I'm going to preorder the book, but please tell the publisher that The People Demand an audiobook version too (with you reading it, if you're up for it)
Gary Shteyngart on Isaacson's biography of Musk: "Isaacson comes from the “his eyes lit up” school of cliched writing, the rest of his prose workmanlike bordering on AI."
Good timely stuff, thank you. Hope you get some time to enjoy your vacation too. I am jealous of the food opportunities that exist in France in September lol
Thiel's had a long history of supporting hairbrained schemes to create libertopias unbound by existing laws. He was an initial supporter of Patri Friedman's Seasteading Institute, which sought to take the model of Sealand, the old British seafort that a loon took over and declared an independent nation back in the '70s, and expand it into full-on city-states at sea. Of course neither Friedman or Thiel knew much about the logistics of living at sea, and they've run into all kinds of impracticalities, starting with the fact that ships and sea platforms are not self-sustaining and need constant maintenance and logistical support from the mainland, to the fact that international waters actually do have rules and laws. I doubt his city-state project will be much more successful.
Libertarianism as an intentional community is a doomed enterprise. Funny how Thiel, a devotee of Rene Girard and his notion of terror (i.e., when two people are symmetrical in tastes and values, this activates a sense of ill will between the two when one becomes aware of the similarity of both of their desires), disregards the Girardian terror when he expects a whole society of self-selected libertarians to will an intentional civilization into being.
Dan Wang, who is a Thiel admirer, is a really fascinating writer and gives a great entry into how Girardian terror "works."
"The closer we are to other people—Girard means this in multiple dimensions—the more intensely that mimetic contagion will spread. Alternatively, competition is fiercer the more that competitors resemble each other. When we’re not so different from people around us, it’s irresistible to become obsessed about beating others."
...
"René Girard’s most famous student did not take the threat of mimetic contagion lightly when he ran a company. When Peter Thiel was the CEO of PayPal, he tried to minimize mimetic contagion, possibly because the company was hiring a bunch of kids who’ve been socialized in elite colleges. Keith Rabois has recounted that as a manager, Thiel allowed everyone to work on one thing and one thing only. Rabois couches in terms of ridding distractions, but it’s clear that this is good Girardian practice. People will not feel mimetic envy if they cannot look at the work of others.
Thiel’s comments on management more generally are worth reading. The Girardian themes are clear if one looks for them: “If you were a sociopathic boss who wanted to create trouble for your employees, the formula you would follow would be to tell two people to do the exact same thing. That’s a guaranteed formula for creating conflict. If you’re not a sociopath, you want to be very careful to avoid this.” "
I can’t speak to all the nuances with which you might be using the term, but apartheid was certainly a modernist project. I can suggest some of the literature on apartheid urban planning by Mabin and others, since urban and spatial planning is where so much of apartheid actually played out. Debbie Posel’s PhD on the intra-National Party debates about the nature of apartheid might also be relevant. Basically the hard-liners who wanted total segregation lost out to the “pragmatists” who wanted to use selective segregation to intensively exploit black labour. That pragmatism might map (loosely?) onto a reactionary modernist programme.
we are likely to see more of these elite exercises in white flight from society itself as climate breakdown intensifies social dislocation, mass displacement, democratic backsliding and failed statism
these galt's gulch fantasies are less utopian projects at alternative societies than a class conscious retrenchment and fortification of existing forms of geographic stratification and spatial inequality like gated communities and comfort zones
having fully cannibalized public wealth and sabotaged pluralist, egalitarian civil society, kleptocratic business oligarchs and reactionary petite bourgeoisie now seek a retreat to private kitsch fortresses
thus our degenerate neoliberalism evolves into a balkanizing neofascism, similar to how classical fascism grew out of an exhausted classical liberalism
If Peter Thiel is a fascist, and fascism is a totalitarian ideology, Peter Thiel is a totalitarian.
Bob Altemeyer, a Canadian psychology professor, made a very important discovery in his research of authoritarianism. He showed that authoritarian governments are not mere political coincidences. He found that within societies, authoritarianism is a personality type. There's a demand-side basis of tyrants, despots and dictators from the populace, who see authoritarianism as a practical necessity.
Totalitarianism is similarly a personality type. A totalitarian is a person who has a totalized worldview, which is to say that they operate from a Grand Unified Theory of Everything, or a single idea that offers a coherent answer to all possible questions.
Totalitarians have voracious curiosity; they must know everything about everything. Knowing is not enough; once everything is known, everything must be arranged into an emergent order. The German word for this is Gestalt. What comes after is particularly dark. The totalitarian mind is fastidious and completist. A theory must be put into practice and seen through its very end to fulfill the experience of completeness.
This sheds some insight on why, say, Stalin and Mao allowed millions of people to die of famines as part of a political program. Of course they were cruel and bloodthirsty and wished harm upon political enemies and/or let the multitudes know who calls the shots. Totalitarians also have lurid curiosity and need to see their actions through their end, damn the consequences.
Thiel is a totalitarian in this way. Thiel has a fundamental worldview on the mechanics and interactions of the universe. He also has the money, power and followers to will his vision into being. Thiel is very much a philosopher in that he must chase his ideas like how a bloodhound tracks a scent.
"If you want to imagine the sort of state and society the Thiels and Musks could impose if they had their way, probably something like a post-modern version of apartheid South Africa is a closer approximation than, say, Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy. I will elaborate in the future. "
This. Apartheid South Africa, like the Jim Crow states of the U.S. South, was an early example of an illiberal democracy. Every one of the current "successful" fascist-style new authoritarianisms in the world function as illiberal democracies, Turkey, Hungary, Poland, Iran, even Putin's Russia. and I am sure that the next Republican administration, whether it's Trump or one of his imitators, will do its dammenest to impose an illiberal democracy in the good old USA>
There's another term for the sort of regime which our obscenely rich friends apparently yearn for: Herrenvolk Democracy (aka "all white guys are created equal").
there is an element of fantasy role play to these libertopias
the libertarian self concept is a rpg character build--they all think of themselves as philosopher kings, jeffersonian farmer-scholars, randian inventor-entrepreneurs, and cincinnatian statesmen, and their crack up capitalist (to use quinn slobodian's phrase) ventures are places where they can live out these boyhood dreams walled off from an outside world forcing them out of character and painfully reminding them of their inadequacy, such as being humiliated by the superior creativity and erudition of a black woman
they think their male fantasies can be realized by just getting a bunch of their fellow mediocrities together to play a totalizing game of make believe, a never ending, whites only renaissance fair
In my opinion the attention Elon Musk is receiving is all related to the fact that America needs genius white male to admire. The need to bring to the attention White excellence and genius personality in that way white power is energized and motivated. There’s some insecurities behind this, probably there’s some intimidation from Asians minds. Personally I admire elon musk and I don’t believe he is negative person. But the fact that he is making more children because of low child birth is quite absurd itself. I think white man in America accepted minority genius in their country and I don’t see the need to push this narrative. To save civilization isn’t white man issue only, It’s good to share civilization mentality with every one. White man doesn’t need these insecurity.
thank you for writing these things.
I'm going to preorder the book, but please tell the publisher that The People Demand an audiobook version too (with you reading it, if you're up for it)
Gary Shteyngart on Isaacson's biography of Musk: "Isaacson comes from the “his eyes lit up” school of cliched writing, the rest of his prose workmanlike bordering on AI."
Eminently suited to the subject.
Good timely stuff, thank you. Hope you get some time to enjoy your vacation too. I am jealous of the food opportunities that exist in France in September lol
Thiel's had a long history of supporting hairbrained schemes to create libertopias unbound by existing laws. He was an initial supporter of Patri Friedman's Seasteading Institute, which sought to take the model of Sealand, the old British seafort that a loon took over and declared an independent nation back in the '70s, and expand it into full-on city-states at sea. Of course neither Friedman or Thiel knew much about the logistics of living at sea, and they've run into all kinds of impracticalities, starting with the fact that ships and sea platforms are not self-sustaining and need constant maintenance and logistical support from the mainland, to the fact that international waters actually do have rules and laws. I doubt his city-state project will be much more successful.
None of these kinds of things have ever been successful.
Another failed flaneur! The world just got smaller 👋
Libertarianism as an intentional community is a doomed enterprise. Funny how Thiel, a devotee of Rene Girard and his notion of terror (i.e., when two people are symmetrical in tastes and values, this activates a sense of ill will between the two when one becomes aware of the similarity of both of their desires), disregards the Girardian terror when he expects a whole society of self-selected libertarians to will an intentional civilization into being.
Dan Wang, who is a Thiel admirer, is a really fascinating writer and gives a great entry into how Girardian terror "works."
https://danwang.co/college-girardian-terror/
"The closer we are to other people—Girard means this in multiple dimensions—the more intensely that mimetic contagion will spread. Alternatively, competition is fiercer the more that competitors resemble each other. When we’re not so different from people around us, it’s irresistible to become obsessed about beating others."
...
"René Girard’s most famous student did not take the threat of mimetic contagion lightly when he ran a company. When Peter Thiel was the CEO of PayPal, he tried to minimize mimetic contagion, possibly because the company was hiring a bunch of kids who’ve been socialized in elite colleges. Keith Rabois has recounted that as a manager, Thiel allowed everyone to work on one thing and one thing only. Rabois couches in terms of ridding distractions, but it’s clear that this is good Girardian practice. People will not feel mimetic envy if they cannot look at the work of others.
Thiel’s comments on management more generally are worth reading. The Girardian themes are clear if one looks for them: “If you were a sociopathic boss who wanted to create trouble for your employees, the formula you would follow would be to tell two people to do the exact same thing. That’s a guaranteed formula for creating conflict. If you’re not a sociopath, you want to be very careful to avoid this.” "
I can’t speak to all the nuances with which you might be using the term, but apartheid was certainly a modernist project. I can suggest some of the literature on apartheid urban planning by Mabin and others, since urban and spatial planning is where so much of apartheid actually played out. Debbie Posel’s PhD on the intra-National Party debates about the nature of apartheid might also be relevant. Basically the hard-liners who wanted total segregation lost out to the “pragmatists” who wanted to use selective segregation to intensively exploit black labour. That pragmatism might map (loosely?) onto a reactionary modernist programme.
we are likely to see more of these elite exercises in white flight from society itself as climate breakdown intensifies social dislocation, mass displacement, democratic backsliding and failed statism
these galt's gulch fantasies are less utopian projects at alternative societies than a class conscious retrenchment and fortification of existing forms of geographic stratification and spatial inequality like gated communities and comfort zones
having fully cannibalized public wealth and sabotaged pluralist, egalitarian civil society, kleptocratic business oligarchs and reactionary petite bourgeoisie now seek a retreat to private kitsch fortresses
thus our degenerate neoliberalism evolves into a balkanizing neofascism, similar to how classical fascism grew out of an exhausted classical liberalism
If Peter Thiel is a fascist, and fascism is a totalitarian ideology, Peter Thiel is a totalitarian.
Bob Altemeyer, a Canadian psychology professor, made a very important discovery in his research of authoritarianism. He showed that authoritarian governments are not mere political coincidences. He found that within societies, authoritarianism is a personality type. There's a demand-side basis of tyrants, despots and dictators from the populace, who see authoritarianism as a practical necessity.
Totalitarianism is similarly a personality type. A totalitarian is a person who has a totalized worldview, which is to say that they operate from a Grand Unified Theory of Everything, or a single idea that offers a coherent answer to all possible questions.
Totalitarians have voracious curiosity; they must know everything about everything. Knowing is not enough; once everything is known, everything must be arranged into an emergent order. The German word for this is Gestalt. What comes after is particularly dark. The totalitarian mind is fastidious and completist. A theory must be put into practice and seen through its very end to fulfill the experience of completeness.
This sheds some insight on why, say, Stalin and Mao allowed millions of people to die of famines as part of a political program. Of course they were cruel and bloodthirsty and wished harm upon political enemies and/or let the multitudes know who calls the shots. Totalitarians also have lurid curiosity and need to see their actions through their end, damn the consequences.
Thiel is a totalitarian in this way. Thiel has a fundamental worldview on the mechanics and interactions of the universe. He also has the money, power and followers to will his vision into being. Thiel is very much a philosopher in that he must chase his ideas like how a bloodhound tracks a scent.
"If you want to imagine the sort of state and society the Thiels and Musks could impose if they had their way, probably something like a post-modern version of apartheid South Africa is a closer approximation than, say, Nazi Germany or Fascist Italy. I will elaborate in the future. "
This. Apartheid South Africa, like the Jim Crow states of the U.S. South, was an early example of an illiberal democracy. Every one of the current "successful" fascist-style new authoritarianisms in the world function as illiberal democracies, Turkey, Hungary, Poland, Iran, even Putin's Russia. and I am sure that the next Republican administration, whether it's Trump or one of his imitators, will do its dammenest to impose an illiberal democracy in the good old USA>
There's another term for the sort of regime which our obscenely rich friends apparently yearn for: Herrenvolk Democracy (aka "all white guys are created equal").
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/4BC993B9C6475FB6B1DC611B04DF6FC3/S0010417500012469a.pdf/herrenvolk-democracy-and-egalitarianism-in-south-africa-and-the-u-s-south.pdf
You are correct, particularly in the case of Jim Crow and the Apartheid regime.
Hey, speaking of the third republic: ages ago your recommended a Leon Blum biography. Can you please remind me which one? Was it Colton?
yes!
there is an element of fantasy role play to these libertopias
the libertarian self concept is a rpg character build--they all think of themselves as philosopher kings, jeffersonian farmer-scholars, randian inventor-entrepreneurs, and cincinnatian statesmen, and their crack up capitalist (to use quinn slobodian's phrase) ventures are places where they can live out these boyhood dreams walled off from an outside world forcing them out of character and painfully reminding them of their inadequacy, such as being humiliated by the superior creativity and erudition of a black woman
they think their male fantasies can be realized by just getting a bunch of their fellow mediocrities together to play a totalizing game of make believe, a never ending, whites only renaissance fair
In my opinion the attention Elon Musk is receiving is all related to the fact that America needs genius white male to admire. The need to bring to the attention White excellence and genius personality in that way white power is energized and motivated. There’s some insecurities behind this, probably there’s some intimidation from Asians minds. Personally I admire elon musk and I don’t believe he is negative person. But the fact that he is making more children because of low child birth is quite absurd itself. I think white man in America accepted minority genius in their country and I don’t see the need to push this narrative. To save civilization isn’t white man issue only, It’s good to share civilization mentality with every one. White man doesn’t need these insecurity.
Elon Musk is alt-right.