's skill as a storyteller, his towering intellect, and his tireless adherence to his own sense of morality challenge much of the myth about this man.

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Bakunin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating read. Unfortunately I couldn't find a printed copy of the book so I had to resort to reading it online. In the book Ted provides his - for the most part very matter of fact - view of his life.
Ted's style is very direct and seems honest to the reader although one should not take it at face value. I find his analysis often to be very perceptive but of course lacking when it comes to his intimate family. His life is essentially a Greek tragedy in which his enormous talents are also what keep him from experiencing intimacy with others. His aggressiveness would seem to stem from the fact that he experience a high degree of humiliation during his high school years (as a result of skipping 2 grades) as well as during his participation in a psychologically damaging study done at Harvard. He died a virgin despite several attempts at intimacy with women (I should emphasize that this does not mean that he is not responsible for his actions).

His inability to find a romantic partner can perhaps in part explain his relation to society at large. I don't find any reason to believe that he is suffering from schizophrenia (as his brother would have us believe). I believe the best explanation for his action lies in the fact that he wanted to escape the status game and indeed Will Storrs book on the subject seems to ring especially true in this case. He seems to have been a very lonely man, his at times peaceful life in the wild notwithstanding. At one point in his journals he quotes this passage from the Encyclopedia Britannica:

"In ethics he [Antisthes] was driven to individualism, to the denial of social and national relations, to the exclusion of scientific study and of almost all that the Greeks understood by education. This individualism he and his followers carried to its logical conclusion. The ordinary pleasures of life were for them not merely negligible but positively harmful inasmuch as they interrupted the operation of the will. Wealth, popularity and power tend to dethrone the authority of reason and to pervert the soul from the natural to the artificial. Man exists for and in himself alone; his highest end is self-knowledge and self-realization in conformity with the dictates of his reason, apart altogether from the state and society. For this end, disrepute and poverty are advantageous, in so far as they drive back the man upon himself, increasing his self-control and purifying his intellect from the dross of the external. The good man (i.e. the wise man) wants nothing: like the gods, he is [self - sufficing] ..."

That seems to me be the definition of what the Greeks meant by hubris. I also wonder if it is an extremely rational mind which attempts to explain its inability to find a human connection. A psyche attemtps to redefine the basic conditions of life by completely leaving the social world behind and thereby also leaving the status hierarchy.

[Atrona Grizel (Sov8840)]

I saw my shadow leave the room before I did.

[Madison Grace]

Say what you will, his citation skills are off the charts. My copy of this book is just shy of 200 pages long and there are 942 footnotes. Incredible.