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Auteur: Amir
Datum:  
Aan: System undo crew
Onderwerp: [unSYSTEM] Transhumanism, NRx and alt-right - Peter Thiel's utopia
Interesting essay (20 pages) on the rise of the neo-reactionary and
alt-right movements, and their relation to transhumanists (in particular
Silicon valley). It comprehensively mentions the different franchises of
thought such as the new atheism (Dawkins) and fetishization of the
sublime, an aesthetic of domination through the object. The essay's a
little Marxist in its perspective and makes some mistakes, but overall
is an informative & interesting read:

https://archive.org/details/the-silicon-ideology

Here's a journalistic summary:

http://fusion.net/story/310810/the-silicon-ideology-josephine-armistead-alt-right-neoreaction/

Silicon Valley ideology:

"We want to show what a society run by Silicon Valley would look like.
That’s where 'exit' comes in .... It basically means: build an opt-in
society, ultimately outside the US, run by technology."

This strand of thought is strong in Bitcoin. Types like Mike Hearn who
emphasized Bitcoin the commodity, over Bitcoin as politics that is
manifested now in Ethereum. The transhumanist project whereby man
transcends politics into a nameless mass, that the individual in
consummated by the dominant whole. Of course, a transhumanist wouldn't
admit that their project is life-denying, because in their world,
scientific objective merit is power, with technology being the final
utopic expression of this. But I'm happy with Bitcoin's direction now,
especially with Peter Todd (self-proclaimed post-modernist).

The author's conclusion though is muddled. The way to combat ideology is
with a better ideology, and to challenge a movement is with a better
organized movement. So far there is no coherent belief system or
organized effort that addresses the legitimate concerns that draw people
into these movements. Old leftist rhetoric and logic is from a different
era. We live in an age where mythology is back, and politics of identity
have taken over from politics of class. This era is defined by a lack of
purpose, a meaningless consumerism. These new movements are giving
people back their path to meaning.

Libertarian ideas are now being synthesized into authoritarian movements
(see Dark Enlightenment minarchists). The political project of our time,
is a re-evaluation of libertarian/anarchist political thought and a
thorough re-organization relevant to our times. Personally I think
probably continuing from the lines of the early mutualists pre-Marx but
this is an open question.

A truly comprehensive essay would go further back to the roots of
society, the mythologies of nature, the rise of organized religion and
strong laws, then the replacement of religion by consumerism and the
decay of morals. Man as an automaton in a robotic machine. For instance,
in the UK, much of the "Britain First" or Brexit sentiment is a rage
against capitalism and societal decay. It's a mistake to discount this
anti-establishmentism under blanket terms, and instead we should more
thoroughly engage with an open mind to co-opt these sentiments for our
own goals.

These manifestations of resentment that the body politic has against the
establishment, and the ideological framework surrounding them (I say
ideology in the most-transient sense) are fundamentally weak, lacking in
substance. But they should not be discounted as a temporary phenomena.
However a serious effort to advance a new political front, and displace
them (steal their advocates) can be successful. The real question is one
of willpower, and revolutionary discipline. Right now I'm not seeing it
happen...

Britain First has been organizing a training camp in the Welsh mountains
for knife fighting and survival training:

http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/britain-first-been-holding-activist-11474970

One of their members stabbed the liberal member of parliament, Jo Cox in
England recently.

Here's a message militants from Rojava posted:

https://i.imgur.com/MRshB49.jpg

For anyone interested in these themes, they should read the Wiki article
for Georges Sorel, a Marxist who talked about the interplay of mythology
and violence.

As one of Sorel's disciples (Benito Mussolini) said, men do not move
mountains; it is only necessary to create the illusion that mountains
move. Social myths, says Sorel, are not descriptions of things, but
"expressions of a determination to act."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Sorel#Relation_to_Marxism