In the wake of recent headlines involving Luigi Mangione and the tragic murder of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson, one thread weaves its way through the story: the enduring and unsettling influence of Theodore Kaczynski, the infamous Unabomber. While Kaczynski’s manifesto, Industrial Society and Its Future, has fascinated and disturbed readers for decades, its role in shaping the actions of Mangione highlights an urgent cultural conversation about the power of ideas and the philosophies we choose to follow.
For me, this story isn’t just about distant headlines or philosophical debates. It touches something deeply personal. Nearly a decade ago, after suffering a traumatic brain injury, I found myself wrestling with the very questions that Kaczynski’s manifesto raises but fails to answer. What does it mean to be human? What is our purpose in a world that feels increasingly chaotic? How do we respond to systems that alienate and objectify us?
I explore these questions in Saving the Subject: How I Found You When I Almost Lost Me. My injury wasn’t just a physical trauma—it fractured my understanding of identity, obedience, and meaning. As I lay in a hospital bed, relearning how to live, I began to realize that being human is not about rejecting authority or escaping systems, but about finding freedom in obedience to the right authority. It’s this tension between rebellion and redemption that connects my journey to the enduring fascination with Kaczynski.
In Chapter 3, I grapple with Kaczynski’s ideas, not to glorify his worldview, but to wrestle with the dangers of misapplied intellectual brilliance and the societal consequences of rejecting higher, transcendent authority. As Kaczynski and his writings once again capture attention, I believe Saving the Subject adds something essential to the discussion—a lens through which we can examine the nature of human identity, obedience, and authority in a world fractured by conflicting ideologies.
Grappling With the Unabomber’s Influence
Kaczynski’s manifesto, though chilling in its conclusions, does not lack intelligence. He diagnosed the dehumanizing effects of modern technology with startling clarity, warning against systems that reduce people to cogs in an industrial machine. Yet his solution was as destructive as the problems he identified. It’s this paradox of brilliance and madness that I address. On page 52, I write about this “Malicious Prescriber” and critique his failure to define the human he claims to be trying to help:
While [Kaczynski] was a brilliant mathematician, there was one problem he never took the time to solve. This was the problem of human definition. Ted’s failure to understand the ontological status of the human being explains why he spent years rummaging for food scraps in the isolated woodlands of Montana, why he kept to himself and never stuck to a relationship, and why he bombed technological facilities for a period of over twenty years. Without human definition, there is no validity to human prescription.
I resonate deeply with this need for definition. I had to redefine myself after my brain injury—not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually. Who was I when I couldn’t play basketball, when I couldn’t think clearly, when the future felt impossibly distant? In those moments, I learned that our humanity is not something we create for ourselves but something we discover under the authority of the One who created us.
Reclaiming the Subject in a World of Objects
In “Saving the Subject,” I show how we are subjects—not objects—and that our identity is rooted in obedience to a divine authority. This perspective stands in stark contrast to Kaczynski’s worldview, which denies the transcendent and leaves humanity adrift in a sea of self-determination and chaos.
Kaczynski’s rejection of authority is emblematic of a broader cultural trend. Modern society often equates authority with oppression, but true authority doesn’t oppress; it frees. It restores meaning and direction in a world dominated by chaos and self-determination. The act of surrender, of trusting God’s authority over my life, didn’t diminish me. It saved me. It gave me back my identity, not as a cog in a machine but as a subject, i.e., a person, loved by his Creator.
Why This Matters Now
Mangione’s story and Kaczynski’s ideas remind us of the power and peril of philosophies that deny human subjectivity. In an age of disconnection and alienation, people are hungry for meaning. But when they turn to worldviews that reject authority and deny the transcendent, they end up adrift—trapped in rebellion without redemption.
That’s why I believe Saving the Subject offers something vital to this conversation. It doesn’t shy away from the struggles of modern life—the alienation, the objectification, the longing for purpose—but it points to a way forward. It calls us to reclaim our identity as subjects under a divine authority, where we find not only meaning but also the strength to resist the dehumanizing forces around us.
An Invitation to Reflect
If you’ve ever felt alienated or adrift, I invite you to reflect with me on what it means to be human in a world fractured by conflicting ideologies. My journey—from injury to healing, from isolation to relationship—is a testament to the power of redemption. And that’s the heart of Saving the Subject: a call to rediscover who we are, not as objects in an impersonal world, but as subjects created for relationship, meaning, and purpose.
If you’ve been captivated by the questions raised by Kaczynski’s manifesto or unsettled by its resurgence in today’s headlines, Saving the Subject offers a fresh perspective. It doesn’t shy away from the hard questions but engages them with honesty, depth, and hope. This book isn’t just about ideas; it’s about transformation, about finding the strength to rise above the forces that seek to dehumanize us and reclaiming our place as subjects in a world that desperately needs them.
This Christmas, let it be a reminder that our humanity is not lost—it’s waiting to be reclaimed. Get your copy here.
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