Unabomber for President was a political campaign

Political campaign

A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making process within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, wherein representatives are chosen or referendums are decided...

 with the overt aim of electing "The Unabomber"

Theodore Kaczynski

Theodore John "Ted" Kaczynski , also known as the "Unabomber" , is an American mathematician, social critic, anarcho-primitivist, and Neo-Luddite who engaged in a mail bombing campaign that spanned nearly 20 years, killing three people and injuring 23 others.Kaczynski was born in Chicago, Illinois,...

 as a write-in candidate

Write-in candidate

A write-in candidate is a candidate in an election whose name does not appear on the ballot, but for whom voters may vote nonetheless by writing in the person's name. Some states and local jurisdictions allow a voter to affix a sticker with a write-in candidate's name on it to the ballot in lieu...

 in the United States presidential election, 1996

United States presidential election, 1996

The United States presidential election of 1996 was a contest between the Democratic national ticket of President Bill Clinton of Arkansas and Vice President Al Gore of Tennessee and the Republican national ticket of former Senator Bob Dole of Kansas for President and former Housing Secretary Jack...

. The campaign's slogan was "if elected, he will not serve

Shermanesque statement

"Sherman statement" or "Sherman speech" is American political jargon for a clear and direct statement by a potential candidate indicating that he or she will not run for a particular elected position....

."

The campaign was launched in Boston in September 1995 by Lydia Eccles – a Boston artist who had long harbored concerns about "totalitarian tendencies in technology

Technology

Technology is the making, usage, and knowledge of tools, machines, techniques, crafts, systems or methods of organization in order to solve a problem or perform a specific function. It can also refer to the collection of such tools, machinery, and procedures. The word technology comes ;...

" – and antinatalist

Antinatalism

Antinatalism is a philosophical position that assigns a negative value to birth, standing in opposition to natalism. It has been advanced by figures such as Arthur Schopenhauer, Peter Wessel Zapffe, Heinrich Heine, Emil Cioran, Philipp Mainländer, Philip Larkin, Chris Korda, Matti Häyry, Thomas...

 Chris Korda

Chris Korda

Chris Korda is the leader of the Church of Euthanasia, antinatalist, techno musician and software developer . Korda is a cross-gendered vegetarian and the only progeny of Simon & Schuster editor and author, Michael Korda...

. It took the overt form of a political action committee

Political action committee

In the United States, a political action committee, or PAC, is the name commonly given to a private group, regardless of size, organized to elect political candidates or to advance the outcome of a political issue or legislation. Legally, what constitutes a "PAC" for purposes of regulation is a...

, Unabomber Political Action Committee (UNAPACK). Influenced initially by ideas of the Situationist International, the group included anarchists

Anarchism

Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...

, hardcore punk

Hardcore punk

Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...

s, '60s counter-culturalists

Counterculture of the 1960s

The counterculture of the 1960s refers to a cultural movement that mainly developed in the United States and spread throughout much of the western world between 1960 and 1973. The movement gained momentum during the U.S. government's extensive military intervention in Vietnam...

, eco-socialists

Eco-socialism

Eco-socialism, green socialism or socialist ecology is an ideology merging aspects of Marxism, socialism, green politics, ecology and alter-globalization...

, pacifists

Pacifism

Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...

, militants and primitivists

Anarcho-primitivism

Anarcho-primitivism is an anarchist critique of the origins and progress of civilization. According to anarcho-primitivism, the shift from hunter-gatherer to agricultural subsistence gave rise to social stratification, coercion, and alienation...

. Its supporters included decentralized anarchist collective CrimethInc.

CrimethInc.

CrimethInc., also known as CWC , is a decentralized anarchist collective of autonomous cells. CrimethInc. emerged in the mid-1990s, initially as the hardcore zine Inside Front, and began operating as a collective in 1996...

 and the Church of Euthanasia

Church of Euthanasia

The Church of Euthanasia , is a political organization started by the Reverend Chris Korda in the Boston, Massachusetts area of the United States....

.

The campaign received national publicity, and attempts by news organizations to portray it as frivolous were resisted by UNAPACK, who insisted that the issues raised by Kaczynski were portentous, concerning "the fate of mankind". In the words of the Phoenix New Times

Phoenix New Times

The Phoenix New Times is a free, weekly Phoenix, Arizona newspaper, put out every Thursday. It is the founding publication of the New Times Media , but The Village Voice is now the flagship publication of that company....

, the campaign was "an effort designed to cast votes in protest of the existing hierarchy

Hierarchy

A hierarchy is an arrangement of items in which the items are represented as being "above," "below," or "at the same level as" one another...

 and its potential replacement." The Maoist Internationalist Movement

Maoist Internationalist Movement

The Maoist Internationalist Movement was a revolutionary communist organization based primarily in the United States. MIM claimed to adhere to a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist ideology...

 criticized the campaign as typifying "life-style politics anarchism

Lifestyle anarchism

Lifestyle anarchism is a term derived from Murray Bookchin's polemical essay "Social Anarchism or Lifestyle Anarchism: An Unbridgeable Chasm." He used it to criticize those anarchists who dress the look or live in certain ways, but who don't really act on the basic tenets of anarchism at the...

" and as encouraging protest vote

Protest vote

A protest vote is a vote cast in an election to demonstrate the caster's unhappiness with the choice of candidates or refusal of the current political system...

s instead of seizing political power from the upper class

Upper class

In social science, the "upper class" is the group of people at the top of a social hierarchy. Members of an upper class may have great power over the allocation of resources and governmental policy in their area.- Historical meaning :...

.

As Bill Brown, director of the campaign's New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

 office, said at the time "most of the media are unable to deal with the campaign…[t]here is no way for people to understand why you would say 'Unabomber for President' and that gives us a tactical opportunity to explain ourselves." The intended symbolism of the campaign was not that it was a joke, but that the political system was a joke.

The campaign won Reason

Reason (magazine)

Reason is a libertarian monthly magazine published by the Reason Foundation. The magazine has a circulation of around 60,000 and was named one of the 50 best magazines in 2003 and 2004 by the Chicago Tribune.- History :...

magazine's best bumper sticker

Bumper sticker

A bumper sticker is an adhesive label or sticker with a message, intended to be attached to the bumper of an automobile and to be read by the occupants of other vehicles - although they are often stuck onto other objects...

 for their effort "FED UP WITH 'PROGRESS'? Write-in UNABOMBER For PRESIDENT '96."

External links

• UNAPACK's web site (archived 1997 version).
• UNAPACK's press page (archived 1997 version)
• Unabomber for President Political Action Committee, New York City Office
• Nomination for Unabomber for President radio segment from September 9, 1996 by Democracy Now!
  Democracy Now!
  Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...
  
  
• Top Ten Reasons to Vote Unabomber, by Lydia Eccles