Irish Examiner view: Unabomber set the pattern

Most wanted

Theodore 'Ted' Kaczynski was found dead over the weekend in his prison cell in the US. He was 81 years old. Picture: AP Photo/John Youngbear, File

It is a staple of modern drama: The renegade who goes ‘off grid’ to wreak vengeance on society, usually with some form of agitprop manifesto and a list of unreasonable demands. In the 21st century, when acts of domestic terror can be observed and followed through social media, it can be strange to recall that such perpetrators were once a novelty.

The US had the Weathermen, a clandestine group of radical students who drew their title from a line in Bob Dylan’s ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’: “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”