The Unabomber

So a couple of years ago, I decided to read the Unabomber's manifesto. I don't remember why, maybe because I like the emotional connection I feel with the word 'manifesto'. It's got that sense of containing radical thought that's probably well-considered, but still rough, meaning that others can come later to refine aspects of it themselves. I'll blame all those literary theory classes I took in college for making me not afraid of reading radical thoughts and finding strong and weak points. But I digress. You've probably gathered I do that frequently.

Anyway, Unabomber manifesto. While a lot of the process and background leading to his argument didn't fit with my experience and realistic predictions, he made a couple of useful points, which I think fit fairly closely to those made by the Transcendentalist writers. Kaczynski and Thoreau had very similar approaches to life: simple and self-reliant.

They both ask the same question, which is one I'm frequently considering. Am I being a capable individual today or am I just a cog in the machine, a mass-producible, fully interchangeable part of the machine?

Most days, I don't even think about it, but when I do, I'm frequently feeling more like a cog in the machine. Unsurprising, since if I felt otherwise, I probably wouldn't be asking the question.

I'm writing this on the bus and there's a guy sitting across from me just grinning like an idiot. I know that just because he's smiling doesn't mean he's dumb. I'd cut the guy some slack if he were reading a book or listening to something on headphones or even talking on his phone. But he's not. He's just sitting there, goofy, vacant smile all the way across his face.

I wonder what people on the bus think of me. I'm sure there's someone like me, taking character notes on the same busses I'm on, and I wonder if I'm any kind of interesting character to them. I try to be fairly low-key, but I'd be curious what kind of a personality I exude.

I'm going to end heee because the guy across from me became the guy next to me and I don't want him to think I was being mean.