As anarchists, we do not believe in the desirability, historical inevitability or perpetuation of representative political institutions. It has become quite clear to nearly all that these institutions (even when they are "democratic") do not adequately express the political will of the vast majority of people; indeed, they are central to the destruction of this will at its roots, the thwarting of its very growth, and the eventual suppression of all interest in public affairs. There is, without question, an unbridgeable gulf that separates contemporary "politics" from people's everyday lives. As a result, the vast majority of potential voters have become "de-politicized," "cynical" and "apathetic." This is their way of expressing their opposition to, contempt for, and desire to move beyond the current political system in its entirety. (One can see the same tactic being used in the workplace: workers restrict their output and keep their ideas to themselves; to carry out their work, they make use of unofficial improvements and informal organizational structures that they carefully hide from their bosses and supervisors, etc.) We respect the public's right to use this tactic in whatever sphere it is useful to them, and we wouldn't dare to tell anyone that they should abandon it and return unarmed into the very systems that have done them so much harm in the past.
Thus, we never support political candidates, and this would include self-avowed "anarchist" Noam Chomsky, should he ever run for office; we could never support any political candidate who wasn't -- by definition -- absolutely unelectable. Ralph Nader, though he lacks the support to actually become President of the United States in 1996, is theoretically (at least) an electable candidate. The Unabomber is completely unelectable because he (or she) isn't a person in any sense of the word: the Unabomber is not "FC," nor is the Unabomber Theodore Kaczinski, who is of course presumed innocent until proven otherwise; the Unabomber is a simulacrum invented by the FBI as a way of coordinating its investigations into a series of related crimes. S/he is nothing more than a file containing evidence and psychological profiles.
We choose to support the so-called Unabomber for President in the 1996 election (rather than such equally unelectable potential candidates as a pig, Daffy Duck or Dilbert) because FC, the author(s) of the infamous manifesto "Industrial Society and Its Future," identified themselves in this text as anarchists. We happen to believe that the tone and content of the manifesto -- supposedly published and distributed as a last ditch effort to catch someone or a group of people who had eluded capture for almost two decades -- is, as a matter of fact, not anarchist. (One must distinguish carefully between all technology and the technology that capitalism has fashioned for itself, just as one must resist the tendency to posit a quantitative -- rather than qualitative -- threshold for the size of "ideal" human societies.) And so the "Unabomber for President" campaign allows us the opportunity to make two (serious) jokes at the same time: we get to show our opposition to and contempt for capitalist political institutions by supporting an unelectable candidate at the same time that we get to call attention to the humorlessness, shallowness, rhetorical woodenness, unexamined assumptions, huge gaps in and (yet) paradoxical allure and relevance of the ideas attributed to the Unabomber.
Our goals in this campaign: the abolishment of exploitation and alienation; the management of all work and activity by those who engage in it directly; and the creation of a truly new organization of society. Join us! Contact UNAPACK HQ or NOT BORED! at PO Box 1115 NYC 10009-9998 for campaign materials and information on how you can get involved.
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