Introduction

1. The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster Tor the human race. They

have greatly increased the life-expectancy of those of us who live in "advanced" countries,
but they hitvc destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling, have subjected human beings
to indignities, have led to widespread psychological suffering (in the Third World to physical
suffering as well) and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world. The continued
development of technology will worsen the situation. Il will certainly subject human beings
lo greater indignities and inflict greater damage on the natural world, it will probably lead to
greater social disruption and psychological suffering, and it may lead to increased physical
suffering even in "advanced" countries.

2. The industrial-technological system may survive or it may break down. If it survives, it may

eventually achieve a low level of physical and psychological suffering, but only after passing
through a long and very painful period of adjustment and only at the cost of permanently
reducing human beings and many other living organisms lo engineered products and mere
cogs in the social machine. Furthermore, if the system survives, the consequences will be
inevitable; There is no way of reforming or modifying the system so as lo prevent it from
depriving people of dignity and autonomy.

3. If (lie system breaks down the consequences will still be very painful. But the bigger the
system grows the more disastrous the results of its breakdown will be, so if it is to break down
il had best break down sooner rather than later.

4. We therefore advocate a revolution against ihe industrial system. This revolution may or may

not make use of violence: il may he sudden or il may be a relatively gradual process spanning
a few decades. We can'l predict any of that. Bui we do outline in n very general way the
measures that those who hale the industrial system should take in order to prepare the way for
a revolution against that form or society. This is not lo be a political revolution. Its object will
be lo overt h ro w not governments but the economic and technological basis of Ihe present
society.

5. In this mliclc we give atlcnlion to only some of ihe negative developments Hurt have grown
out of llie industrial-technological system. Other such developments we mention only briefly
or ignore altogether. This docs not mean that we regard these other developments as unimpor-
tant, For practical reasons we have lo confine our discussion lo areas thai have received
insufficient public attention or in which we have something new lo say. For example, since
there arc well-developed environmental and wilderness movements, we have written very
little about environmental degradation or the destruction of wild nature, even though we con-
sider these lo be highly important. , - •



The Psychology
Of Modern Leftism

6. Almost everyone will agree that we live in a deeply troubled society. One of the most wide-

spread manifestations of thecraziness of our world is leftism, so a discussion of the psychol-
ogy of leftism can serve as an introduction to the discussion of ihe problems of modern soci-
ety in general.

7. But what is leftism? During the first half of ihe 20th ceolury leftism could have been practi-
cally identified with socialism. Today the movement is fragmented and il is not clear who can
properly be called a leftist. When we speak of leftists in this article we have in mind mainly
socialists, collectivism, "politically correct" types, feminists, gay and disability activists, ani-
mal rights activists and the like. But not everyone who is associated with one of these move- ,
mcnls is a leftist. What we are trying to gel at in discussing leftism is not so much a movement
or an ideology as a psychological type, Of rather a collection of related types. Thus, what we
mean by "leftism" will emerge more clearly in the course of our discussion of leftist psychol-
ogy (Also, see paragraphs 227-230).

8. Even so, our conception of leftism will remain a good deal less clear than we would wish, but
there doesn't seem lo be any remedy for this. All we arc trying to do is indicate in a rough and
approximate way the two psychological tendencies that wc believe arc the maiu driving force



of modern leflism. We by no incnns claim to be Idling the whole truth about leftist psychol-
ogy. Also.our discussion is meant to apply to modern leftism only. We leave open the ques-
tion of the extent lo which our discussion could be applied (o the leftists of (he 1 9lh and early
20th century.

9. The two psychological tendencies that underlie modern leftism wc call "feelings of inferior-
' it y" and "ovcrsocinlizaiion." Peelings of inferiority arc characteristic of modern leftism as a

whole, while ovcrsocialization is characteristic only of a certain segment of modern leftism;
but this segment is highly influential.

Feelings Of Inferiority

10. By "feelings of inferiority" we mean not only inferiority feelings in the strictest sense but a
whole spectrum of related traits: low self-esteem, feelings of powerlessness, depressive ten-
dencies, defeatism, guilt, self-hatred, etc. We argue that modem leftists tend to have such
feelings (possibly more or less repressed) and that these feelings are decisive in determining
the direction of modern leftism.

1 1. When someone interprets as derogatory almost anything that is said about him (or about
groups witli whom be identifies) wc conclude that he has Inferiority feelings or low self-
esteem. This tendency is pronounced among minority rights advocates, whether or not they
belong to the minority groups whose rights they defend. They arc hypersensitive about the
words used to designate minorities. The terms "negro," "oriental," "handicapped" or "cluck"
for an African, an Asian, a disabled person or a woman originally had no derogatory connota-
tion. "Broad" and "chick" were merely the feminine equivalents of "guy," "dude" or "fel-
low." The negative connotations have been attached in these terms by the activists them-
selves. Some animal rights advocates have gone so far us to reject the word "pel" and insist on
its replacement by "animal companion." Leftist anthropologists go to great lengths to avoid
saying anything about primitive peoples that could conceivably be interpreted as negative.
They want to replace the word "primitive" by "nonl iterate." They seem almost pmaunid about
anything that might suggest that any primitive culture is inferior to our own. (Wc do not mean
to imply that primitive cultures are inferior to ours. Wc merely point out the hypersensitivity
of leftist anthropologists.)

12. Those who arc most sensitive about "politically incorrect" terminology arc not the average
black ghcllo-dwcllcr, Asian immigrant, abused woman or disabled person, but a minority of
activists, many of whom do not even belong to any "oppressed" group but come from privi-
leged strata of society. Political correctness has its stronghold among university professors,
who have secure employment with comfortable salaries, and the majority of whom arc het-
erosexual, white males from middle-class families.

13. Many leftists have an intense identification with the problems of groups that have an image
of being weak (women), defeated (American Indians), repellent (homosexuals), or otherwise
inferior. The leftists themselves feel that these groups arc inferior. They would never admit it
to themselves that they have such feelings, but it is precisely because they do see these groups
as inferior that they identify with their problems, (Wc do not suggest that women, Indians,
etc., are inferior; we are only making a point about leftist psychology).

14. Feminist