How I Hope "Fail" Succeeds

Chuck Klosterman can't heed his own warnings. In the excerpt "Fail" from his book "Eating a Dinosaur" Klosterman discusses, in depth, the nearly undeniable detrimental effects that modern media has on society but admits that he is a slave to the very technology his essay seems to rail against and cannot change his ways. I, like Klosterman can see tremendous merit in the ideas that Ted Kaczynski put forth in his manifesto (although I admit, I have barely familiarized myself with them beyond Klosterman's description) and actually lament the fact that Kaczynski felt so desperate about the fate of his fellow man that he thought he needed to resort to random acts of anonymous violence in order grab the attention of the people he was ultimately trying to save. Like many historical mad geniuses, I can imagine Kaczynski sitting in his cabin regretting the perceived necessity of his actions but justifying it with the old "what's a few lives to save thousands?" line of thinking.

I also can't help but think that in eras long past revolutionaries were the kind of people who saw their society heading down a dark road and took drastic, sometimes violent action in hopes of changing the course of history that they were perceiving. Although Kaczynski's victims were random and guilty of no crime (other than, most probably, being themselves slaves to the system Kaczynski hoped to take down), a few hundred years ago they may have been considered unfortunate but necessary casualties of a revolutionary hero. Now, let's be 100% clear... I am not calling Kaczynski a hero or attempting to praise him any more than Klosterman was. His angle just got me thinking about it a little more and I thought I could take it a step further. Ultimately what Kaczynski did requires some sort of unhinged malice and he deserves the punishment he has received. But he deserves it for hurting innocent bystanders, not for attempting to take down or alter an insidious system that I believe still needs, at the very least, to be altered.

Klosterman, unfortunately, admits that he will not be the one to lead the way. I empathize with his candidness about his addiction to mainstream media, most specifically, the internet, and I also feel the appeal of apathy and of simply choosing not to change because to go on living as a willing participant in our digital society is both easy and convenient. But I just can't. And I don't believe Klosterman wants me to. Well, actually, I can imagine Klosterman's attitude would be that he doesn't care one way or the other, but I can't help but feel like, even if Klosterman writes with a tongue in cheek honesty about his own inability to change he still wrote "Fail" because he hoped he could inspire a stronger audience to do so. I feel, with depressing certainty, that if that audience isn't reached in the near future our society will be heading into an irreversible downward spiral.