It's obscene that a billionaire like Thiel can handpick and finance candidates to advance his views. Thanks "conservative" Supreme Court justices for determining in Citizens United that money equals speech and enabling this phenomenon, which undermines the democratic process. Exactly who's interests will the reprehensible Vance be representing in the Senate? The people of Ohio's or Thiel's? My money is on the latter. I'm not sure how we limit the excessive power of billionaires like Thiel in our current political climate but we certainly need to.
I'm welcome to being shown that I'm wrong, but I'm very skeptical of the idea that Christianity was or is the driving force behind civilization's scientific advances. I know the Church patronized a lot of work in the arts, but I can think of many more instances of either the Church or other denominations very actively resisting developments in the sciences that ran afoul of Christian teachings.
As for Thiel...I didn't know much about him until the last few years, and nothing I've read about him since strikes me as encouraging when it comes to his political ideas. This piece only deepened my concern. Call me crazy, but I believe people of all walks of life and political leanings should view anyone who has grand designs on "reshaping" society with a hell of a lot of skepticism. History has shown that doesn't tend to work out well for people who like to, ya know, live.
I think it might be outside the purview of every well thought out, well written, well researched, piece on most of these kind of men (Thiel, Vance, Yarvin and I could throw in others) but they all strike this late middle aged woman as boys who never got enough attention, atta boys, validation, and on and on and on. They are angry men, just like the 45th President, who never were accepted or respected by the people they see as "in charge" of the culture. They have worked (often cheated) the system to accumulate vast resources and are willing to burn everything down to prove their point.
The question becomes what do we do about it? One thing would be to change the tax system so that no single person can acquire the kind of money Thiel and Musk have amassed. Another thing would be to reform the way political campaigns are financed so that people with extreme wealth can't dominate the process. Of course, this is next to impossible, so the thing to do is to keep warning regular voters of the danger of these folks. Thanks for explaining Thiels's (warped) views, Damon. Keep up your important work of warning about the illiberal right.
So two guys leave South Africa and come here for the sole purpose of destroying the Democracy of the United Stares to suit their selfish whims. The Republicans are right, immigrants are going to destroy our country. Why don't they go back Southe Africa and takeover that country?
Pretty weird, to put it mildly, to interpret "Prometheanism" or "transhumanism" or "Faustian dynamism" as consonant with Christian eschatology. Eric Voegelin called this Gnosticism, did he not?
Thiel’s looking at the wrong opponents. We have the government we’ve sued to get. We have the government the risk managers have allowed us to have. Even private industry can’t totally avoid that sclerosis. Facebook had the internal motto which included making sure to break things. They know whereof they speak.
Insurance companies and mutual groups are risk-averse because it costs them money. And if it costs them money its going to cost you money because insurance companies are not in it for kindness’ sake. That is never more true then when it comes to government. Is government at all levels burdened by excruciating delays and red tape, and ridiculous efforts at crossing Ts and dotting Is? Oh yes because they don’t want to be sued. They don’t want to be accused even more often of wasting taxpayers’ money.
Thiel should tilt his lance at tort reform and reducing the effect of liability limitations on innovation, if he really is still a libertarian at heart. Big Pharm has been able to lobby themselves into being protected (and us everyday Joes and Joettes into being tough out of luck.) Surely Thiel has enough money to buy protection for whatever he wants to set free.
Thank you for some clarity and context regarding in a highly confusing situation. A Dynamist strikes me as a cousin to progressives: both embrace "change" in their quest to improve the human condition. Yet today Thiel and his allies identify as "conservatives", which is understood to mean preserving traditions and order?!?! As a progressive I could have once identified as a Dynamist--before I began to understand the adverse impact social media has had on society. In this regard, I'm a new conservative, anti-dynamist who does not want to stand idly by as the new masters of the universe invent new ways of "doing things" without thinking through unintended consequences. Blindly making technologies that effectively breaks current traditions and order strikes me as the opposite of conservative in the classic sense.
Yet, I'm in 100% agreement with Thiel (and Curtis Yarvin) with regards to the calcification of our current institutions (a descriptive word I'm been using for a few years, and a couple of months ago I see Thiel and Yarvin using the word "sclerosis"). Yet our world views lead us go different solutions.
I think he hasn't changed at all, we just see different masks and tactics. For example, I I think the 'Christian' in 'Christian Dynamism' is in his case opportunistic pandering to the largest bloc dependably voting for the men he backs. I strongly doubt he's evolved at all since his explicitly anti-democratic ('The Market allocates decision-making power much better!') and anti-female ('Women are party-poopers.'—paraphrasing as before) rhetoric, he was burned by being careless and just uses a different set of masks. …and the history of the last century is replete with anti-democratic forces willing to use democratic means to authoritarian ends.
In this connexion I will hold that though Thiel's not a fascist, as fascism gives too much power to government, fascism, at least in the intellectual underpinnings provided for it largely after it was already in power, explicitly worshipped 'action' as intrinsically more masculine, which is to say superior, than thought,reflexion, moderation,regulation of the use of power by the powerful. (Note that the Nazi author of "Zen in the Art of Archery" was very keen on finding this in Zen Buddhism, and far from all Zen practitioners would agree that he got this right.)
Phenomenal column. How unpleasantly surprised will alt right throngs be to learn they are unleashing an even greater supeclass of technological elites who will ultimately leave them even farther behind and powerless?
Is there anything more terrifying than transhumanism, especially given recent evidence that spacetime is not base reality? Trying to harness spacetime toward immortal ends...jeez.
It's obscene that a billionaire like Thiel can handpick and finance candidates to advance his views. Thanks "conservative" Supreme Court justices for determining in Citizens United that money equals speech and enabling this phenomenon, which undermines the democratic process. Exactly who's interests will the reprehensible Vance be representing in the Senate? The people of Ohio's or Thiel's? My money is on the latter. I'm not sure how we limit the excessive power of billionaires like Thiel in our current political climate but we certainly need to.
So glad you examined this man, “…hell bent on tearing down any and all obstacles to their Faustian ambitions…” We have been warned. Thanks DL
I'm welcome to being shown that I'm wrong, but I'm very skeptical of the idea that Christianity was or is the driving force behind civilization's scientific advances. I know the Church patronized a lot of work in the arts, but I can think of many more instances of either the Church or other denominations very actively resisting developments in the sciences that ran afoul of Christian teachings.
As for Thiel...I didn't know much about him until the last few years, and nothing I've read about him since strikes me as encouraging when it comes to his political ideas. This piece only deepened my concern. Call me crazy, but I believe people of all walks of life and political leanings should view anyone who has grand designs on "reshaping" society with a hell of a lot of skepticism. History has shown that doesn't tend to work out well for people who like to, ya know, live.
I think it might be outside the purview of every well thought out, well written, well researched, piece on most of these kind of men (Thiel, Vance, Yarvin and I could throw in others) but they all strike this late middle aged woman as boys who never got enough attention, atta boys, validation, and on and on and on. They are angry men, just like the 45th President, who never were accepted or respected by the people they see as "in charge" of the culture. They have worked (often cheated) the system to accumulate vast resources and are willing to burn everything down to prove their point.
The question becomes what do we do about it? One thing would be to change the tax system so that no single person can acquire the kind of money Thiel and Musk have amassed. Another thing would be to reform the way political campaigns are financed so that people with extreme wealth can't dominate the process. Of course, this is next to impossible, so the thing to do is to keep warning regular voters of the danger of these folks. Thanks for explaining Thiels's (warped) views, Damon. Keep up your important work of warning about the illiberal right.
So two guys leave South Africa and come here for the sole purpose of destroying the Democracy of the United Stares to suit their selfish whims. The Republicans are right, immigrants are going to destroy our country. Why don't they go back Southe Africa and takeover that country?
Pretty weird, to put it mildly, to interpret "Prometheanism" or "transhumanism" or "Faustian dynamism" as consonant with Christian eschatology. Eric Voegelin called this Gnosticism, did he not?
Thiel’s looking at the wrong opponents. We have the government we’ve sued to get. We have the government the risk managers have allowed us to have. Even private industry can’t totally avoid that sclerosis. Facebook had the internal motto which included making sure to break things. They know whereof they speak.
Insurance companies and mutual groups are risk-averse because it costs them money. And if it costs them money its going to cost you money because insurance companies are not in it for kindness’ sake. That is never more true then when it comes to government. Is government at all levels burdened by excruciating delays and red tape, and ridiculous efforts at crossing Ts and dotting Is? Oh yes because they don’t want to be sued. They don’t want to be accused even more often of wasting taxpayers’ money.
Thiel should tilt his lance at tort reform and reducing the effect of liability limitations on innovation, if he really is still a libertarian at heart. Big Pharm has been able to lobby themselves into being protected (and us everyday Joes and Joettes into being tough out of luck.) Surely Thiel has enough money to buy protection for whatever he wants to set free.
I think it’s impossible to be in business and not agree with his “legal Sclerosis” belief stunting growth
Thank you for some clarity and context regarding in a highly confusing situation. A Dynamist strikes me as a cousin to progressives: both embrace "change" in their quest to improve the human condition. Yet today Thiel and his allies identify as "conservatives", which is understood to mean preserving traditions and order?!?! As a progressive I could have once identified as a Dynamist--before I began to understand the adverse impact social media has had on society. In this regard, I'm a new conservative, anti-dynamist who does not want to stand idly by as the new masters of the universe invent new ways of "doing things" without thinking through unintended consequences. Blindly making technologies that effectively breaks current traditions and order strikes me as the opposite of conservative in the classic sense.
Yet, I'm in 100% agreement with Thiel (and Curtis Yarvin) with regards to the calcification of our current institutions (a descriptive word I'm been using for a few years, and a couple of months ago I see Thiel and Yarvin using the word "sclerosis"). Yet our world views lead us go different solutions.
I think he hasn't changed at all, we just see different masks and tactics. For example, I I think the 'Christian' in 'Christian Dynamism' is in his case opportunistic pandering to the largest bloc dependably voting for the men he backs. I strongly doubt he's evolved at all since his explicitly anti-democratic ('The Market allocates decision-making power much better!') and anti-female ('Women are party-poopers.'—paraphrasing as before) rhetoric, he was burned by being careless and just uses a different set of masks. …and the history of the last century is replete with anti-democratic forces willing to use democratic means to authoritarian ends.
In this connexion I will hold that though Thiel's not a fascist, as fascism gives too much power to government, fascism, at least in the intellectual underpinnings provided for it largely after it was already in power, explicitly worshipped 'action' as intrinsically more masculine, which is to say superior, than thought,reflexion, moderation,regulation of the use of power by the powerful. (Note that the Nazi author of "Zen in the Art of Archery" was very keen on finding this in Zen Buddhism, and far from all Zen practitioners would agree that he got this right.)
Thiel's vast ego and intellect should work on blowing up Christianity, umm, in order to expedite its full optimization, of course.
Something about people who obviously see most of the human race as "bug men" or whatever make them very hard to trust.
Phenomenal column. How unpleasantly surprised will alt right throngs be to learn they are unleashing an even greater supeclass of technological elites who will ultimately leave them even farther behind and powerless?
Is there anything more terrifying than transhumanism, especially given recent evidence that spacetime is not base reality? Trying to harness spacetime toward immortal ends...jeez.