I shall never forget Harpers
Ferry. A few years ago, my expat aunt and I drove there from Washington, DC and
we were both utterly captivated (Figure 36.1). This tiny American town lies at
the eastern tip of West Virginia, at the confluence of the Potomac and
Shenandoah rivers, across which one can see the neighbouring states of Virginia
and Maryland (Figure 36.2). Its claim to fame is, however, historic rather than
geographic.
Figure
36.1: I took this photograph of Harpers Ferry in late summer, looking
northwestward along Potomac Terrace.
Figure
36.2: This famous extremity of West Virginia lies just 200 miles from the east
coast of the USA.
It was back in 1859 when a slavery
abolitionist called John Brown launched an audacious raid on the town’s
armoury. The purpose of the insurrection was to seize the US Arsenal and
orchestrate a mass slave revolt. The raid was unsuccessful. Ten of Brown’s men,
along with six civilians and a US Marine, were killed during the assault. Brown
himself was wounded, captured, found guilty of treason and hanged.
Just before his execution,
Brown wrote his last prophecy:
‘I John Brown am now quite certain that the
crimes of this guilty, land: will never be purged away; but with
Blood. I had as I now think: vainly flattered myself that without very
much bloodshed; it might be done.’
His words were telling. Eighteen months later,
following the election of Abraham Lincoln as the 16th President of the United
States, the southern ‘slave states’ seceded from the Union and formed the
pro-slavery Confederacy. Civil war followed, and lasted from 1861 until 1865.
The Confederacy was ultimately defeated and slavery subsequently outlawed
throughout the entire nation. The lives of 620,000 Americans were lost, more
than during the Second World War (1941-5) and Vietnam War (1959-75) combined.
Brown, despite having been
found guilty of murdering innocents, has long been considered a national hero
(Figure 36.3). His actions, although calamitous, led to the emancipation of
black slaves. The general consensus among modern Americans is that a major
injustice (slavery) was eradicated, partly as a result of a minor one (the
raid). In other words, the ends more than justified the bloody means.
Figure
36.3: National honours afforded to John Brown (1800-59) include tributary
lyrics to the patriotic Battle Hymn of
the Republic and a life-size statue at Western University, Kansas City.
Copyright
© 2011 Kansas City Lens
African Americans, for obvious
reasons, revere Brown immensely. Even Malcolm X (1925-65), the notorious
Islamic activist, said that although whites were prohibited from joining his Organization of Afro-American Unity, he
would have made John Brown an exception.
Harpers Ferry has been
preserved very thoughtfully. Motor vehicles, with the exception of those
belonging to traders, are prohibited from entering the town. Visitors are
invited to park at a purpose-built reception centre a couple of miles away and
use a frequent bus shuttle service to gain access. Not only does this help
reduce pollution and enhance road safety, it also adds to the Ferry’s authenticity.
This historical enclave impressed me as a genuine American treasure.
Let us now travel 2,000 miles
west of Harpers Ferry and wind the clock forward to April 1996. On the
outskirts of Lincoln, Montana, FBI agents arrested a 53-year-old man in an
isolated ramshackle cabin. Very few locals knew him, and absolutely no one had
any idea how he spent his time. The occupant, Theodore (Ted) Kaczynski (1942-),
was a Harvard-educated mathematician who had become an assistant professor at
the age of 25. Evidently, he was a man of supreme intellect. Four years later, however,
in 1971, he quit academia to live in remote solitude. Recovered from his cabin
was bomb-making equipment, including one complete device, along with a
typewritten ‘manifesto’ identifying him as the so-called ‘Unabomber’ who had
mailed bombs to university and airline employees, killing three and
injuring several others. Kaczynski admitted to the severity of his actions but,
in his view, bloodshed had been necessary to draw attention to his belief that
the technological revolution would irreversibly deprive humans of their basic
liberty.
Sentenced to life imprisonment
without parole, Kaczynski remains incarcerated at a maximum-security federal
prison in Florence, Colorado. Being a convicted killer has, naturally,
prejudiced the minds of many, making it easy for the rationale behind his thesis
to be dismissed as the deranged rant of a psychopath. I read it for the first
time about fifteen years ago. Ever since, I have found it increasingly
difficult to counter the broad thrust of Kaczynski’s argument (Figure 36.4).
Figure
36.4: Published by Feral House just over a year ago, the book details Kaczynski’s
critique of technology and includes parts of his infamous manifesto.
Copyright © 2010 Theodore Kaczynski
It seems to me that necessity
is not the only mother of invention. How about avarice, short-sightedness and
rank stupidity? All have spawned technological ‘progress’ at some time or
other. In fact, I cannot think of a single technological innovation which man has
declined to exploit.
The consequences of this are
far-reaching. Here are just a few examples. Web search engines pervert our
objectivity. Personal information is reduced to digital code, processed and
used to skew our preferences, all without human involvement. Online businesses
suggest products. Facebook suggests friends.
SatNavs are becoming substitutes for map-reading skills and spatial awareness.
The Internet has become a removable disk, in effect an external memory which
obviates the need to expand our own. (Why learn when you can google?) Stock
exchange traders buy and sell according to computed data, rather than by
logical reasoning. This ‘algo-trading’ currently accounts for 70% of financial
transactions. This figure is set to increase further, until human input becomes
redundant.
All such technological
‘refinements’ stem from sophisticated mathematical processes called
algorithms – ones and zeros flitting
around inside computer chips by means of micro-switches – and many of them
operate and ‘learn’ independently of human control. David Walliams’s character Carol
Beer in Little Britain is considered
amusing because of her inane catchphrase, ‘Computer says no.’ Dull-witted and
ridiculous though she might be, the message is a serious one.
Computers were designed to be
our slaves, but they are emancipating themselves and turning the tables. Technological
advancement is accelerating, and techno-obsolescence comes upon us ever more
rapidly. As a result, it is impossible to make long-term predictions about
cultural change, less still influence it. We are on board a runaway train,
either blind or just looking the other way. The faster it travels, the more
likely it will derail or crash. If it does, Ted Kaczynski, despite his appalling
crimes, might well be considered to have been ahead of his time.
John Brown died just over 150
years ago. It is not unthinkable that, 150 years from now, when Ted Kaczynski’s
body lies a-mouldering in the grave, he might be similarly exalted by the descendants
of those who condemned him for life (Figure 36.5).
Figure
36.5: John Brown (left) and Ted Kaczynski. Will history repeat itself?
Copyright
© 1996 A+E Television Networks
Copyright © 2012 Paul
Spradbery
