/gulag/ - gulag

I read his manifesto, and then I read Ellul, since Kaczynski's writing was just Ellul filtered through a schizophrenic midwit.

Ellul's argument was that technological advancement would be so advantageous to authoritarian regimes, that it would cause them to start outproducing more liberal countries economically, and ultimately militarily. He predicted that consequently all governments would become more authoritarian to try to take the greatest advantage of technology.

Governments try to take in more data. In doing so, they become more authoritarian by nature (as they create a separation between the inner and outer circles). At the same time as they do this, they become less effective - they mistake data for knowledge, and knowledge for power. Data becomes a fetish, and the basis for governance slips away. The last stage is some form of state collapse. Soviet Union is a decent example of this happening.

The opposite form is building durable and distributed systems of governance that lean on the good culture of the greater populace and welcome their aid in governing. Self-governance, as it were, where data on the governed is entirely besides the point when you can just ask instead and get a more useful reflection on affairs.