UNABOMBER TARGET PONDERS LIFE BEFORE, AFTER ATTACK.Byline: Scott Holleran Special to the Daily News ``Drawing Life'' David Gelernter David Hillel Gelernter (b. 1955) is a professor of computer science at Yale University. In the 1980s, he made seminal contributions to the field of parallel computation, specifically the tuple space coordination model, as embodied by the Linda programming system. (160 pages, Free Press; $21) Our rating: Three Stars ``Drawing Life'' is a book written by one of the Unabomber's targets, David Gelernter. Having survived the Unabomber's attempt to blow him to smithereens smith·er·eens pl.n. Informal Fragments or splintered pieces; bits: The fragile dish broke into smithereens. , he tells the story of a man trying to live in the fog of the 20th century. His pre-Unabomber life was not unlike that of most of us; he loved his work as a computer science professor at Yale, he loved his wife, and he loved reading to his children before they went to bed. The title of his book, ``Drawing Life,'' suggests a noble theme: that the good in life is possible in a culture that increasingly seeks to destroy the good - and that the good everywhere is under assault. He writes his life story with both bitterness and benevolence BENEVOLENCE, duty. The doing a kind action to another, from mere good will, without any legal obligation. It is a moral duty only, and it cannot be enforced by law. A good wan is benevolent to the poor, but no law can compel him to be so. BENEVOLENCE, English law. . The theme occurred to him when he returned to his office at Yale for the first time after the bombing. His graduate students had meticulously organized the shattered shat·ter v. shat·tered, shat·ter·ing, shat·ters v.tr. 1. To cause to break or burst suddenly into pieces, as with a violent blow. 2. a. remnants of his old office into a state of new order. It was then Gelernter realized that ``(if) you insert into this weird slot machine of modern life one evil act, a thousand acts of kindness tumble out.'' The Unabomber sent his particular act of evil in the mail. ``It was a book package with a plastic zip cord,'' Gelernter remembers. Opening it, his right hand was permanently damaged, his left hand broken, his eye seriously wounded A casualty whose injuries or illness are of such severity that the patient is rendered unable to walk or sit, thereby requiring a litter for movement and evacuation. See also evacuation; litter; patient. , and his life changed forever. After the accident As a right-handed man, his signature, and the pleasure of writing without effort, were gone. Of course, he first became fully aware of his diminished autonomy in the hospital, feeling like he was ``traveling all over creation flat on my back with no more control over my progress or destination than a log in a river.'' As he ponders what happened to him, he wonders what's gone wrong in the world. His answer: philosophy. It is an inescapable conclusion for an intended victim of the Unabomber. The Unabomber had murdered and maimed maim tr.v. maimed, maim·ing, maims 1. To disable or disfigure, usually by depriving of the use of a limb or other part of the body. See Synonyms at batter1. 2. others, commanded The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times and Washington Post to print his manifesto (which they did) and managed to become a hero to some environmentalists. Shortly after Unabomber suspect Ted Kaczynski was caught, a USA Today USA Today National U.S. daily general-interest newspaper, the first of its kind. Launched in 1982 by Allen Neuharth, head of the Gannett newspaper chain, it reached a circulation of one million within a year and surpassed two million in the 1990s. article revealed that the overwhelming response of intellectuals was not admonition Any formal verbal statement made during a trial by a judge to advise and caution the jury on their duty as jurors, on the admissibility or nonadmissibility of evidence, or on the purpose for which any evidence admitted may be considered by them. but admiration for his idealism. The Unabomber was widely viewed as a misguided, idealistic intellectual gone mad. One editor wanted Gelernter to participate in a debate, using the Unabomber's manifesto, between a terrorist and his target. As Gelernter pins the blame on university professors and those in the media, he never loses focus; his angry condemnation is woven into the intense psychological drama that, due to the mail bomb, had become his life. Referring to his attacker as Hut Man, Gelernter wisely avoids speculation of why he was chosen as the representative of technology and capitalism that the Unabomber despises. As a professor, Gelernter had questioned the proliferation of computers in the modern age. (Who wants to put the time and energy into reading a book when you can point, click and have fun with your brain on autopilot?) Instead, he notes that an especially good man represents to a wicked one the ultimate danger - the conscience and justice he hates and can never silence. And regarding the Unabomber's idealism, Gelernter observes that his enemy has some sort of grudge against technology. A victim's view Gelernter reserves his deepest scorn for those who assume that a man who kills people must be mad rather than simply evil, which he pegs as an attempt to avoid being judgmental judg·men·tal adj. 1. Of, relating to, or dependent on judgment: a judgmental error. 2. Inclined to make judgments, especially moral or personal ones: , a modern taboo which Gelernter sees as the evasion of rational thinking. For all the fuss about the elusive Unabomber, Gelernter points out: The bomber is merely mean and small. He had no ideas of consequence, killed at random, had no followers and reshaped nothing. And he finds repulsive re·pul·sive adj. 1. Causing repugnance or aversion; disgusting. See Synonyms at offensive. 2. Tending to repel or drive off. 3. Physics Opposing in direction: a repulsive force. the notion, thrust on him by the media, of being a victim. ``Count your blessings'' is a kindergarten-level moral insight, but nowadays we teach children to nurse their grievances instead. Why? It's perverse. Gelernter's advice for a culture of victims is especially powerful coming from a man who was almost blown away by a ideological terrorist: ``Dwelling on your unluckiness is a waste of time, savoring your victimhood gets you nowhere - and if we had any sense, that's what we would teach our children. Take it for granted, we would tell them, that each and every one of you will be offered the opportunity one day to call yourself victim. When your big chance comes, turn it down.'' As he challenges the philosophy of victimhood, those professors who decry de·cry tr.v. de·cried, de·cry·ing, de·cries 1. To condemn openly. 2. To depreciate (currency, for example) by official proclamation or by rumor. making judgments about ideas, cultures and individuals, Gelernter raises serious, interesting and thought-provoking questions about the dominant ideas of the 20th century. He longs for a day in America when children are taught by educators who hire and promote based on merit, speak proper English, teach history honestly and are capable of looking us square in the face and saying the goal of art is beauty and truth without snickering. However, his questions beg for answers that he doesn't provide. As a series of challenges, Gelernters ``Drawing Life'' offers a bittersweet bittersweet, name for two unrelated plants, belonging to different families, both fall-fruiting woody vines sometimes cultivated for their decorative scarlet berries. memoir for the next century of the melancholy of this one: a call for innocence, grace and beauty. Although he leaves the source of their goodness unaccounted for An inclusive term (not a casualty status) applicable to personnel whose person or remains are not recovered or otherwise accounted for following hostile action. Commonly used when referring to personnel who are killed in action and whose bodies are not recovered. , his life - and his book - are less a warning than an attempt to honor better days in America. As he puts it: ``Thank God the leaves turn and acorns plop plop v. plopped, plop·ping, plops v.intr. 1. To fall with a sound like that of an object falling into water without splashing. 2. and my boy walks beside me to get the paper in the morning, and a man doesn't have to think about bombs, crime and society full time. For I have to confess that the only society I care deeply about in the end is my family and a few friends, and I am not sure whether each man cultivating his garden is not our only shot at saving the world.'' CAPTION(S): Photo Photo: Ted Kaczynski Unabomber suspect |
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