F: Unabomber (was: images of professors)

Momma? What's the Gun For? (jackechs@MAIL.EROLS.COM)
Tue, 9 Apr 1996 18:43:57 -0400

At 09:19 AM 4/9/96 CDT, Robert Lawless wrote:

>Does anyone find it strange that journalists always identify the unabomber as
>"an ex-professor," "a former University of California professor," "the holder
>of a Ph.D.," and variations on this theme? --Despite the fact that he did
>this only for a few years some 30 years ago. Does this say something about
>the media's image of the mad scientist, the eccentric academic, etc.?
>lawless@twsuvm.uc.twsu.edu

NAW ... the only info know on Dr. K is his academic background, what he's
been doing besides blowing up people for the last 18 years is pretty much
unknown. I'd have the same opinion actually if they down played his
creditials ... I would wonder why it was left out that he was a Ph.D.
Harvard Grad. Why are they looking over his creditials? Your a Ph.D for
life. Some mo from the Cashew Gallery:

Before calling the police his brother hired a private investigator to see if
there was a chance that Dr K was the Unabomber or other criminal. His
brother wasn't aware that there was a million dollar reward and now that he
does, he is contemplating giving the money to the victums. Names of the
victums have been found among the paperwork that was in the cabin ... from
the article it did not appear he was keeping clippings from newspapers, the
names were in things he had written.

At 01:58 PM 4/9/96 -0500, Jane W. Gibson wrote:

>I think Ron Kephart is right about the ambivalence Americans feel about
>college profs (absent-minded; sinister; saviour), but I am reminded that in

Think about ... to Joe Sixpack you barely exist. While "college professors"
have a lot of influence on society in many shapes and degrees it's behind
the scenes for the most part. Maybe we should be more like the Earth that
was visited on a "Sliders" episode where "intellectuals" were the sports
heros of the day.

>Guatemala, El Salvador, Chile and other Latin American revolutionary
>movements, the intellectual elite--often student leaders-- were among the
>first to be disappeared. I don't think we're in imminent danger, but we
>ought to take note of such trends in the media, especially right now when

Ya know, of all the groups of people there are in America ... our
"intellectuall elite" is relatively isolated and easily found ... wouldn't
take much to round ya'll about.

>higher education is already under siege by legislative and administrative
>downsizers. Can we see the una-bomber characterization as an extension of
>this anti-intellectual tendency? Or do I hear the cracking of this fragile
>limb behind me?

The media's pushing of whatever button that currently sets people off is far
more dangerous than the people whose buttons are pushed. Left alone they'd
just go about their lives mumbling to themselves when the "intellectual
elite" speed by. But controversy sells and as long as we live in a tabliod
society with an basically unlimited freedom of speech the media is going to
cash in on it. That's probably why more intellectuals watch cartoons than
any other form of television.



respectfully yours with some fava beans and a nice chianti, Anthony

"It was a pretty big year for predators
The marketplace was on a roll
And the land of opportunity
Spawned a whole new breed of men without souls
This year, notoriety got all confused with fame
And the devil is downhearted
Because there's nothing left for him to claim ..."

The Garden of Allah, 1995
Don Henley, Stan Lynch, John Corey, and Paul Gurian