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POLITICS & COMMUNITY Payback Time: The Unabomber on Ice April 11, 1996 Past columns by Ted Rall

America's dirtbags are sleeping better this week. The arrest of Unabomb suspect Theodore J. Kaczynski, Harvard Class of '62, has apparently taken the country's most famous long-winded technophobe out of circulation. This is probably for the best. After all, who needs packages of high-grade explosives getting stuck at the Chicago post office? Along with a sense of relief that a serial murderer is behind bars, though, there's also a profound sense of loss. First of all, not many people are smart enough to keep the FBI at bay for two decades -- and then, he would never have gotten caught if his slimy excuse for a brother hadn't ratted him out for a million-dollar reward. It's a pity to see all those grade-A brain cells wasted in prison. Second, anyone who read the Unabomber's Manifesto knows that its author was a brilliant social theorist. His bombs got him an audience for important ideas that normally don't receive mainstream attention: that technological advances hurt the majority while enriching the few; that political correctness has destroyed the left; that most people feel alienated from post-industrial society. Citizens were able to add a detailed critique of anarchy and industrial society to their usual diet of "Baywatch." Could a Parisian-style cafe culture have been far behind? Now that Ted's in the pokey, American political discourse again ranges from Hillary Clinton on the moderate left, to Rush Limbaugh on the moderate right. Kaczynski was perhaps the last Baby Boomer to hold true to the militant idealism of the 1960s. As his fellow activists sold out to become investment bankers, PR men and real estate agents, he moved to rural Montana where he retreated from the rat race only to shower in the great outdoors and peruse used books on sociology and political science. Forget twentysomethings; Kaczynski was the original slacker. Finally, there are the victims. From 1978 to 1995, the Unabomber killed 3 people and injured 23, using 15 bombs of ever-increasing intensity. One might quarrel with his cowardly murder methods and the contradiction between using techie (albeit low-tech) means --pipe bombs-- to attack technocrats. His obsession with obscure university professors and bush-league business execs seems a bit misplaced, but there's no denying that few of these guys will be missed. The last casualty of the bomber's lonely war was Gilbert Murray, president of the California Forestry Association, a lobbying firm that represents landowners and lumber companies which deforest public land. Donn E. Zea, the organization's vice president, reacted to the news of Kaczynski's arrest: "It showed us how these debates can get so out of control. This man was going around murdering for his cause." Murray too murdered for his cause; he devoted his life to destroying the environment. But that's an acceptable, mainstream activity when it's performed by bald white guys wearing suits. Previous victims include a parade of geneticists, computer geeks, an airline president and a lot of other people who never consider the moral implications of their jobs. While it's impossible to crawl into the mind of someone who would deprive children of fathers and maim unintended targets, it's obvious that the Unabomber sought to hold individuals accountable for their actions. We live during an era in which CEOs justify raising their salaries while laying off thousands of employees; when we destroy our environment and society for a buck because if we don't, someone else will. We rush past the homeless, ignore people with AIDS and justify our roles in the machinery of post-industrial devastation as unavoidable consequences of modernity. In such a bleak period of irresponsibility, the Unabomber's admonition that we are each the sum of our acts is a refreshing change. Kaczynski too will be held accountable for his actions. Like all good terrorists, he took care to claim responsibility for each episode of mayhem. He'll answer for the severed limbs, premature widows and shattered lives he left in his wake. He'll face the music for the innocent Northwestern student, the campus security guard and the Vanderbilt secretary injured by bombs intended for others. Officials have already said that they intend to seek the death penalty. California governor Pete Wilson is drooling to kill him with that cool technology called the lethal-injection machine. This brings up another issue in the politics of responsibility and retribution: Who will hold the Government responsible for murdering Ted Kaczynski? Ted Rall, is a syndicated cartoonist, freelance writer and author of "The Worst Thing (I've Ever Done)" (NBM Publishing), due in July 1996. © 1996 Ted Rall, All Rights Reserved.