Thank you for a riveting essay. I always comfort myself that at no time anywhere in the world has a system of pure intellectual governance ever survived for long. That is probably because 99.99 percent of those governed are not perfect thinkers and eventually bring it down. That applies to politics and religion. It is almost like the average wealth creating family going from rags to riches and back in three generations. Children of the privileged tend to rebel against their elders and lose their parent's work ethic. Musk is heading in that direction, as far as I can tell.
In physics you would call that entropy, in the and a measurement of disorder or randomness in a system, tending to increase over time in isolated systems. You can reverse everything, yet the level of entropy will always grow.
I'm by no means an expert in Carlyle, but I've read enough of him and about him to doubt Yavin's one-dimensional take. He was at times an anti monarchist, a critic of lasses-Faire economics, and suspicious of democratic institutions. M. H Abrams put it thus: "His position is bewilderingly difficult to classify." In bringing this up I am not attempting to redeem Carlyle or shift perception of him, but instead question how successful a thinker Yavin can be when even the first two pages of an introduction to Carlyle illustrates more nuance than Yavin finds in his own model thinker.
This has become a part of the mainstream dialog. Bit by bit, someone publishes their take on these realities. So much of the behavior and actions of the current American Administration align to Yarvin and other extreme views. Everything from The Heritage Foundation and Project 2025 draws from this ideology and the notion that America is the breeding ground for a new world order that is exclusionary of many. Not really the agenda of post WWII America and for the countries that bought into a Global Liberal Democracy that see humans as just that, it is time to rally together and stand up for this ideology. For the Americans within this catastrophic turn of events, we encourage you to stay strong. When you stand up to the beast your country is becoming, we will be there to support you. We can not let the world return to the exclusionary order it was.
Thank you for your feedback, I appreciate it. I agree that nothing of Yarvin’s school of thought is new, it is simply newly packaged and differently distributed. He acts as catalyst for fascist ideas and has found in Silicon Valley’s libertarians a group of listeners. He brings his arguments across using very selective historic examples that serve his argument then and there. When you consider his whole body of work, he is constantly contradicting himself due to that. The only thing that I would frame different as you did is, that those things have been tried over and over again and have always failed - the same argument can be made for democracy - reactionaries are to a certain extent contrarian thinkers that underline what was good about what is gone. With that they willingly but sometimes unknowingly deliver the arguments for demagogues and their agendas, which have very much succeeded over and over again in history. Democracy dies in silence.
Only a desperate, halfwit idiot would allow clowns like Yarvin, Thiel, and Musk anywhere near the levers of federal power. They found the ultimate sucker in Trump and the country will suffer as a result.
don’t drag credentials into an argument in 2025. we had five years of STULTIFYING mass murder instantiated by people with credentials. i don’t give a flying FUCK anymore about credentials and you have no one but yourselves to blame. you don’t fucking LIE your way through a goddamned pandemic and BAN people because they are asking questions.
you could have held them accountable, you didn’t. so here we are.
Thank you for a riveting essay. I always comfort myself that at no time anywhere in the world has a system of pure intellectual governance ever survived for long. That is probably because 99.99 percent of those governed are not perfect thinkers and eventually bring it down. That applies to politics and religion. It is almost like the average wealth creating family going from rags to riches and back in three generations. Children of the privileged tend to rebel against their elders and lose their parent's work ethic. Musk is heading in that direction, as far as I can tell.
In physics you would call that entropy, in the and a measurement of disorder or randomness in a system, tending to increase over time in isolated systems. You can reverse everything, yet the level of entropy will always grow.
I'm by no means an expert in Carlyle, but I've read enough of him and about him to doubt Yavin's one-dimensional take. He was at times an anti monarchist, a critic of lasses-Faire economics, and suspicious of democratic institutions. M. H Abrams put it thus: "His position is bewilderingly difficult to classify." In bringing this up I am not attempting to redeem Carlyle or shift perception of him, but instead question how successful a thinker Yavin can be when even the first two pages of an introduction to Carlyle illustrates more nuance than Yavin finds in his own model thinker.
This has become a part of the mainstream dialog. Bit by bit, someone publishes their take on these realities. So much of the behavior and actions of the current American Administration align to Yarvin and other extreme views. Everything from The Heritage Foundation and Project 2025 draws from this ideology and the notion that America is the breeding ground for a new world order that is exclusionary of many. Not really the agenda of post WWII America and for the countries that bought into a Global Liberal Democracy that see humans as just that, it is time to rally together and stand up for this ideology. For the Americans within this catastrophic turn of events, we encourage you to stay strong. When you stand up to the beast your country is becoming, we will be there to support you. We can not let the world return to the exclusionary order it was.
Good piece, thanks for this. In your paragraph on Spengler, there may be a typo -- I think you want monarchy instead of "monarch?"
Yes, thank you.
Sadly this is what the majority of American swing state voters wanted again
It seems to me that the future of the US will resemble the Game of Thrones more than any technoparadise.
Thank you for your feedback, I appreciate it. I agree that nothing of Yarvin’s school of thought is new, it is simply newly packaged and differently distributed. He acts as catalyst for fascist ideas and has found in Silicon Valley’s libertarians a group of listeners. He brings his arguments across using very selective historic examples that serve his argument then and there. When you consider his whole body of work, he is constantly contradicting himself due to that. The only thing that I would frame different as you did is, that those things have been tried over and over again and have always failed - the same argument can be made for democracy - reactionaries are to a certain extent contrarian thinkers that underline what was good about what is gone. With that they willingly but sometimes unknowingly deliver the arguments for demagogues and their agendas, which have very much succeeded over and over again in history. Democracy dies in silence.
Which reader responses are you referring to? Following with interest.
Only a desperate, halfwit idiot would allow clowns like Yarvin, Thiel, and Musk anywhere near the levers of federal power. They found the ultimate sucker in Trump and the country will suffer as a result.
People would not fall this dystopian world!
But the extreme wealth allowed to coalesce in our society, without proper taxation and accountability, may try to force it on the Sleeping masses!
Americans are slowly waking up to the Tech Bros and their desire for total control!
NOW IS THE TIME! STIKE THE OLIGARCHS!
Politically, Lower court judges need to make their move! Call Musk as a witness! If he doesn’t show, issue an arrest warrant!
Stop slow-walking defense of the CONSTITUTION!
Economically , Americans must use their muscle to bring down the U.S. ECONOMY to impress on these nihilistic assholes, Americans have had enough!
If you can’t DAZZLE them brilliance then BAFFLE them with BULLSHIT is the perfect saying
don’t drag credentials into an argument in 2025. we had five years of STULTIFYING mass murder instantiated by people with credentials. i don’t give a flying FUCK anymore about credentials and you have no one but yourselves to blame. you don’t fucking LIE your way through a goddamned pandemic and BAN people because they are asking questions.
you could have held them accountable, you didn’t. so here we are.
cope.
I will publish additional essays in the coming weeks.