The Auron MacIntyre Show - March 22, 2024


Cybernetics and Accelerationism | 3⧸22⧸24


Episode Stats


Length

1 hour and 6 minutes

Words per minute

157.81854

Word count

10,466

Sentence count

568

Harmful content

Misogyny

5

sentences flagged

Hate speech

9

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, I discuss the concept of Accelerationism and how it can be applied to the current political and economic system. I read an essay by Nick Land that lays out the basic concepts and definitions of accelerationism and explain why we need to accelerate them.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
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00:00:30.720 Hey everybody, how's it going?
00:00:32.820 Thanks for joining me this afternoon.
00:00:34.740 I am Oren McIntyre.
00:00:37.400 So, a subject that I've touched on previously in another video
00:00:42.780 is the concept of accelerationism.
00:00:45.960 I've done an entire series on Nick Land
00:00:48.620 and the many ideas that he has contributed,
00:00:51.620 particularly in the political theory area called neoreactionary theory.
00:00:56.840 He's well-known in that sphere,
00:00:59.400 and he's written a lot when it comes to politics.
00:01:03.060 And one of the ideas that he has discussed is accelerationism.
00:01:07.640 Like I said, I did a short explainer on that.
00:01:11.060 Previously, it was only about six or seven minutes of the actual explanation.
00:01:14.340 It's one of my most widely viewed videos,
00:01:17.620 but this is a very complicated topic.
00:01:20.620 And so, while I'm proud of that video,
00:01:22.720 I'm glad that I made it and so many people enjoyed it
00:01:25.380 and got an introduction to what accelerationism is in that video,
00:01:30.180 I've been meaning to go back and do a deeper dive on it
00:01:33.820 because I think it's something that only increases in importance,
00:01:37.260 a concept that is only having more impact on our daily lives.
00:01:42.940 And I think it's worth diving into and understanding at a deeper level.
00:01:47.180 And so, this is kind of my first step into exploring the idea in more detail.
00:01:52.660 And that means I'm going to not just give you that quick and dirty explanation,
00:01:56.040 but ironically, I'm going to read an essay by Nick Land,
00:01:58.920 which is kind of the foundational text of accelerationism.
00:02:03.040 It's called A Quick and Dirty Introduction to Accelerationism,
00:02:06.100 but I'm going to take my time with it this time
00:02:08.720 instead of just going through it and boiling it down to the most basic terms
00:02:13.120 like I did originally.
00:02:14.500 I want to go ahead and do a deep dive
00:02:17.340 so we can understand all the different facets of this
00:02:20.080 and explore a little more.
00:02:21.760 I also want to go ahead and clarify a few things
00:02:24.740 about what accelerationism is
00:02:26.960 because a lot of people have misunderstandings.
00:02:30.620 That terminology is thrown around a lot.
00:02:33.640 And so, I want to explain what he's talking about specifically here
00:02:36.740 and kind of clarify that for a lot of people.
00:02:39.620 But before we do, guys,
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00:03:53.700 All right.
00:03:54.640 So, let's go ahead and talk about accelerationism.
00:03:58.000 Now, just to clarify, like I said,
00:04:00.300 first, we need to lay the kind of the ground understanding
00:04:03.000 of what we're talking about here.
00:04:04.520 A lot of people will just talk about the idea of political accelerationism.
00:04:10.120 And in that sense, what they're talking about
00:04:12.620 is the idea that, well, things are going to fall apart.
00:04:18.160 Things are going to collapse.
00:04:20.240 There's going to be a fundamental breakdown of institutions
00:04:24.660 or, in some way, things need to get worse
00:04:28.300 before things can get better, basically.
00:04:32.260 The current system is unsolvageable.
00:04:35.800 And so, we need to go ahead and accelerate its demise
00:04:38.960 so that we can bring about the institution of a new system.
00:04:43.200 People will only go ahead and go along with the revolution
00:04:46.820 or whatever if we accelerate how bad things are.
00:04:51.960 That's what some people mean when they say accelerationism.
00:04:55.720 Now, that is not what Nick Land is talking about here,
00:04:59.180 or it's not strictly what Nick Land is talking about here.
00:05:01.760 We'll get into the details again.
00:05:04.040 This is the deep dive.
00:05:05.040 So, I can't break it all down at the very beginning.
00:05:08.220 But that's not strictly what he's talking about here.
00:05:11.820 Now, a few notes on political accelerationism.
00:05:16.180 Now, I am someone who does think that our institutions
00:05:19.140 are in a pretty serious situation.
00:05:23.420 In fact, I think one of the major problems,
00:05:26.220 in fact, I addressed this on Twitter yesterday,
00:05:28.000 a lot of people got very angry or upset, whatever.
00:05:32.200 But I think one of the major problems that people don't recognize
00:05:35.100 is how many of our institutions have already failed.
00:05:38.500 They have already gone through this process,
00:05:41.120 and they are just wearing the names of old institutions.
00:05:45.160 We still pretend that they do what they used to do
00:05:49.100 instead of doing what they actually do.
00:05:51.240 And so people just don't recognize how many of our institutions
00:05:54.560 have already failed and collapsed
00:05:56.980 and are no longer doing what they're supposed to be doing.
00:06:00.900 However, the point is that while I am someone who does think
00:06:06.900 that our institutions are heading directly for the iceberg
00:06:09.940 in a lot of ways, and they will have this problem,
00:06:12.660 I am not someone who ever counsels the acceleration of that process
00:06:18.580 in the sense that you would actually take steps to make things worse.
00:06:24.000 And I think that's wrong on a lot of levels.
00:06:26.520 First, I think it's morally wrong.
00:06:28.200 I think it's morally wrong to accelerate the destruction
00:06:31.020 of your own society, the worsening of your own society.
00:06:34.780 I think that while you can recognize that a problem is happening
00:06:40.220 and that something might be inevitable,
00:06:43.020 hastening it, attempting to artificially hasten it
00:06:45.780 by making things worse, is personally immoral.
00:06:49.400 I also think that there is a danger in assuming
00:06:53.940 that you understand too much of a complicated process.
00:06:57.600 So even if you think that institutions or systems might break down
00:07:03.180 and that they might have to break down for something to change,
00:07:06.780 that doesn't mean you understand the way in which that needs to happen
00:07:10.600 or that you can somehow manufacture a better way of that.
00:07:14.360 In fact, by attempting to accelerate it,
00:07:16.420 you might break something fundamental to that process
00:07:19.600 that makes the eventual restoration or revolution
00:07:23.520 or whatever you're trying to bring about unable to happen.
00:07:27.800 So you might break things in a way that you don't understand.
00:07:31.540 This is always the danger.
00:07:32.940 This is what the left does so often.
00:07:34.920 They think they understand very complex systems
00:07:37.160 and they try to go ahead and gain mastery over them.
00:07:40.700 They try to manipulate them
00:07:41.920 when they don't really understand what they're doing.
00:07:44.520 And so they make things much worse than they already are.
00:07:48.160 And of course, that's actually the point of political acceleration of business
00:07:51.520 is to make things specifically worse.
00:07:54.080 And so there are many reasons that I think that's a bad idea
00:07:58.020 and I don't counsel it.
00:07:59.700 But I want to be really clear.
00:08:00.760 That's not what we're talking about here.
00:08:03.460 What we're going to be talking about here
00:08:04.840 is the problem of technological acceleration
00:08:08.800 and what that does to the civilization that it's affecting,
00:08:15.300 what it does to its ability to make decisions
00:08:18.020 and govern itself and take action on its own behalf.
00:08:22.820 And so these things overlap to some extent.
00:08:25.680 You'll certainly see,
00:08:27.140 especially when Nick Land talks about leftist acceleration
00:08:30.360 and the things that they have tried to do
00:08:32.720 or might want to do in order to bring about the Marxist utopia,
00:08:36.640 that there are some echoes of political acceleration
00:08:41.480 that people have taken out of this.
00:08:44.000 But that is not what I really want to discuss here.
00:08:47.480 What I really want to discuss is the problem of accelerationism,
00:08:51.840 what it means for our ability to address things politically,
00:08:56.080 to address things as a society
00:08:57.960 and to think about the problems that we're facing.
00:09:01.480 So I'm going to go ahead and start reading the essay.
00:09:04.280 And as I do so, I'll stop
00:09:06.760 and we'll talk about the different aspects
00:09:09.480 that we need to go ahead and explore.
00:09:11.280 So a quick and dirty introduction to accelerationism by Nick Land.
00:09:15.920 Anyone trying to work out what they think about accelerationism
00:09:19.260 better do so quickly.
00:09:20.940 That's the nature of the thing.
00:09:22.560 It is already caught up with trends
00:09:24.620 that seemed too fast to track when it began
00:09:27.300 and began to become self-aware decades ago.
00:09:32.260 It's picked up a lot of speed since then.
00:09:34.780 Accelerationism is old enough to have arrived in waves,
00:09:38.380 which is to say, incessantly or recurrently.
00:09:41.880 And each time the challenge is more urgent.
00:09:44.320 Among its predictions is the expectation
00:09:46.500 that you'll be too slow to deal with it coherently.
00:09:50.120 Yet if you fumble the question it poses,
00:09:52.620 because rushed, you lose perhaps very badly.
00:09:56.800 It's hard.
00:09:57.720 For our purpose here,
00:09:59.060 you are standing in as a bearer for the opinions of mankind.
00:10:03.380 Time pressure by its very nature is difficult to think about.
00:10:08.560 Typically, while the opportunity for deliberation is not necessarily presumed,
00:10:14.100 is at least, with overwhelming likelihood,
00:10:16.720 mistaken for a historical constant rather than a variable.
00:10:20.980 If there's ever time to think,
00:10:22.600 we think there still is and will always be.
00:10:26.480 The definite probability that the allotment of time to decision-making
00:10:31.500 is undergoing systemic compression remains a neglected consideration,
00:10:36.080 even among those paying explicit and exceptional attention
00:10:39.940 to the increased rapidity of change.
00:10:42.740 All right.
00:10:43.080 So what does all that mean?
00:10:45.040 He's starting out by explaining that accelerationism creates a problem.
00:10:51.180 What we're looking at is the idea that we have to make decisions as a culture.
00:10:58.240 We have to think about problems.
00:11:00.360 And what we assume about thinking about a problem
00:11:03.260 is that we'll always have time to do it.
00:11:05.720 We'll always have time to consider and explore and discuss and deliberate issues, right?
00:11:13.440 And so whenever we think about any problem,
00:11:16.760 even when we think about the problem of things speeding up,
00:11:21.480 we assume that we'll be able to address it.
00:11:23.980 We'll be able as a society to think about it.
00:11:27.200 Our institutions will be able to communicate about it
00:11:29.880 and think of things over.
00:11:30.960 And the hive mind will come to a decision and we'll work through it.
00:11:35.100 What he's presenting here is the fact that actually the space in which you make a decision,
00:11:42.120 the space in which you deliberate and think about issues as a society,
00:11:46.020 is not actually a constant.
00:11:48.260 It's a variable.
00:11:49.620 And if you're thinking about the fact that things are accelerating,
00:11:53.260 that the rapidity of change is increasing,
00:11:57.320 that probably means that the amount of time you have to think about problems
00:12:01.900 is itself collapsing.
00:12:04.180 It's reducing.
00:12:05.800 Which means you have a more and more limited amount of time
00:12:09.640 to think about the fact that things are changing more and more.
00:12:14.520 That's a huge problem.
00:12:16.440 And even as you start to think about that problem,
00:12:19.820 you realize that if things really are accelerating,
00:12:22.400 oh no, we might actually be behind the eight ball
00:12:26.520 about thinking about that problem in the first place.
00:12:29.720 Continuing with the essay here.
00:12:31.780 In philosophical terms, the deep problem of acceleration is transcendental.
00:12:36.800 It describes an absolute horizon and one that is closing in.
00:12:41.340 Thinking takes time.
00:12:42.600 And accelerationism suggests that you're running out of time
00:12:45.480 to think that through, if you haven't already.
00:12:48.580 No contemporary dilemma is being entertained realistically.
00:12:52.440 Until it's also acknowledging the opportunity for doing so is fast collapsing.
00:12:57.320 So, just reiterating here the point that
00:13:00.260 as we think about the fact that we are accelerating,
00:13:05.000 that things are moving faster,
00:13:07.340 we also have to acknowledge
00:13:10.440 that the time in which we could actually address these things is collapsing.
00:13:14.460 And so, if we're going to address these things at all,
00:13:18.180 we have to get better at addressing them quickly.
00:13:20.500 And it could be that, in fact, that has already escaped us.
00:13:25.020 And that's something that we have to consider,
00:13:27.400 or maybe we can't consider,
00:13:29.220 which I know isn't something that's super comfortable to think about,
00:13:32.300 but is something that might be true.
00:13:35.060 Back to the essay here.
00:13:36.140 The suspicion has to arrive that if a public conversation about acceleration is beginning,
00:13:41.760 it's just in time to be too late.
00:13:44.280 The profound and institutional crisis that makes the topic hot
00:13:48.140 has at its core an implosion of social decision-making capability.
00:13:54.460 Doing anything at this point would take too long.
00:13:58.180 But instead, events increasingly just happen.
00:14:01.040 They seem ever more out of control,
00:14:03.860 even to a traumatic extent.
00:14:06.040 Because the basic phenomenon appears to be a brake failure.
00:14:10.220 Accelerationism is picked up again.
00:14:13.220 So, I don't think I'm the only one who feels those last words.
00:14:20.300 Right?
00:14:20.580 That last phrase there, it really impacts you.
00:14:24.080 So, instead, events increasingly just happen.
00:14:28.040 They seem ever more out of control, even to a traumatic extent.
00:14:32.060 And doesn't that feel like where we're at right now?
00:14:34.920 One of the things to think about here is the fact that we have increasingly
00:14:40.100 distributed responsibility, decision-making responsibility,
00:14:47.220 in almost all of our structures.
00:14:49.180 The bureaucratic, oligarchic nature of our country, our politics, our corporations,
00:14:59.460 everything.
00:15:00.680 Everything in our society is built around these bureaucratic institutions
00:15:04.080 that distribute decision-making capability as widely as possible.
00:15:09.740 And the key to all of them is how deliberative the bodies are.
00:15:13.640 Right?
00:15:13.820 In every case, you notice this, whether you're going to the DMV,
00:15:17.480 you're calling customer service for your corporation,
00:15:20.260 you're trying to get a bill through Congress,
00:15:22.880 it's always impossible.
00:15:24.780 Right?
00:15:25.020 Because you have to check with a thousand people, a million people.
00:15:28.460 Everything needs to be kicked up to a manager.
00:15:30.640 They have to check some kind of process.
00:15:34.440 There's always...
00:15:35.420 The decision can never be made by the person in front of you.
00:15:38.380 It's always been distributed.
00:15:40.500 The authority has been distributed.
00:15:42.100 The responsibility has been distributed.
00:15:43.840 The ability to reason through, rationally make decisions,
00:15:48.180 has been spread out among as many people as possible.
00:15:52.700 And because of that fact, it's very difficult to make a decision quickly.
00:15:57.800 But the problem is the issues we're facing keep coming at us faster and faster.
00:16:03.380 So as the problems accelerate, our ability to make decisions dissipates.
00:16:11.320 Right?
00:16:11.460 We've gotten worse and worse at making decisions quickly.
00:16:14.800 And the things that are happening to us are happening to us faster and faster.
00:16:18.720 And so instead of us making deliberate decisions as a society,
00:16:24.280 or even as individuals about what is happening to us,
00:16:29.300 instead of that, it feels like things just happen.
00:16:32.440 It feels like events just occur because they're moving too fast.
00:16:38.200 They take on a life of their own because the bodies that are charged
00:16:43.280 with being able to evaluate these things are moving too slowly to deal with the issues.
00:16:50.780 Back to our essay here.
00:16:54.520 Accelerationism links the implosion of decision space to the explosion of the world.
00:17:00.420 That is, to modernity.
00:17:02.760 It's important, therefore, to note that the conceptual opposition between implosion and explosion
00:17:07.500 does nothing to impede their real mechanical coupling.
00:17:11.600 The manucular weapons provide the most vividly illuminating example.
00:17:16.160 An H-bomb employs an A-bomb as a trigger. 0.95
00:17:19.940 A fusion reaction sparks a...
00:17:21.900 Or rather, a fission reaction sparks a fusion reaction.
00:17:26.480 The fusion mass is crushed into the ignition by a blast process.
00:17:31.500 Modernity is a blast.
00:17:33.560 So what's he saying here?
00:17:35.100 He's saying as the world has exploded,
00:17:37.900 as the...
00:17:39.200 And this is really what he...
00:17:40.660 When he talks about modernity,
00:17:42.920 he means the interconnection of everything, right?
00:17:45.640 So we used to be a country on our own, right?
00:17:49.420 But as we go ahead and connect our supply chains
00:17:52.860 and connect our communications
00:17:54.200 and become more and more reliant
00:17:57.840 on foreign countries for production and energy
00:18:02.100 and we expect to be able to communicate everything,
00:18:05.140 the more the world explodes,
00:18:08.240 the more our ability to make decisions implodes.
00:18:11.940 And that might feel like a counterintuitive, right?
00:18:17.460 Like these two things, an explosion and an implosion,
00:18:19.660 they should be against each other.
00:18:21.060 But he's saying no.
00:18:22.320 Actually, even though it feels like they should be opposed,
00:18:26.040 they actually are mechanically intertwined.
00:18:29.060 The more the world explodes,
00:18:31.440 the more the world is interconnected,
00:18:32.660 the more that modernity asserts itself,
00:18:36.500 the more our decision space,
00:18:38.700 our time to make decisions actually implodes.
00:18:42.260 And again, we can feel that
00:18:43.520 because these trends seem to move across the world all at once.
00:18:48.120 Think about the pandemic, right?
00:18:50.360 That's kind of the perfect example
00:18:52.100 where decisions to some extent
00:18:54.640 did feel like they made themselves.
00:18:56.600 Now we know that actually there's a lot of
00:18:59.120 other organizations involved in that, right?
00:19:02.520 And so we can get into a much larger discussion
00:19:05.860 about how the WHO and other organizations
00:19:09.820 actually made it feel that way.
00:19:12.240 But the point is that
00:19:14.280 that the decision space collapses
00:19:17.900 as the world interconnects.
00:19:19.860 And it gives that example of the bombs
00:19:22.120 as a way for us to understand
00:19:23.880 why those two forces don't necessarily
00:19:26.300 have to be opposed.
00:19:28.740 This is all ready to be talking about cybernetics,
00:19:32.080 which also returns incessantly in waves.
00:19:35.040 It amplifies to a howl
00:19:36.600 and then dissipates into the senseless babble of fashion
00:19:39.400 until the next last wave hits.
00:19:41.660 Now you might say,
00:19:42.200 Orin, what does this have to do with cybernetics?
00:19:44.220 What are you talking about?
00:19:45.680 We're going to get more into that in a second.
00:19:47.980 But to just explain,
00:19:49.280 a lot of people think,
00:19:50.300 and I assumed this too
00:19:51.180 before I started looking more into this stuff,
00:19:54.020 that cybernetics just meant like
00:19:55.560 working with androids or something, right?
00:19:57.960 When you see cybernetics,
00:20:00.080 that's usually what you think about.
00:20:02.120 Some kind of sci-fi, cyberpunk,
00:20:04.300 you know, cyborgs, whatever, right?
00:20:06.220 Cybernetics, right?
00:20:07.420 But that's not actually what cybernetics means.
00:20:10.140 Cybernetics is the study of systems
00:20:12.520 where the feedback,
00:20:14.320 where the output is actually also an input.
00:20:18.040 And so, for instance,
00:20:20.120 you involve yourself in cybernetics processes
00:20:23.460 all the time.
00:20:24.420 For instance, let's say you're tilling a boat, right?
00:20:27.300 You're on a boat
00:20:28.500 and you're the one moving a boat
00:20:30.140 and you're going down a river
00:20:31.780 and you're constantly making small adjustments
00:20:35.160 to your boat's direction.
00:20:38.280 And you're learning during the process
00:20:40.460 about how that works
00:20:41.540 and that's impacting.
00:20:42.380 That's an example of cybernetics.
00:20:45.480 And so you could also have that,
00:20:46.740 of course, in a mechanical system
00:20:48.080 where the mechanical system
00:20:49.840 is getting feedback
00:20:51.600 and it's learning
00:20:52.980 and it's changing
00:20:53.880 and it's changing course
00:20:55.300 according to that feedback.
00:20:56.380 That would also be a cybernetic system. 0.70
00:20:59.420 So the cybernetics can be connected to technology.
00:21:03.280 They often are.
00:21:04.120 That's an important part of technology.
00:21:06.140 But you can also be involved
00:21:08.380 in a cybernetic process.
00:21:09.880 And so when he's talking about cybernetics,
00:21:12.180 he's going to talk about decision-making
00:21:14.500 where you are having these,
00:21:16.580 where the inputs are feeding back into themselves.
00:21:19.640 So we're going to dive more into that
00:21:21.560 and explain that in more detail
00:21:23.500 in just a second, guys.
00:21:24.400 But before we do,
00:21:25.140 let's talk about New Founding's Venture Fund.
00:21:28.740 Hey guys, I need to tell you
00:21:29.720 about New Founding Venture Fund.
00:21:31.420 Look, we all know that the current system,
00:21:33.340 the current companies out there,
00:21:34.700 the current institutions,
00:21:35.680 they're old, sick, dying,
00:21:37.760 they're sclerotic, they're lame.
00:21:39.580 They can't produce anything of value.
00:21:41.180 And that means that young, talented,
00:21:42.820 innovative people are trying to break out, break free.
00:21:45.980 That's bad news for the establishment,
00:21:47.760 but it's good news for us
00:21:49.300 because that means those people
00:21:50.680 are going to go out and found new companies,
00:21:52.880 create new technologies
00:21:54.020 and figure out a way forward for our country.
00:21:56.940 If you're interested in being a part
00:21:58.020 of that exciting new future,
00:21:59.180 then you need to check out the Venture Fund.
00:22:01.060 New Founding has rallied the founders
00:22:02.560 who have massive visions for a better future
00:22:04.840 and is investing in these companies
00:22:06.760 through its Venture Fund.
00:22:08.280 The companies they invest in
00:22:09.500 are defined by a simple question.
00:22:11.020 Does the country we want to live in
00:22:13.240 need the company this person is building?
00:22:15.660 Look, venture investing isn't for everyone,
00:22:17.880 but if you're a serious accredited investor
00:22:19.860 who wants to see a more hopeful future
00:22:22.000 for this country,
00:22:23.180 go to newfounding.com slash Venture Fund
00:22:25.960 and apply to be an investor.
00:22:28.120 Again, that's newfounding.com slash Venture Fund.
00:22:32.540 All right, so let's get back into our essay here.
00:22:35.600 For accelerationism, the crucial lesson was this,
00:22:38.660 a negative feedback circuit such as a steam engine governor
00:22:42.140 or a thermostat functions to keep some state of a system
00:22:46.580 in the same place.
00:22:48.840 Its product in the language formulated
00:22:51.640 by French philosophical cyberneticists,
00:22:56.980 Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari,
00:22:59.340 is territorialization.
00:23:01.600 Negative feedback stabilizes the process
00:23:03.840 by correcting drift and thus inhibiting departure
00:23:07.260 from a limited range.
00:23:09.300 Dynamics are placed in the service of fixity,
00:23:13.420 a higher level stasis or state.
00:23:15.840 All equilibrium models of complex systems
00:23:18.540 and processes are like this.
00:23:20.700 To capture the contrary trend,
00:23:23.120 characterized by self-reinforced errancy,
00:23:26.420 flight or escape,
00:23:27.760 D&G coined the inelegant but influential term
00:23:30.960 de-territorialization.
00:23:33.720 Deterritorialization is the only thing 0.93
00:23:35.440 accelerationism has ever really talked about.
00:23:38.640 All right, so there's a lot there.
00:23:40.300 Let's break that paragraph down a little bit.
00:23:42.460 So first, we need to talk about
00:23:44.480 the idea of territorialization.
00:23:48.720 These territorialization and de-territorialization
00:23:51.080 are key terms here.
00:23:53.000 So territorialization is the idea
00:23:56.180 that you're going to limit the feedback of something
00:24:00.340 to make sure that it does not go overboard.
00:24:02.660 It does not escape the parameters
00:24:04.800 that you've set for it.
00:24:06.640 So he gives the idea of a governor
00:24:09.380 on a steam engine here, right?
00:24:11.740 Or on a thermostat, right?
00:24:13.240 So you have a process that is making steam
00:24:16.720 or heating your house.
00:24:19.040 But of course, if it goes too far,
00:24:21.260 if it continues to do the process
00:24:23.740 without any regulation,
00:24:25.760 that will have an undesirable effect.
00:24:28.660 Even though technically the purpose
00:24:30.660 of your steam engine is to boil enough water
00:24:33.980 to create enough steam,
00:24:35.120 or the purpose of your thermostat
00:24:36.980 is to heat your house,
00:24:38.740 that's not the ultimate goal of the thing, right?
00:24:41.360 Because the thermostat,
00:24:43.180 both the thermostat and steam engine
00:24:44.480 are actually serving a human purpose.
00:24:47.440 You want the steam engine
00:24:48.980 to make enough steam
00:24:50.880 to go ahead and drive your boat forward,
00:24:53.240 but not enough to blow up your boat.
00:24:55.520 You want your thermostat
00:24:56.660 to create enough heat
00:24:59.020 to go ahead and heat your home,
00:25:01.360 but not so much that it boils you
00:25:03.540 or damages itself,
00:25:05.440 lights your house on fire.
00:25:06.980 So even though part of its job
00:25:09.140 is creating a heat, a reaction,
00:25:12.340 if it does that job too well,
00:25:13.940 if it does it without any regulation,
00:25:15.640 if you don't territorialize
00:25:18.320 and limit that process
00:25:21.080 within a specific range,
00:25:22.820 it stops being useful
00:25:24.220 to the humans that set it in motion,
00:25:26.740 and instead it becomes dangerous to them, right?
00:25:30.140 And so we can recognize
00:25:31.380 that a process that is useful,
00:25:33.900 as long as it is limited
00:25:35.660 to a particular area
00:25:37.380 that is helpful for people,
00:25:40.200 is good.
00:25:41.200 But once that process
00:25:42.780 is allowed to continue
00:25:43.980 beyond a certain point,
00:25:45.700 then it's going to go ahead
00:25:47.940 and become detrimental.
00:25:49.400 It's going to escape
00:25:50.680 its original purpose.
00:25:52.600 And so when we talk about
00:25:53.840 territorialization,
00:25:55.780 we're talking about limiting
00:25:57.140 the feedback of a process
00:25:58.980 to keep it within the desired range
00:26:01.960 in our examples here,
00:26:04.140 and I think what's most importantly,
00:26:05.940 because you'll see
00:26:06.540 this is going to impact humans a lot,
00:26:09.040 we want to limit it
00:26:10.720 inside its usefulness
00:26:12.360 to humans,
00:26:13.780 to the people who deployed it,
00:26:16.140 because if it continues that process
00:26:18.020 and escapes that,
00:26:19.440 things get bad.
00:26:21.080 And so the word for
00:26:23.280 it escaping that process,
00:26:25.600 escaping that limited feedback,
00:26:27.360 is called de-territorialization.
00:26:29.900 And when things are de-territorialized
00:26:31.960 out of their limited sphere,
00:26:34.200 instead put into this state
00:26:36.240 of constant feedback,
00:26:37.700 they tend to get out of control.
00:26:42.580 In social historical terms,
00:26:44.760 the line of de-territorialization
00:26:46.660 corresponds to uncompensated capitalism.
00:26:50.380 The basic, and of course,
00:26:52.400 to some real,
00:26:54.160 highly consequential degree,
00:26:55.960 actually installed schema
00:26:57.460 is a positive feedback circuit
00:26:59.800 within which commercialization
00:27:02.580 and industrialization
00:27:04.460 mutually excite each other
00:27:06.300 in a runaway process,
00:27:08.360 from which modernity
00:27:10.040 draws its gradient.
00:27:11.760 Karl Marx and Friedrich Nietzsche
00:27:13.460 were among those
00:27:14.720 to capture the important aspects
00:27:16.440 of this trend.
00:27:17.680 As the circuit is incrementally closed
00:27:19.780 or intensified,
00:27:21.580 it exhibits ever a greater autonomy
00:27:24.620 or automation.
00:27:26.180 It becomes more tightly auto-productive,
00:27:28.820 which is only what positive feedback
00:27:31.000 already says,
00:27:32.380 because it appeals to nothing
00:27:33.780 beyond itself.
00:27:34.800 It is inherently nihilistic.
00:27:37.620 It has no conceivable meaning
00:27:39.340 beside self-amplification.
00:27:42.240 It grows in order to grow.
00:27:44.740 Mankind is its temporary host
00:27:46.640 and not its master.
00:27:48.340 Its only purpose is itself.
00:27:50.340 All right.
00:27:50.880 So,
00:27:51.320 what's better than
00:27:53.660 a well-marbled ribeye
00:27:54.820 sizzling on the barbecue?
00:27:56.480 A well-marbled ribeye
00:27:57.800 sizzling on the barbecue
00:27:58.860 that was carefully selected
00:28:00.240 by an Instacart shopper
00:28:01.620 and delivered to your door.
00:28:03.200 A well-marbled ribeye
00:28:04.520 you ordered
00:28:05.040 without even leaving
00:28:06.160 the kiddie pool.
00:28:07.680 Whatever groceries
00:28:08.540 your summer calls for,
00:28:10.020 Instacart has you covered.
00:28:11.820 Download the Instacart app
00:28:13.060 and enjoy $0 delivery fees
00:28:15.120 on your first three orders.
00:28:16.700 Service fees,
00:28:17.360 exclusions,
00:28:17.940 and terms apply.
00:28:19.400 Instacart,
00:28:20.320 groceries that over-deliver.
00:28:22.180 There's a lot there.
00:28:23.260 And I understand
00:28:23.860 he invoked Karl Marx
00:28:25.900 so there's going to be
00:28:26.880 in capitalism
00:28:28.180 so there's going to be
00:28:28.940 some concern here.
00:28:30.100 To be clear,
00:28:31.140 Nick Land was a Marxist
00:28:32.960 and he definitely
00:28:35.020 took a right wing,
00:28:36.920 a very hard right wing turn.
00:28:38.980 But he's definitely
00:28:40.080 using that language
00:28:41.280 and it is important to note
00:28:42.760 that there is
00:28:44.180 some insight to draw here
00:28:47.380 even if we are not
00:28:48.460 ourselves Marxists
00:28:49.380 even though Marxism
00:28:50.560 is very evil
00:28:52.140 in its implementation.
00:28:53.960 Communism is
00:28:54.900 particularly horrific.
00:28:56.640 There are some
00:28:58.000 important insights
00:28:58.860 about modernity
00:28:59.740 to draw here
00:29:00.820 from what is being said.
00:29:02.520 All right.
00:29:02.880 So what's he talking about?
00:29:04.760 What he's saying
00:29:05.780 is that
00:29:06.580 capitalism
00:29:07.740 needs to be tied
00:29:09.900 to a set of people
00:29:11.960 if it's not going to run away.
00:29:13.840 Right.
00:29:14.920 So
00:29:15.260 the creation of things,
00:29:17.800 the creation of goods
00:29:19.100 in a marketplace,
00:29:20.640 if it uncouples itself
00:29:23.020 from
00:29:24.180 if it's
00:29:25.640 de-territorialized
00:29:27.000 out of
00:29:27.860 its service
00:29:28.680 to particular peoples
00:29:30.020 and instead
00:29:31.140 works for its own good,
00:29:33.840 creates
00:29:34.480 one of these
00:29:35.460 ungoverned
00:29:36.440 feedback loops
00:29:37.320 that he was
00:29:37.800 warning about.
00:29:39.320 The cybernetic
00:29:40.060 feedback loop
00:29:40.780 that constantly
00:29:41.520 is exciting itself.
00:29:43.840 So when he says
00:29:44.900 commercialization
00:29:45.960 and industrialization
00:29:47.020 mutually excite each other,
00:29:48.500 what he's talking about
00:29:50.200 is that
00:29:50.840 the
00:29:51.180 the commercialization
00:29:52.540 process
00:29:53.620 interacts
00:29:54.500 with
00:29:55.640 the
00:29:56.220 development,
00:29:57.580 right?
00:29:57.820 Technological development
00:29:58.900 and the creation
00:30:00.200 of these things.
00:30:01.580 And they start
00:30:02.700 if they interact
00:30:03.580 with each other
00:30:04.220 all by themselves
00:30:05.520 without a
00:30:06.820 interest
00:30:07.880 in the humans
00:30:09.000 that they're supposed
00:30:09.600 to serve,
00:30:10.440 if humans are cut
00:30:11.520 out of the decision
00:30:12.460 making process,
00:30:13.580 they start
00:30:14.300 to excite
00:30:15.460 themselves
00:30:16.080 and start
00:30:16.580 to run
00:30:16.960 away
00:30:17.340 from themselves.
00:30:19.100 And this is
00:30:19.600 the
00:30:19.920 this is what
00:30:20.600 modernity
00:30:21.560 draws this gradient
00:30:22.360 from.
00:30:22.720 This is what
00:30:22.980 creates the
00:30:23.880 direction
00:30:24.560 of globalization.
00:30:26.040 The process
00:30:27.040 he's describing
00:30:27.820 here is
00:30:28.480 globalization.
00:30:29.460 It's the idea
00:30:30.920 that
00:30:32.220 if
00:30:32.920 capital
00:30:33.740 stops
00:30:34.460 serving
00:30:35.160 the people
00:30:36.040 of a nation
00:30:36.900 and serves
00:30:38.320 itself,
00:30:38.840 the inevitable
00:30:39.700 result
00:30:40.240 is
00:30:40.840 globalization,
00:30:42.420 right?
00:30:43.040 Because
00:30:43.520 the capital
00:30:44.580 no longer
00:30:45.420 cares
00:30:46.080 the production
00:30:46.920 of this,
00:30:48.260 the commercialization
00:30:50.020 and production
00:30:50.560 no longer
00:30:51.400 care about
00:30:51.860 the specific
00:30:52.300 people
00:30:52.680 they
00:30:53.020 were designed
00:30:53.900 to serve.
00:30:54.820 Instead,
00:30:55.680 they only
00:30:56.120 serve themselves.
00:30:57.120 Now,
00:30:57.360 you might say,
00:30:57.800 okay,
00:30:58.000 that's super
00:30:58.860 abstract.
00:30:59.520 Give me
00:30:59.760 something concrete.
00:31:00.760 No problem.
00:31:01.660 So,
00:31:02.020 for instance,
00:31:02.620 we look
00:31:04.240 at
00:31:04.680 companies
00:31:05.520 destroying
00:31:07.440 the towns
00:31:08.560 that they
00:31:08.880 used to
00:31:09.260 serve,
00:31:09.700 right?
00:31:09.920 You look
00:31:10.260 at these
00:31:10.540 companies
00:31:10.860 who leave
00:31:11.860 the towns
00:31:12.400 that they
00:31:12.800 used to
00:31:13.160 serve
00:31:13.460 a wasteland,
00:31:14.520 right?
00:31:15.000 These companies
00:31:15.840 were originally
00:31:16.580 designed
00:31:17.300 to go ahead
00:31:18.500 and create
00:31:19.940 jobs and
00:31:20.780 products for
00:31:21.720 the people
00:31:22.320 of the
00:31:22.800 country,
00:31:23.400 right?
00:31:23.700 My American
00:31:24.660 Auto Company
00:31:25.480 is here to
00:31:26.460 serve America
00:31:27.820 and to
00:31:28.680 create cars
00:31:29.640 and create
00:31:30.520 jobs.
00:31:31.400 And,
00:31:31.780 yes,
00:31:31.920 it's there
00:31:32.280 to make
00:31:32.580 money,
00:31:33.060 but it's
00:31:33.940 fundamentally
00:31:34.360 serving
00:31:34.840 particular
00:31:35.400 people and
00:31:36.560 it cares
00:31:36.960 about its
00:31:37.400 community,
00:31:38.140 right?
00:31:38.900 However,
00:31:40.200 as the
00:31:40.800 incentives
00:31:41.360 line up,
00:31:43.420 if you
00:31:44.080 only care
00:31:44.920 about the
00:31:45.280 making of
00:31:45.720 the money
00:31:46.060 and you
00:31:46.400 don't care
00:31:47.020 about the
00:31:47.420 people you're
00:31:47.960 serving,
00:31:49.360 then you
00:31:50.580 start to
00:31:51.140 de-territorialize
00:31:52.480 because the
00:31:52.860 things that
00:31:53.300 limited the
00:31:54.620 capitalist
00:31:55.240 experience
00:31:57.560 were its
00:31:59.440 desire to
00:32:00.080 help particular
00:32:00.700 people.
00:32:01.160 So if
00:32:02.180 you stop
00:32:02.780 caring about
00:32:03.620 helping
00:32:03.980 particular
00:32:04.480 people,
00:32:05.140 you stop
00:32:05.500 caring about
00:32:05.900 the country,
00:32:06.740 you serve
00:32:07.300 the people,
00:32:08.000 you serve
00:32:08.560 the community,
00:32:09.680 you serve
00:32:10.380 the employees,
00:32:11.580 your customers,
00:32:12.640 and instead
00:32:13.100 you only care
00:32:13.760 about the
00:32:14.260 money,
00:32:15.220 then you
00:32:15.560 start to
00:32:15.980 make decisions
00:32:16.900 that no
00:32:18.180 longer factor
00:32:19.340 in those
00:32:21.040 humans,
00:32:21.920 right?
00:32:22.200 I only care
00:32:23.120 about the
00:32:23.600 money I'm
00:32:23.980 making.
00:32:24.320 I don't care
00:32:25.100 about anything
00:32:26.580 else that my
00:32:27.240 company used to
00:32:27.840 do.
00:32:28.100 Well, what
00:32:28.460 starts to
00:32:28.960 happen?
00:32:29.220 Well, you
00:32:29.900 start saying
00:32:30.460 things like,
00:32:31.240 well, maybe
00:32:32.300 I go ahead
00:32:34.060 and move
00:32:35.080 my factories
00:32:36.000 offshore because
00:32:37.300 I don't really
00:32:37.840 care about the
00:32:39.180 jobs I used to
00:32:39.920 provide anymore.
00:32:40.620 I only care about
00:32:41.480 bringing down the
00:32:42.600 cost of my car.
00:32:44.580 And maybe you
00:32:45.120 say, well, I'm
00:32:45.600 going to cut
00:32:45.920 these safety
00:32:46.560 features because
00:32:47.720 they're too
00:32:48.300 expensive and I
00:32:49.460 don't really care
00:32:50.320 about the
00:32:50.820 customers using
00:32:51.960 my car.
00:32:53.060 I only care
00:32:53.860 about the
00:32:54.380 money I can
00:32:54.940 make.
00:32:55.240 And yeah,
00:32:56.360 maybe there's
00:32:57.060 some market
00:32:57.760 feedback where
00:32:58.700 people stop
00:32:59.160 buying my
00:32:59.640 cars because
00:33:00.100 they're more
00:33:00.480 dangerous.
00:33:01.460 But overall,
00:33:02.260 I'm going to
00:33:02.840 stop making
00:33:03.880 decisions based
00:33:05.020 on the
00:33:05.980 people and
00:33:06.780 the actual
00:33:07.100 consequences to
00:33:08.200 them.
00:33:08.480 And I'm only
00:33:09.100 making the
00:33:09.540 decisions about
00:33:10.620 what the
00:33:11.480 market will
00:33:11.980 bear.
00:33:12.760 And so if I
00:33:13.200 can get away
00:33:14.040 with putting
00:33:14.860 more people in
00:33:15.500 danger to
00:33:16.020 make more
00:33:16.380 money, then
00:33:17.440 I will.
00:33:18.420 I mean, if I
00:33:18.940 can't, then I'll
00:33:19.640 put in the
00:33:20.000 safety features.
00:33:20.860 But overall, my
00:33:21.600 motivation is the
00:33:22.420 money and not
00:33:23.160 the actual
00:33:23.820 people.
00:33:25.680 And so
00:33:25.860 therefore, we
00:33:27.040 start to see
00:33:27.620 the capital
00:33:28.160 de-territorialize.
00:33:29.780 That car
00:33:30.080 company starts
00:33:31.040 moving its
00:33:31.700 factories overseas
00:33:33.080 and the
00:33:33.860 investors and
00:33:36.220 the CEOs
00:33:37.180 start moving
00:33:37.860 their money
00:33:38.440 into offshore
00:33:39.180 banks, right?
00:33:40.160 And they try
00:33:40.600 to avoid as
00:33:41.520 much as
00:33:41.840 possible any
00:33:42.620 ties directly
00:33:43.700 to the
00:33:44.640 nation itself
00:33:45.600 because the
00:33:46.160 ties to the
00:33:46.680 nation create
00:33:47.380 restrictions.
00:33:48.800 They try to
00:33:50.160 avoid paying as
00:33:50.780 many taxes as
00:33:52.020 they can.
00:33:52.520 All of these
00:33:53.380 things, right?
00:33:53.980 They go ahead
00:33:54.760 and de-territorialize
00:33:56.660 this as much
00:33:57.960 as possible.
00:33:59.500 And all of a
00:33:59.980 sudden, they're
00:34:00.340 not making
00:34:01.300 the car,
00:34:02.540 American cars,
00:34:03.440 for the things
00:34:04.240 that Americans
00:34:04.840 want, but they
00:34:05.740 start to spread
00:34:06.320 their business
00:34:06.780 to other
00:34:07.280 places, right?
00:34:08.040 Well, what
00:34:08.360 about the
00:34:09.360 Europeans?
00:34:10.580 What about
00:34:10.920 people in
00:34:11.400 India?
00:34:12.600 Maybe we
00:34:13.220 need to go
00:34:13.580 ahead and
00:34:13.900 change the
00:34:14.560 product we
00:34:15.020 make for
00:34:15.440 them.
00:34:16.060 And over
00:34:16.400 time, all
00:34:18.160 of these
00:34:18.540 things completely
00:34:19.800 remove the
00:34:20.460 human element
00:34:21.360 and they're
00:34:22.320 only making
00:34:23.080 decisions based
00:34:24.280 on what can
00:34:25.880 make more
00:34:26.360 money and
00:34:27.260 with no ties
00:34:28.420 to the actual
00:34:29.680 people they're
00:34:30.140 supposed to
00:34:30.540 serve.
00:34:31.300 And so
00:34:31.600 at every
00:34:32.820 step that you
00:34:33.660 dehumanize the
00:34:35.180 decision-making
00:34:35.860 process, you
00:34:37.400 instead make
00:34:38.500 it more
00:34:38.860 automatically,
00:34:40.680 you know,
00:34:41.520 make it more
00:34:42.320 automatic.
00:34:42.960 It's self-exciting.
00:34:43.940 It feeds back
00:34:44.540 into itself.
00:34:45.680 And this is why
00:34:46.180 we see insane
00:34:46.940 things like the
00:34:47.640 fact that we
00:34:48.280 don't make
00:34:49.200 antibiotics or
00:34:50.120 things in the
00:34:50.700 United States,
00:34:51.660 right?
00:34:52.340 Because we
00:34:53.040 found this out
00:34:53.700 during the
00:34:54.060 pandemic.
00:34:54.420 We don't make
00:34:55.060 critical medical
00:34:55.960 equipment.
00:34:57.220 Why?
00:34:57.500 Because we
00:34:57.820 don't care about
00:34:58.720 the United States
00:34:59.680 as such.
00:35:00.540 The companies
00:35:00.860 only care about
00:35:01.520 making money.
00:35:02.760 And so the
00:35:03.080 fact that all
00:35:04.320 of your drugs
00:35:06.100 that you need
00:35:06.860 to maybe solve
00:35:07.840 some pandemic
00:35:08.520 are made in
00:35:09.360 the very country
00:35:10.680 that created
00:35:11.320 that pandemic,
00:35:12.120 it doesn't
00:35:12.560 matter to that
00:35:13.300 company anymore
00:35:13.960 because they're
00:35:14.480 no longer
00:35:15.000 tied in any
00:35:16.440 way.
00:35:16.680 They're no
00:35:16.980 longer
00:35:17.220 territorialized.
00:35:19.000 There's no
00:35:19.260 limiting factor
00:35:20.400 on it.
00:35:20.860 They're just
00:35:21.140 running away,
00:35:22.200 right?
00:35:22.780 And so that's
00:35:23.580 the process
00:35:24.500 that they're
00:35:24.920 talking about
00:35:25.700 is that
00:35:26.340 everything is
00:35:28.120 becoming less
00:35:29.120 human and
00:35:30.060 it starts
00:35:30.400 automating
00:35:31.180 itself as
00:35:32.880 this continues.
00:35:34.660 Let's dive
00:35:35.100 back into
00:35:36.040 our essay
00:35:36.700 here.
00:35:37.700 Accelerate
00:35:38.300 the process
00:35:39.040 recommend
00:35:39.640 Deleuze
00:35:40.240 and Guattari
00:35:41.100 in their
00:35:41.740 anti-Oedipus
00:35:42.980 in the 1972
00:35:44.060 anti-Oedipus
00:35:44.860 citing Nietzsche
00:35:45.500 to reactivate
00:35:46.280 Marx.
00:35:46.980 Although it
00:35:47.520 would take
00:35:48.960 another four
00:35:50.420 decades before
00:35:51.200 accelerationism
00:35:52.160 was named
00:35:53.580 as such
00:35:54.400 critically by
00:35:56.000 Benjamin
00:35:56.380 Noyes,
00:35:56.940 it was
00:35:57.420 already there
00:35:58.320 in its
00:35:58.720 entirety.
00:35:59.600 The relevant
00:35:59.960 passage is
00:36:00.740 worth repeating
00:36:01.420 in full.
00:36:02.760 All right,
00:36:02.980 so these
00:36:03.300 guys are
00:36:03.900 Marxists,
00:36:04.400 right?
00:36:04.560 So they
00:36:04.940 want to
00:36:05.320 get rid
00:36:05.660 of
00:36:05.820 capitalism.
00:36:07.320 They don't
00:36:07.760 like the
00:36:08.100 capitalist
00:36:08.480 process.
00:36:09.620 And so
00:36:09.940 their answer,
00:36:10.920 they said,
00:36:11.300 rather than
00:36:11.740 trying to
00:36:12.300 destroy
00:36:13.040 capitalism,
00:36:14.200 what we
00:36:14.600 should be
00:36:15.200 doing is
00:36:15.720 accelerate
00:36:16.540 globalism,
00:36:18.160 accelerate
00:36:18.820 this
00:36:19.380 de-territorialization.
00:36:21.700 If we
00:36:22.300 can just
00:36:23.060 accelerate the
00:36:24.160 speed at which
00:36:25.060 capital is not
00:36:26.140 bound to any
00:36:27.360 particular nation
00:36:28.340 or even to
00:36:29.260 the human
00:36:29.620 experience,
00:36:30.700 the faster we
00:36:31.940 can go ahead
00:36:32.580 and guarantee
00:36:33.520 its own
00:36:34.720 destruction.
00:36:35.600 Now,
00:36:35.760 this goes back
00:36:36.360 to the actual,
00:36:37.100 remember I told
00:36:37.600 you this would
00:36:37.960 have some
00:36:38.400 overlap with
00:36:38.960 political
00:36:39.380 accelerationism.
00:36:40.180 So what
00:36:40.800 they're
00:36:40.980 suggesting is
00:36:41.760 we basically
00:36:42.880 we can't
00:36:43.880 defeat
00:36:44.200 capitalism
00:36:44.800 in its
00:36:45.280 current
00:36:45.560 form,
00:36:46.020 but if
00:36:46.560 we can
00:36:46.820 accelerate
00:36:47.420 it out
00:36:49.280 of its
00:36:49.820 governed
00:36:50.900 territorialized
00:36:52.140 form into
00:36:53.220 this
00:36:53.580 de-territorialized
00:36:54.740 form,
00:36:55.440 then we
00:36:56.700 can go ahead
00:36:57.340 and solve
00:36:58.160 this problem
00:36:58.840 by collapsing
00:36:59.620 it that way.
00:37:01.260 And so
00:37:01.600 as Marxists
00:37:02.540 who want to
00:37:03.040 see this
00:37:03.400 process collapse,
00:37:04.680 that's what
00:37:05.360 they're suggesting.
00:37:06.560 Now,
00:37:07.140 this quote
00:37:07.520 here from
00:37:08.520 Noise is very
00:37:09.420 interesting.
00:37:09.900 Let's go ahead
00:37:10.280 and read
00:37:10.460 that real
00:37:10.760 quick.
00:37:11.820 Which is
00:37:12.380 the
00:37:12.540 revolutionary
00:37:13.120 path?
00:37:14.200 Is there
00:37:14.620 one?
00:37:15.260 To withdraw
00:37:15.840 from the
00:37:16.440 world market
00:37:17.140 as Samir
00:37:17.940 Amen,
00:37:18.740 probably the
00:37:19.800 right way to
00:37:20.440 say that,
00:37:20.780 I don't know,
00:37:21.540 advises the
00:37:22.400 third world
00:37:23.060 countries to
00:37:24.080 do in a
00:37:25.020 curious revival
00:37:25.860 of the
00:37:26.300 fascist
00:37:26.740 economic
00:37:27.200 solution,
00:37:28.020 or might
00:37:28.680 it be to
00:37:29.200 go in the
00:37:30.560 opposite
00:37:30.940 direction,
00:37:31.860 to go
00:37:32.240 further,
00:37:33.040 to go
00:37:33.460 still further,
00:37:34.340 that is,
00:37:35.140 in the
00:37:35.560 movement of
00:37:36.240 the market,
00:37:37.140 of decoding
00:37:37.800 and de-territorialization.
00:37:39.420 For perhaps
00:37:40.240 the flows
00:37:40.840 are not yet
00:37:41.660 de-territorialized
00:37:42.660 enough,
00:37:43.600 not decoded
00:37:44.260 enough,
00:37:45.340 from the
00:37:45.700 viewpoint of
00:37:46.320 a theory
00:37:46.840 and a
00:37:48.780 practice of
00:37:49.380 a highly
00:37:49.780 schizophrenic
00:37:50.500 character.
00:37:51.420 Not to
00:37:52.220 withdraw from
00:37:53.120 the process,
00:37:53.780 but to go
00:37:54.140 further in,
00:37:54.820 to accelerate
00:37:55.560 the process.
00:37:56.380 As Nietzsche
00:37:56.840 put it,
00:37:57.480 in this
00:37:57.820 matter,
00:37:58.180 the truth
00:37:58.560 is that
00:37:59.300 we haven't
00:37:59.840 seen anything
00:38:01.060 yet.
00:38:01.860 All right,
00:38:02.180 what he's
00:38:04.140 talking about
00:38:04.720 there,
00:38:04.960 and many
00:38:05.420 people don't
00:38:05.880 know this
00:38:06.400 because in
00:38:07.040 our today's
00:38:08.040 world,
00:38:08.720 fascism is
00:38:09.400 just this
00:38:09.800 catch word,
00:38:10.640 right?
00:38:10.780 It's kind of
00:38:11.440 a contentless
00:38:12.280 word,
00:38:12.520 it just
00:38:12.720 means evil.
00:38:14.280 However,
00:38:14.960 most people
00:38:15.500 don't know
00:38:15.820 that fascism
00:38:16.400 is a
00:38:16.780 specific
00:38:17.240 reaction
00:38:17.980 to political
00:38:20.020 and economic
00:38:20.700 liberalism.
00:38:22.040 It,
00:38:22.060 like Marxism,
00:38:24.060 was attempting
00:38:24.580 to stop
00:38:26.440 this process.
00:38:27.620 However,
00:38:28.080 it had a
00:38:28.640 different
00:38:28.880 solution.
00:38:29.460 solution was
00:38:31.140 to completely
00:38:32.040 withdraw from
00:38:33.680 the world
00:38:34.280 market,
00:38:34.900 to go ahead
00:38:35.340 and try to
00:38:36.080 as much as
00:38:36.520 possible limit
00:38:38.740 its impact
00:38:39.800 on society.
00:38:41.140 They saw
00:38:42.200 that capitalism
00:38:43.620 had a tendency
00:38:44.440 towards globalization
00:38:46.160 and they did
00:38:46.840 not like that,
00:38:47.800 they did not
00:38:48.260 want that,
00:38:49.140 and so their
00:38:49.700 idea was to
00:38:50.320 go ahead and
00:38:50.940 remove that
00:38:52.280 as much as
00:38:52.780 possible.
00:38:53.740 And many
00:38:54.500 Marxists
00:38:55.580 at this
00:38:57.200 point were
00:38:57.640 saying,
00:38:57.960 well,
00:38:58.100 maybe these
00:38:59.320 third world
00:38:59.980 people,
00:39:00.440 if they
00:39:00.520 don't,
00:39:00.880 these third
00:39:01.540 world
00:39:01.680 countries,
00:39:02.420 if they
00:39:02.700 don't want
00:39:02.920 to go
00:39:03.280 down this
00:39:03.880 capitalist
00:39:04.260 route,
00:39:04.540 if they
00:39:04.740 want to
00:39:04.940 unhook
00:39:05.240 themselves
00:39:05.700 from the
00:39:07.080 world market,
00:39:08.440 then their
00:39:08.980 solution could
00:39:09.740 be this
00:39:10.120 economic
00:39:12.160 isolationism,
00:39:13.280 right?
00:39:13.520 They could
00:39:14.100 actually go
00:39:14.520 back to
00:39:14.960 the fascist
00:39:15.860 solution.
00:39:16.940 However,
00:39:17.520 he's suggesting
00:39:18.220 that instead,
00:39:19.760 perhaps,
00:39:20.460 again,
00:39:20.700 it's to
00:39:21.020 accelerate
00:39:21.580 that process,
00:39:23.140 to go ahead
00:39:23.880 and make
00:39:25.340 break it down
00:39:26.560 as thoroughly
00:39:27.380 as possible
00:39:28.540 so that it
00:39:29.440 collapses in
00:39:30.200 on itself.
00:39:31.300 Back to
00:39:32.240 Land's
00:39:34.480 essay here.
00:39:35.500 The point
00:39:35.920 of an
00:39:36.260 analysis of
00:39:37.160 capitalism or
00:39:38.220 nihilism is
00:39:39.060 to do more
00:39:39.760 of it.
00:39:40.500 The process
00:39:40.980 is not to
00:39:41.680 be critiqued.
00:39:42.760 The process
00:39:43.180 is the
00:39:43.860 critique,
00:39:44.680 feeding back
00:39:45.740 into itself
00:39:47.560 as it
00:39:48.160 escalates.
00:39:48.980 The only way
00:39:49.640 forward is
00:39:50.700 through,
00:39:51.600 which means
00:39:52.160 further in.
00:39:53.760 All right,
00:39:54.120 so this is a
00:39:54.980 very fascinating
00:39:56.000 passage here,
00:39:58.280 this couple
00:39:59.120 sentences here,
00:39:59.920 because we
00:40:00.400 actually see
00:40:00.960 this all the
00:40:01.540 time,
00:40:01.900 right?
00:40:02.340 So,
00:40:02.660 for instance,
00:40:03.180 people will
00:40:03.580 often point
00:40:04.280 out correctly
00:40:05.060 that Marxists
00:40:06.580 will try to
00:40:07.360 sell things.
00:40:08.080 They'll try to
00:40:08.540 sell,
00:40:09.180 they'll try to
00:40:09.620 market
00:40:10.060 different
00:40:11.700 products.
00:40:13.500 For instance,
00:40:14.780 someone was
00:40:15.300 just making
00:40:15.740 fun of
00:40:16.240 Hassan Piker
00:40:17.300 today.
00:40:17.560 I'm not super
00:40:18.040 familiar with
00:40:18.720 him,
00:40:19.140 but I know
00:40:19.520 he's a
00:40:19.920 streamer.
00:40:20.680 I think
00:40:21.180 he's related
00:40:22.080 to
00:40:22.980 Shank Uygur
00:40:24.460 from the
00:40:24.800 Young Turks,
00:40:25.540 and he's
00:40:26.300 selling his
00:40:27.460 capitalism in
00:40:29.380 decay merchandise,
00:40:30.500 which is
00:40:30.860 pretty hilarious,
00:40:32.440 right?
00:40:32.660 Like,
00:40:32.860 I'm going to
00:40:33.480 go secure
00:40:33.980 the bag,
00:40:34.520 I'm going to
00:40:34.720 make a bunch
00:40:35.140 of money
00:40:35.560 by selling
00:40:36.580 merch on my
00:40:38.040 website about
00:40:38.940 how capitalism
00:40:39.740 is over.
00:40:41.140 However,
00:40:41.920 this is Nick
00:40:42.420 Land kind of
00:40:42.960 capturing that
00:40:44.580 this would
00:40:45.000 happen,
00:40:45.740 right?
00:40:46.160 He was
00:40:46.740 capturing that
00:40:47.580 this would
00:40:47.880 happen by
00:40:48.380 saying that
00:40:49.080 if you have
00:40:49.680 a critique of
00:40:51.140 capitalism,
00:40:51.560 you're actually
00:40:52.240 going to just
00:40:52.680 end up doing
00:40:53.360 more of that.
00:40:53.940 And we can
00:40:54.180 see this over
00:40:54.700 and over again,
00:40:55.360 right?
00:40:55.800 I'm a
00:40:56.180 Marxist,
00:40:56.740 go contribute
00:40:58.460 to my
00:40:58.860 Patreon,
00:40:59.520 right?
00:40:59.720 Like,
00:40:59.940 these kind
00:41:00.240 of things.
00:41:01.440 I've got to
00:41:02.120 crank out more
00:41:02.660 episodes so I
00:41:04.120 can sell you
00:41:04.920 another storyline
00:41:05.760 about how
00:41:06.480 we're just on
00:41:07.420 the edge of
00:41:08.220 the revolution.
00:41:09.940 Now,
00:41:10.240 go buy some
00:41:11.220 more of my
00:41:11.600 merch,
00:41:11.900 right?
00:41:12.380 This is
00:41:12.680 something that
00:41:13.200 you would
00:41:13.540 expect,
00:41:14.320 and what he's
00:41:15.380 saying here is
00:41:16.920 that there really
00:41:17.540 is no escape
00:41:18.700 from this
00:41:19.300 acceleration of
00:41:20.200 capital.
00:41:20.580 And even
00:41:21.240 your attempt
00:41:21.860 to critique
00:41:22.560 it will
00:41:23.360 simply do
00:41:24.660 more of it.
00:41:25.220 It will just
00:41:25.600 create more
00:41:26.380 of the thing
00:41:26.980 that you are
00:41:27.740 trying to
00:41:28.720 critique,
00:41:29.180 the thing that
00:41:29.580 you're trying
00:41:29.920 to fight
00:41:30.260 against.
00:41:30.620 It's feeding
00:41:31.200 back into
00:41:31.860 itself.
00:41:32.380 It's feeding
00:41:33.300 back into
00:41:33.640 that feedback
00:41:34.000 loop.
00:41:34.900 It's creating
00:41:35.540 the cybernetic
00:41:36.260 feedback loop
00:41:37.880 that already
00:41:38.800 accelerates what's
00:41:40.400 happening.
00:41:41.380 Back to the
00:41:42.000 essay here.
00:41:43.080 Marx has his
00:41:44.260 own accelerationist
00:41:45.440 fragment,
00:41:46.360 which anticipates
00:41:47.300 the passage from
00:41:48.080 Anti-Oedipus
00:41:48.720 remarkably.
00:41:49.340 He says in
00:41:50.480 an 1848 speech
00:41:52.720 on the question
00:41:53.280 of free trade,
00:41:54.020 he's quoting
00:41:54.460 Marx here,
00:41:55.420 in general,
00:41:56.140 the protective
00:41:56.620 system of our
00:41:57.620 day is
00:41:58.500 conservative,
00:41:59.580 while the
00:41:59.900 free trade
00:42:00.300 system is
00:42:00.940 destructive.
00:42:02.060 It breaks
00:42:02.420 up old
00:42:03.060 nationalities
00:42:03.960 and pushes
00:42:04.560 the antagonism
00:42:06.460 of the
00:42:07.220 proletariat
00:42:07.800 and the
00:42:08.260 bourgeoisie
00:42:08.900 to the
00:42:09.260 extreme point.
00:42:10.720 In a word,
00:42:11.500 the free trade
00:42:12.000 system hastens
00:42:13.240 the social
00:42:13.840 revolution.
00:42:14.480 It is in
00:42:17.220 this revolutionary
00:42:18.060 sense alone,
00:42:19.580 gentlemen,
00:42:20.240 that I vote
00:42:21.080 in favor of
00:42:22.500 free trade.
00:42:23.720 All right,
00:42:24.160 so we can
00:42:24.700 see what he's
00:42:26.040 pointing out
00:42:26.540 here is from
00:42:27.320 the beginning,
00:42:28.600 Marxism,
00:42:29.340 and a lot of
00:42:29.820 people forget
00:42:30.460 this about
00:42:31.000 Marx because
00:42:31.980 Marxism tended
00:42:33.800 to only take
00:42:34.480 hold in these
00:42:35.200 third world
00:42:35.940 countries.
00:42:37.580 You know,
00:42:37.820 Marx's original
00:42:39.000 prediction was
00:42:40.120 that capitalism
00:42:40.980 would collapse
00:42:42.760 into Marxism,
00:42:44.200 that capitalism
00:42:44.960 would destroy
00:42:46.340 itself,
00:42:47.240 it would go
00:42:47.660 too far,
00:42:48.840 its contradictions
00:42:49.500 would overwhelm
00:42:50.300 itself,
00:42:51.040 and then the
00:42:51.980 necessary communist
00:42:53.340 revolution would
00:42:54.020 come out of
00:42:55.140 these capitalist
00:42:56.680 bourgeoisie
00:42:58.100 nations.
00:42:58.960 And I know
00:42:59.540 I'm saying that
00:43:00.040 wrong,
00:43:00.400 there's a right
00:43:00.820 way to say it,
00:43:01.340 but I always
00:43:01.780 mispronounce it,
00:43:02.340 people yell at me,
00:43:03.620 we move on.
00:43:04.620 I can't speak
00:43:05.180 French.
00:43:05.720 Here we go.
00:43:06.440 So,
00:43:07.040 the collapse
00:43:09.300 of these things
00:43:09.960 was supposed to
00:43:10.600 be the way
00:43:11.060 that Marxism
00:43:11.660 took hold,
00:43:12.180 but of course
00:43:12.580 Marx was wrong.
00:43:13.460 Marxism is wrong.
00:43:14.680 Marx fail,
00:43:15.840 right?
00:43:16.080 And we can see
00:43:16.740 that because the
00:43:17.360 places that
00:43:17.780 Marxism actually
00:43:19.400 took hold
00:43:20.540 were all these
00:43:21.780 third world
00:43:22.640 nations that
00:43:23.300 needed to
00:43:23.740 accelerate their
00:43:24.540 development.
00:43:25.560 So,
00:43:25.920 what you notice
00:43:26.520 is that China
00:43:27.540 and Russia
00:43:28.560 become Marxist
00:43:30.660 and not places
00:43:31.480 like England
00:43:32.360 or the United
00:43:33.260 States,
00:43:34.120 the places that
00:43:34.620 you would expect
00:43:35.120 to become Marxist.
00:43:36.300 And that's because
00:43:36.780 Marxism failed
00:43:37.940 as an economic
00:43:38.720 theory,
00:43:39.260 but what it
00:43:39.600 succeeded in
00:43:40.820 was creating
00:43:42.160 an alternative
00:43:43.000 form of
00:43:43.780 modernization
00:43:44.660 for third
00:43:45.500 world countries
00:43:46.020 that didn't
00:43:46.540 want to join
00:43:47.160 the liberal
00:43:47.640 world order.
00:43:48.660 So,
00:43:48.860 if you're Russia
00:43:49.340 or you're China
00:43:50.080 and you want
00:43:50.760 to go ahead
00:43:51.240 and modernize
00:43:52.220 at a higher
00:43:53.940 rate,
00:43:54.540 but you don't
00:43:55.080 want to join
00:43:55.720 the United
00:43:56.340 States and
00:43:56.940 England and
00:43:57.380 others in
00:43:57.740 the liberal
00:43:58.000 world order,
00:43:58.960 you pick
00:43:59.400 Marxism.
00:43:59.980 Not because
00:44:00.540 it's economically
00:44:01.500 sound,
00:44:02.340 in fact,
00:44:02.680 we found out
00:44:03.160 it was
00:44:03.360 economically
00:44:03.800 disastrous,
00:44:04.920 but because
00:44:05.240 it allows you
00:44:05.700 to basically
00:44:06.100 centralize power
00:44:07.160 and modernize
00:44:08.420 as rapidly
00:44:08.920 as possible
00:44:09.640 by kind
00:44:10.900 of just
00:44:11.360 grasping
00:44:11.900 everything,
00:44:12.500 grasping
00:44:12.760 the means
00:44:13.060 of production
00:44:13.460 and smashing
00:44:14.140 them until
00:44:14.640 you can go
00:44:15.700 ahead and
00:44:16.060 start cranking
00:44:16.700 out AK-47s
00:44:17.920 and a space
00:44:19.420 program.
00:44:20.440 And so
00:44:20.960 Marxism
00:44:22.880 failed in
00:44:23.600 the economic
00:44:24.280 sphere.
00:44:24.960 And so
00:44:25.300 what we see
00:44:26.240 here is
00:44:26.740 in many ways
00:44:28.060 Marx encouraged
00:44:29.560 free trade,
00:44:30.280 right?
00:44:30.460 Because what
00:44:31.020 Marx did
00:44:31.740 notice,
00:44:32.140 and he's got
00:44:32.880 some points
00:44:33.380 here,
00:44:33.620 guys,
00:44:34.160 whether you
00:44:34.420 like it or
00:44:34.740 not,
00:44:35.280 is that
00:44:35.640 free trade
00:44:36.340 actually
00:44:37.460 causes a
00:44:38.220 problem
00:44:38.520 for nations.
00:44:39.640 Marx wanted
00:44:40.260 to destroy
00:44:40.720 nations.
00:44:41.300 He did
00:44:41.560 not like
00:44:42.060 them,
00:44:42.500 right?
00:44:42.700 That's the
00:44:43.300 whole point
00:44:44.080 here.
00:44:44.880 And so
00:44:45.320 they want
00:44:46.140 to get rid
00:44:46.600 of nationalism.
00:44:47.380 They want
00:44:47.620 to get rid
00:44:48.120 of nationalities
00:44:50.160 of the
00:44:50.760 nation-state.
00:44:51.880 And so
00:44:52.560 what's the
00:44:53.040 best way
00:44:53.320 to do
00:44:53.580 that?
00:44:53.820 Well,
00:44:53.960 you go
00:44:54.200 ahead and
00:44:54.500 accelerate
00:44:55.060 their
00:44:55.340 deterioration
00:44:56.200 through
00:44:56.560 free trade.
00:44:57.760 And so
00:44:58.040 he says
00:44:58.380 free trade
00:44:58.980 causes a
00:44:59.640 problem
00:44:59.960 for the
00:45:00.440 existence
00:45:00.960 of nations.
00:45:01.640 And because
00:45:02.000 I like
00:45:02.780 that,
00:45:03.120 I like
00:45:03.440 the antagonism
00:45:04.260 it creates
00:45:04.940 inside the
00:45:05.440 proletariat.
00:45:05.960 I like
00:45:06.420 the fact
00:45:07.080 that it
00:45:08.440 goes ahead
00:45:08.900 and creates
00:45:09.420 this animosity
00:45:10.260 between the
00:45:11.080 proletariat
00:45:12.020 and the
00:45:12.380 bourgeoisie.
00:45:13.980 I want to
00:45:14.900 accelerate that.
00:45:15.740 And so
00:45:15.940 in this
00:45:16.380 case,
00:45:16.820 in this
00:45:17.180 way,
00:45:17.560 I am
00:45:18.200 a free
00:45:19.160 trader.
00:45:20.020 And that
00:45:20.320 was Karl
00:45:21.320 Marx
00:45:21.580 basically
00:45:22.240 prefiguring
00:45:24.320 the idea
00:45:25.080 of
00:45:25.680 accelerationism,
00:45:26.960 that he
00:45:27.800 would indulge
00:45:28.560 in the
00:45:29.480 acceleration
00:45:30.160 of capital
00:45:31.040 only to
00:45:32.040 the point
00:45:32.440 where he
00:45:32.880 thinks it's
00:45:33.400 going to
00:45:33.580 go ahead
00:45:33.840 and collapse
00:45:34.420 itself.
00:45:35.160 So back
00:45:35.840 to the
00:45:36.680 essay here.
00:45:37.720 In this
00:45:38.580 germinal
00:45:39.020 accelerationist
00:45:39.880 matrix,
00:45:40.580 there is no
00:45:41.080 distinction
00:45:41.800 to be made
00:45:42.900 between the
00:45:43.360 destruction of
00:45:43.920 capitalism
00:45:44.360 and its
00:45:45.560 intensification.
00:45:46.960 The auto
00:45:47.240 destruction of
00:45:47.920 capitalism
00:45:48.400 is what
00:45:49.180 capitalism
00:45:49.600 is.
00:45:50.540 The creative
00:45:50.960 destruction
00:45:51.480 is the
00:45:52.140 whole of
00:45:52.720 it.
00:45:53.280 Besides
00:45:53.560 only its
00:45:54.620 retardations, 0.99
00:45:55.920 partial
00:45:56.180 compensations,
00:45:57.100 and
00:45:57.680 inhibitions,
00:45:59.440 capital
00:45:59.800 revolutionizes
00:46:00.980 itself more
00:46:01.820 thoroughly than
00:46:02.720 any extrinsic
00:46:04.320 revolution possibly
00:46:05.660 could.
00:46:06.440 If subsequent
00:46:06.940 history has not
00:46:08.120 vindicated this
00:46:09.060 point beyond all
00:46:09.940 question, it
00:46:10.900 has at least
00:46:11.520 simulated such
00:46:14.160 a vindication
00:46:15.100 to a maddening
00:46:16.640 degree.
00:46:17.920 So what he's
00:46:18.760 saying there is
00:46:19.680 that for many
00:46:20.880 of these Marxists,
00:46:22.080 the thing they
00:46:23.500 kind of arrived
00:46:24.160 at is we
00:46:25.000 can't get,
00:46:26.300 we can't like
00:46:26.800 defeat capitalism.
00:46:28.120 Like capitalism
00:46:28.680 is basically
00:46:30.220 not going to
00:46:32.160 like be
00:46:32.640 dismantled.
00:46:34.080 And so it's
00:46:34.840 the only thing
00:46:35.520 that's going to
00:46:36.540 kind of pull
00:46:37.220 apart the
00:46:37.960 tensions of
00:46:38.660 capitalism is
00:46:39.720 to accelerate
00:46:40.540 it, to move
00:46:41.420 it beyond its
00:46:42.540 caring about the
00:46:43.600 individual and
00:46:44.540 the family, the
00:46:46.240 community, and
00:46:47.260 the nation.
00:46:48.340 And to accelerate
00:46:49.100 it to the point
00:46:49.560 where it no longer
00:46:50.140 serves those
00:46:51.000 things.
00:46:51.920 And it creates
00:46:52.820 this globalism
00:46:53.960 and that is
00:46:55.140 so, and that
00:46:56.460 is going to
00:46:56.980 create so
00:46:57.740 many problems
00:46:58.320 that it will
00:46:58.920 kind of collapse
00:46:59.600 in on itself,
00:47:00.480 right?
00:47:01.060 And he says
00:47:01.560 to some degree,
00:47:02.480 obviously, we
00:47:03.200 can look at the
00:47:03.840 globalization
00:47:04.340 process and
00:47:06.200 realize there's
00:47:07.100 some truth to
00:47:07.580 this, right?
00:47:08.380 Again, Marx's
00:47:09.320 solution is
00:47:10.000 terrible and
00:47:11.280 it's been proven
00:47:12.060 entirely wrong.
00:47:13.620 However, the
00:47:14.220 problem that if
00:47:16.040 capital is
00:47:18.040 de-territorialized,
00:47:19.240 if it decouples
00:47:20.000 itself from the
00:47:21.700 people it's
00:47:22.180 supposed to
00:47:22.600 serve, from the
00:47:24.060 nations it's
00:47:24.940 supposed to
00:47:25.240 serve, from
00:47:25.620 the communities
00:47:26.080 it's supposed
00:47:26.520 to serve, if
00:47:27.520 it removes
00:47:28.140 itself from
00:47:28.720 its original
00:47:29.200 human purpose
00:47:30.160 and is allowed
00:47:31.040 to accelerate
00:47:31.920 on its own,
00:47:33.320 it does create
00:47:34.360 many of the
00:47:35.040 problems that
00:47:35.880 Marx and
00:47:36.340 others anticipated.
00:47:37.720 Their desire
00:47:38.460 to accelerate
00:47:39.900 that process is
00:47:41.580 the desire to
00:47:42.280 destroy nations, 0.94
00:47:43.460 right?
00:47:43.640 Is to destroy
00:47:44.500 what we
00:47:46.480 understand as
00:47:48.040 kind of good
00:47:48.540 social order.
00:47:50.100 And so that's
00:47:50.880 that's why
00:47:51.980 Marx wanted
00:47:53.860 uninhibited
00:47:55.180 capitalism, at
00:47:56.640 least for a
00:47:57.180 short time,
00:47:57.800 because he
00:47:58.380 hoped that its
00:47:59.040 meltdown process
00:48:00.120 would then bring
00:48:00.920 about his
00:48:02.100 revolution that
00:48:05.020 he wanted so
00:48:05.580 much.
00:48:06.160 Now, here he's
00:48:06.860 going to dive
00:48:07.420 into the
00:48:08.200 differences between
00:48:08.960 left and right
00:48:09.860 accelerationism, and
00:48:11.740 this gets pretty
00:48:12.600 into the weeds.
00:48:13.660 If you would
00:48:13.900 like to read
00:48:14.760 this essay for
00:48:15.760 yourself, I
00:48:16.780 would go ahead
00:48:18.520 and encourage you
00:48:19.240 to do so.
00:48:19.940 But this is
00:48:20.940 going to get
00:48:21.340 a little
00:48:21.680 particular, and
00:48:22.580 some of this
00:48:23.080 is kind of no
00:48:24.060 longer relevant.
00:48:24.740 He wrote this
00:48:25.180 essay a while
00:48:27.180 ago, and so I
00:48:28.240 think that's
00:48:28.920 going to fly
00:48:29.400 over our
00:48:30.160 head in some
00:48:32.420 ways.
00:48:33.240 But I will go
00:48:34.280 ahead and jump
00:48:34.780 to this paragraph
00:48:35.780 here.
00:48:36.260 He says,
00:48:36.820 Capital in its
00:48:37.460 ultimate self-definition
00:48:38.540 is nothing besides
00:48:39.420 the abstract
00:48:40.140 accelerative social
00:48:42.180 factor.
00:48:43.180 Its positive
00:48:43.740 cybernetic
00:48:44.360 schema exhausts
00:48:45.780 it.
00:48:46.340 Runaway consumes
00:48:48.140 its identity.
00:48:49.000 Every other
00:48:50.080 determination is
00:48:51.580 shucked off as
00:48:52.880 an accident at
00:48:55.460 some stage of
00:48:56.820 its intensification
00:48:58.240 process.
00:48:59.540 Since anything
00:49:00.140 able to
00:49:00.820 constantly feed
00:49:01.640 social historical
00:49:02.520 acceleration will
00:49:03.680 necessarily by its
00:49:04.820 essence be
00:49:05.540 capital, the
00:49:06.500 prospect of any
00:49:07.740 unambiguously left
00:49:09.300 accelerationism gaining
00:49:11.040 serious momentum can
00:49:12.480 be confidently
00:49:13.280 dismissed.
00:49:14.240 Acceleration is
00:49:15.000 simply the self-awareness
00:49:16.180 of capitalism which
00:49:17.180 has scarcely begun.
00:49:18.540 So he's
00:49:19.200 saying that the
00:49:20.080 left-wing
00:49:20.760 understanding of
00:49:21.740 accelerationism
00:49:22.620 basically ends
00:49:24.040 up failing.
00:49:24.700 It's not actually
00:49:25.520 going to do its
00:49:26.140 job.
00:49:27.340 And so he
00:49:28.340 ends up
00:49:28.820 kind of
00:49:30.320 siding with a
00:49:31.800 right-wing version
00:49:32.580 of accelerationism.
00:49:33.600 Again, a little
00:49:34.640 beyond what we're
00:49:35.320 talking about today.
00:49:37.340 But then he says,
00:49:38.460 as blockchains,
00:49:39.580 drone logistics,
00:49:40.560 nanotechnology,
00:49:41.540 quantum computing,
00:49:42.880 computational
00:49:43.360 genomics,
00:49:44.540 and virtual reality
00:49:46.540 flood in,
00:49:47.260 drenched in ever
00:49:48.020 higher densities of
00:49:49.660 artificial intelligence,
00:49:50.860 accelerationism won't
00:49:52.740 be going anywhere
00:49:53.720 unless ever deeper
00:49:56.500 into itself.
00:49:57.480 To be rushed by the
00:49:59.080 phenomenon to the
00:50:00.300 point of terminal
00:50:01.360 institutional paralysis
00:50:02.580 is the phenomenon.
00:50:04.340 Naturally, which is to
00:50:05.740 say completely
00:50:06.460 inevitably, the human
00:50:08.000 species will define
00:50:09.300 this ultimate terrestrial
00:50:11.100 event as a problem.
00:50:12.300 To see it is
00:50:14.520 all ready to say
00:50:15.480 we have to do
00:50:16.620 something, to which
00:50:17.660 accelerationism can
00:50:18.740 only respond, you're
00:50:19.840 finally saying that
00:50:20.660 now, perhaps we
00:50:21.700 ought to get
00:50:22.360 started.
00:50:23.240 In its colder
00:50:24.480 variants, which are
00:50:25.880 those that went
00:50:26.660 out, it tends to
00:50:28.080 laugh.
00:50:28.640 All right, so what
00:50:29.440 he's saying there is
00:50:30.800 that accelerationism is
00:50:31.980 not going away, as
00:50:32.920 we can see by the
00:50:34.180 number of
00:50:34.880 technologies that
00:50:35.700 have continued to
00:50:36.840 collapse our
00:50:37.300 decision space,
00:50:38.200 continue to
00:50:38.880 accelerate as our
00:50:39.600 world only gets
00:50:40.180 more interconnected
00:50:41.440 and decisions
00:50:42.860 impact more and
00:50:45.000 more people
00:50:45.540 simultaneously, the
00:50:47.500 ability to make
00:50:49.060 actual decisions
00:50:50.060 starts to fall
00:50:50.980 apart.
00:50:52.480 And so this is
00:50:54.900 not going away.
00:50:56.400 And again, we can
00:50:57.120 see the way that
00:50:57.820 this impacts the
00:50:59.380 world around us.
00:51:00.320 The fact that our
00:51:01.380 leaders can
00:51:03.420 recognize certain
00:51:04.880 problems, right?
00:51:06.220 Like, we're
00:51:07.020 starting to figure
00:51:07.800 out that mass
00:51:08.780 immigration, that
00:51:09.500 open borders is a
00:51:10.500 problem.
00:51:10.840 We're starting to
00:51:11.860 figure out that
00:51:13.300 having companies
00:51:14.080 that don't care
00:51:14.920 about family
00:51:15.960 formation, having
00:51:17.940 governments that
00:51:18.660 don't care about
00:51:19.500 the next generation,
00:51:20.480 don't care about
00:51:21.060 human concerns is
00:51:22.320 an issue.
00:51:23.500 But we don't
00:51:24.380 really know what
00:51:25.000 to do about it.
00:51:25.880 For the left, it's
00:51:26.840 just kind of like,
00:51:27.500 oh, well, let's
00:51:28.260 tax it or something,
00:51:29.700 right?
00:51:30.140 But ultimately,
00:51:31.720 they side with the
00:51:33.660 globalization.
00:51:34.520 They kind of want
00:51:35.360 the one world
00:51:36.020 community.
00:51:36.880 They want anyone
00:51:37.540 to be able to move
00:51:38.400 here.
00:51:38.700 They want the
00:51:39.400 free flow of
00:51:40.120 people and capital
00:51:41.300 to continue really
00:51:42.400 at the end of the
00:51:42.940 day.
00:51:43.560 They just want to
00:51:44.080 be able to milk it
00:51:45.100 for as much power
00:51:45.960 as they can.
00:51:47.180 And the right is
00:51:47.960 starting to recognize
00:51:49.100 the problems that
00:51:49.840 this causes for the 0.65
00:51:50.780 nation, but they
00:51:52.380 don't understand how
00:51:53.200 you could limit it
00:51:53.960 because any
00:51:56.120 understanding of how
00:51:57.640 you could limit it
00:51:58.300 would require us to
00:51:59.220 make decisions that
00:52:00.160 would limit our
00:52:00.880 ability to, say,
00:52:01.760 use particular
00:52:02.460 technologies.
00:52:03.140 We would have to
00:52:04.340 reconnect corporate
00:52:06.540 profits and the
00:52:07.920 actions of corporations
00:52:08.960 with the good of the
00:52:10.820 nation, with the good
00:52:11.700 of the community,
00:52:12.880 the people it's
00:52:13.640 supposed to serve.
00:52:14.480 We might have to
00:52:15.300 limit certain
00:52:15.840 practices.
00:52:16.660 We might have to
00:52:17.520 reground the
00:52:18.600 decisions that we
00:52:19.480 make about the
00:52:20.820 way that we create
00:52:21.740 businesses or
00:52:22.560 communities to
00:52:24.380 actual people in the
00:52:26.180 way they live.
00:52:27.060 But each of these
00:52:27.660 things would limit
00:52:28.320 the ability for the
00:52:29.300 line to go up,
00:52:30.280 right?
00:52:30.460 So in our line-go-up
00:52:31.780 culture, in our
00:52:32.920 line-go-up even
00:52:33.840 conservatism, it's
00:52:35.780 hard for us to think
00:52:36.700 about actually limiting
00:52:38.140 these processes back
00:52:40.140 to serving specific
00:52:41.400 people.
00:52:42.460 And so that is the
00:52:43.600 problem that
00:52:44.220 accelerationism presents
00:52:45.780 to us.
00:52:46.660 We have an ever-
00:52:47.820 accelerating world.
00:52:50.100 We have a world that
00:52:51.140 is more connected
00:52:51.920 where technology and
00:52:53.480 capital feedback for
00:52:54.520 themselves constantly
00:52:55.660 interact with each
00:52:56.420 other, move things
00:52:57.460 faster and faster.
00:52:58.980 And we are just
00:52:59.800 starting to recognize
00:53:00.460 that that is an
00:53:02.100 issue.
00:53:02.980 But we have made
00:53:04.340 our deliberating
00:53:05.380 bodies as
00:53:06.540 distributed as
00:53:07.700 possible, so they're
00:53:08.420 getting worse and
00:53:09.120 worse at dealing
00:53:09.780 with that very
00:53:10.560 problem.
00:53:11.760 And we're running
00:53:13.740 out of time to
00:53:14.540 actually go ahead
00:53:15.380 and investigate
00:53:16.960 that problem.
00:53:18.540 So no immediate
00:53:19.880 solutions here,
00:53:20.720 obviously.
00:53:21.440 Sorry, this is not
00:53:22.220 a happy fun time
00:53:24.760 essay.
00:53:25.900 But it is something
00:53:26.900 that matters, right?
00:53:27.800 And it helps us
00:53:29.160 think about the
00:53:30.080 way that we
00:53:31.520 should be addressing
00:53:32.280 these issues, if
00:53:33.320 these issues can
00:53:33.940 even be addressed
00:53:34.640 at a civilizational
00:53:35.780 level.
00:53:36.440 I think the
00:53:37.080 ultimate answer to
00:53:37.940 this is actually
00:53:38.820 localization.
00:53:40.420 It's the
00:53:41.200 understanding that
00:53:42.500 these decisions
00:53:43.520 won't be solved
00:53:44.480 globally, that this
00:53:45.520 process is probably
00:53:46.520 going to run away
00:53:47.340 to some extent no
00:53:48.420 matter what.
00:53:49.260 And the best thing
00:53:50.040 that we can do is
00:53:51.740 go ahead and make
00:53:52.520 our communities
00:53:53.340 stronger, make our
00:53:54.480 states stronger, make
00:53:55.720 our families stronger,
00:53:56.440 make all of these
00:53:57.220 things more
00:53:57.700 resistant and
00:53:59.220 resilient, because
00:54:00.480 this process seems
00:54:02.180 like it's going to
00:54:02.920 escape the ability
00:54:04.100 of our decision
00:54:04.960 makers to go ahead
00:54:05.840 and do anything
00:54:06.300 about it.
00:54:06.760 I mean, obviously
00:54:07.820 Joe Biden's not
00:54:08.500 going to fix any
00:54:09.000 of this stuff.
00:54:09.540 And if you look
00:54:09.920 at the Republicans,
00:54:10.800 it doesn't feel
00:54:11.500 like they have
00:54:12.000 any solution
00:54:12.920 to these problems
00:54:13.600 either.
00:54:14.380 However, if we
00:54:15.060 localize this stuff,
00:54:16.460 if we stop
00:54:17.180 exploding the world,
00:54:18.120 if we stop
00:54:18.600 interconnectivity as
00:54:19.660 much as possible
00:54:20.460 as we can, we
00:54:21.840 might be able to
00:54:23.080 go ahead and make
00:54:25.160 things better for
00:54:26.160 our own families,
00:54:26.960 our own communities
00:54:27.820 as much as
00:54:28.460 possible.
00:54:29.220 All right, guys,
00:54:29.640 I'm going to go
00:54:30.040 ahead and switch
00:54:31.060 over to the
00:54:32.040 questions of the
00:54:33.020 people here.
00:54:35.620 Jesse D says,
00:54:37.380 the Jesus movement,
00:54:38.720 moral majority,
00:54:39.540 liberty, you,
00:54:40.520 apocalyptic,
00:54:41.380 shaped our world
00:54:42.300 from support for
00:54:44.180 Israel to abandonment 0.91
00:54:45.100 of the future,
00:54:45.860 made patriotism
00:54:46.960 absurd.
00:54:49.180 Yeah, there's a
00:54:50.360 lot there.
00:54:52.480 I will say this,
00:54:54.040 it certainly
00:54:55.240 helps if our
00:54:56.820 nation is
00:54:59.840 considering its
00:55:01.280 own well-being
00:55:02.320 first.
00:55:03.620 I find it kind
00:55:04.760 of absurd that
00:55:05.720 we have a
00:55:06.320 political movement
00:55:06.980 that says it's
00:55:07.860 for America
00:55:08.420 first, but
00:55:10.120 doesn't do so.
00:55:11.640 I don't think
00:55:12.000 our money should
00:55:12.500 go to Ukraine.
00:55:13.440 I don't think
00:55:13.780 our money should
00:55:14.260 be going to
00:55:14.660 Israel.
00:55:15.140 I don't think
00:55:15.440 our money should
00:55:15.780 be going to
00:55:16.180 foreign nations
00:55:16.720 at all.
00:55:17.580 I think that
00:55:18.240 our money should
00:55:19.060 be staying here.
00:55:19.940 It's the same 0.53
00:55:20.320 with our military,
00:55:21.320 the same with
00:55:21.820 everything that we
00:55:22.600 can.
00:55:22.900 our efforts
00:55:23.780 should be
00:55:24.280 focused on
00:55:25.040 making America
00:55:25.880 and its people
00:55:26.680 as prosperous
00:55:27.900 and healthy
00:55:28.560 and safe
00:55:29.180 and give them
00:55:29.740 the best lives
00:55:30.500 that they can
00:55:30.920 have.
00:55:31.780 And the fact
00:55:32.940 that many in
00:55:34.920 the conservative
00:55:35.340 movement seem
00:55:36.180 very interested
00:55:37.960 with the well-being
00:55:38.820 of other nations
00:55:40.180 that are not
00:55:41.480 our own,
00:55:43.300 to the detriment
00:55:44.180 of our own,
00:55:45.020 does seem to
00:55:46.160 make that brand
00:55:49.040 of patriotism
00:55:50.060 somewhat of an
00:55:51.900 absurdity.
00:55:53.240 Let's see
00:55:53.740 here.
00:55:55.260 Cooper Weirdo
00:55:55.840 says,
00:55:56.240 I was always
00:55:56.740 under the
00:55:57.120 impression
00:55:57.440 that Land
00:55:58.140 was spewing
00:55:59.100 literal
00:55:59.540 commie
00:55:59.940 gobbledygook.
00:56:00.640 I never
00:56:00.940 really understood
00:56:01.520 it,
00:56:01.820 though.
00:56:02.420 That was my
00:56:02.920 impression.
00:56:03.480 Yeah,
00:56:03.860 and to some
00:56:04.260 extent,
00:56:04.800 that's true.
00:56:05.580 Obviously,
00:56:05.980 we can see
00:56:06.400 the Marxism
00:56:06.940 that is
00:56:07.420 certainly
00:56:08.420 tinged in
00:56:08.940 there.
00:56:09.240 Like I
00:56:09.500 said,
00:56:10.500 Land has
00:56:10.980 taken quite
00:56:11.820 a journey
00:56:12.300 on this,
00:56:13.580 to be sure,
00:56:14.340 but that is
00:56:14.940 certainly
00:56:15.620 somewhere in
00:56:16.160 his analysis.
00:56:17.260 I've seen
00:56:17.840 Land say
00:56:18.600 that the
00:56:19.520 reason he
00:56:19.900 used so much
00:56:20.340 of this
00:56:20.580 language,
00:56:21.140 it was the
00:56:22.600 language of
00:56:23.060 the academy
00:56:23.600 at the
00:56:23.980 time,
00:56:24.880 and so
00:56:25.220 that's kind
00:56:25.660 of just
00:56:25.940 the soup
00:56:26.660 he was
00:56:26.980 swimming in.
00:56:28.020 I think
00:56:28.580 that's true
00:56:29.160 to some
00:56:29.500 extent,
00:56:29.880 but I think
00:56:30.200 also he
00:56:30.680 probably,
00:56:31.280 having read
00:56:31.640 some of his
00:56:32.000 earlier essays,
00:56:32.780 believed in
00:56:33.400 that stuff
00:56:33.800 pretty heavily
00:56:34.340 at the time,
00:56:35.940 so maybe
00:56:36.640 that's a
00:56:37.020 little bit
00:56:37.280 of cope
00:56:37.580 on his
00:56:37.940 part,
00:56:38.660 but that
00:56:39.320 said,
00:56:39.900 you're right
00:56:41.280 that some
00:56:41.580 of that's
00:56:41.880 there,
00:56:42.180 but I do
00:56:42.540 think there's
00:56:43.000 value in
00:56:44.280 what we're
00:56:44.940 looking at
00:56:45.380 here.
00:56:45.560 I think
00:56:45.860 it does
00:56:46.120 say
00:56:46.360 something
00:56:46.700 important
00:56:47.260 about the
00:56:47.980 problem
00:56:48.200 that we're
00:56:48.520 facing,
00:56:49.080 even though
00:56:49.480 obviously,
00:56:49.880 as we
00:56:50.260 say,
00:56:50.940 the Marxist
00:56:51.420 solutions are
00:56:52.060 horrific and
00:56:53.120 should not be
00:56:54.000 followed at
00:56:54.760 all.
00:56:55.600 Let's see,
00:56:56.240 Creepy Reardon
00:56:56.620 says,
00:56:57.000 it's like he's
00:56:57.520 describing AI
00:56:58.220 art,
00:56:58.780 that's spooky,
00:56:59.760 yeah,
00:57:00.080 isn't it,
00:57:00.660 right?
00:57:02.400 It's,
00:57:02.940 remember,
00:57:03.500 this essay,
00:57:04.160 I want to say
00:57:04.860 it was written,
00:57:05.380 it's at least
00:57:05.780 a decade ago,
00:57:06.480 maybe more,
00:57:07.740 and so it's
00:57:08.500 interesting how
00:57:09.720 predictive it is,
00:57:10.900 right?
00:57:11.080 So I think
00:57:11.860 there is some
00:57:13.460 merit to it
00:57:16.380 in its ability
00:57:17.240 to predict
00:57:17.620 a certain
00:57:17.900 phenomenon.
00:57:18.540 Again,
00:57:18.680 you don't have
00:57:19.120 to take the
00:57:19.480 whole thing
00:57:19.720 to heart,
00:57:20.080 guys,
00:57:20.660 just because
00:57:21.100 we explore
00:57:21.600 an idea
00:57:22.020 does not
00:57:22.440 mean that
00:57:22.780 you have
00:57:23.100 to swallow
00:57:23.540 it whole,
00:57:23.980 that you
00:57:24.200 have to
00:57:24.440 embrace all
00:57:25.500 aspects of
00:57:26.320 it,
00:57:26.820 but I want
00:57:28.080 to bring
00:57:28.440 these different
00:57:28.880 sources to
00:57:29.520 you,
00:57:29.800 that's part
00:57:30.380 I think
00:57:30.700 why people
00:57:31.120 come and
00:57:32.100 watch this
00:57:32.620 show as
00:57:33.120 opposed to
00:57:33.520 others,
00:57:34.100 if you want
00:57:35.280 to get the
00:57:35.600 news of the
00:57:35.960 day,
00:57:36.600 if you want
00:57:36.900 someone screaming
00:57:37.500 about Candace
00:57:38.180 Owens or
00:57:38.780 something right
00:57:39.580 now,
00:57:39.820 you can go
00:57:40.200 do that,
00:57:40.520 there's a lot
00:57:40.780 of people
00:57:40.980 doing that,
00:57:41.820 there's plenty
00:57:42.560 of people
00:57:42.880 talking about
00:57:43.520 whatever,
00:57:44.420 what's going
00:57:45.160 on,
00:57:45.580 and that's
00:57:46.700 a legitimate
00:57:47.360 service for
00:57:47.940 a lot of
00:57:48.200 people to
00:57:48.640 provide,
00:57:49.500 but I try
00:57:50.520 to bring
00:57:50.920 in some
00:57:51.520 out-of-the-box
00:57:52.660 stuff so
00:57:53.740 people can
00:57:54.040 explore it,
00:57:54.520 but that
00:57:54.700 doesn't mean
00:57:54.980 that you
00:57:55.260 have to go
00:57:55.620 ahead and
00:57:56.360 jump into
00:57:57.300 everything that
00:57:58.140 we look at
00:57:58.660 with both
00:57:59.080 feet.
00:57:59.600 There are
00:57:59.940 certainly
00:58:00.300 things I
00:58:00.760 disagree with
00:58:01.360 Nick Land
00:58:01.760 on,
00:58:02.500 and that
00:58:03.740 doesn't mean
00:58:04.480 that his
00:58:04.820 insights aren't
00:58:05.280 valuable,
00:58:05.940 but that also
00:58:06.540 doesn't mean
00:58:06.920 I need to
00:58:07.320 follow every
00:58:07.800 step that
00:58:08.180 he's taking.
00:58:09.540 Creepy
00:58:09.900 Weirder says
00:58:10.360 fascism equals
00:58:12.220 not leftism
00:58:13.020 and therefore
00:58:13.440 bad.
00:58:13.840 Yeah,
00:58:14.020 that is very
00:58:15.020 much the
00:58:15.420 formulation.
00:58:16.620 Anything that's
00:58:17.060 not leftism
00:58:17.760 is fascism
00:58:18.420 and therefore
00:58:18.880 everything that
00:58:19.940 opposes leftism
00:58:20.740 is the worst
00:58:21.480 thing ever
00:58:22.380 because we know
00:58:23.080 that that's the
00:58:23.620 worst thing ever.
00:58:24.580 All we can do
00:58:25.140 is debate these
00:58:25.920 movements from
00:58:26.820 last century.
00:58:28.560 We can't have
00:58:29.280 any understanding
00:58:30.500 of our current
00:58:31.020 situation.
00:58:31.780 We just keep
00:58:32.640 screaming about
00:58:33.420 dead ghosts.
00:58:35.900 Fuller to
00:58:36.380 Henry says,
00:58:36.900 are we just
00:58:37.960 now seeing
00:58:38.420 that we are
00:58:38.800 trapped in
00:58:39.300 the beginning
00:58:39.680 of a
00:58:40.680 dystopia?
00:58:42.220 Yeah,
00:58:42.760 so,
00:58:43.460 you know,
00:58:44.660 obviously that
00:58:45.440 language is
00:58:46.440 pregnant with
00:58:48.340 a lot of
00:58:48.740 meaning.
00:58:49.580 I think it
00:58:50.520 means that
00:58:50.860 we're going
00:58:51.160 through a
00:58:51.540 process,
00:58:52.240 right?
00:58:52.500 And one
00:58:53.440 of the
00:58:53.660 things to
00:58:54.120 understand
00:58:54.780 is that
00:58:56.420 many times
00:58:58.040 throughout
00:58:58.500 history,
00:58:59.360 civilizations
00:59:00.360 have gone
00:59:01.200 through great
00:59:02.300 changes and
00:59:04.440 upheavals,
00:59:05.560 right?
00:59:05.740 And those
00:59:06.260 changes are
00:59:06.860 only accelerating
00:59:07.880 as our
00:59:09.420 technology and
00:59:11.120 other things
00:59:11.920 accelerate.
00:59:13.560 You know,
00:59:13.780 we've moved
00:59:14.480 through different
00:59:14.900 modes of
00:59:15.340 production,
00:59:16.160 economic
00:59:16.520 understandings,
00:59:17.580 social arrangements
00:59:18.460 throughout,
00:59:19.720 you know,
00:59:20.420 many different
00:59:20.920 times in
00:59:21.380 history.
00:59:21.680 And oftentimes
00:59:22.520 those changes
00:59:23.640 are violent
00:59:24.880 and not good
00:59:25.440 for the people
00:59:25.880 involved with
00:59:26.480 them.
00:59:26.760 We don't want
00:59:27.420 to encourage
00:59:28.080 that.
00:59:28.420 Again,
00:59:28.560 that's why
00:59:28.900 I'm not for
00:59:29.300 political
00:59:29.720 accelerationism.
00:59:31.140 However,
00:59:31.640 we should
00:59:32.160 probably understand
00:59:32.860 that we're not
00:59:33.280 immune from
00:59:33.860 that process.
00:59:34.560 One of the
00:59:34.880 things,
00:59:35.200 again,
00:59:35.360 that I try
00:59:35.760 to get
00:59:36.360 people away
00:59:36.840 from is
00:59:37.640 this idea
00:59:38.280 that America
00:59:38.880 is in this
00:59:39.600 magical bubble
00:59:40.520 where we're
00:59:41.060 never going to
00:59:41.640 run into
00:59:42.020 these problems.
00:59:42.800 We're never
00:59:43.020 going to face
00:59:43.560 any of these
00:59:44.040 issues that
00:59:44.980 have impacted
00:59:45.520 people throughout
00:59:46.360 history.
00:59:47.400 And so,
00:59:47.720 yeah,
00:59:47.860 we might be
00:59:48.440 on the cusp
00:59:49.120 of a serious
00:59:49.960 revolution in
00:59:50.940 the way that
00:59:51.380 certain things
00:59:51.840 about our
00:59:52.140 society work.
00:59:53.300 Does that make
00:59:53.780 it a dystopia?
00:59:55.100 Maybe to some
00:59:56.460 extent.
00:59:56.940 Maybe it just
00:59:57.420 means that
00:59:58.300 things are going
00:59:58.720 to look very
00:59:59.420 different than
01:00:00.200 they did
01:00:00.740 previously in
01:00:02.240 certain areas
01:00:02.900 and we need
01:00:03.360 to prepare for
01:00:04.560 ourselves for
01:00:05.540 that.
01:00:06.920 But I don't
01:00:08.840 think that that
01:00:09.260 means that
01:00:09.660 things have to
01:00:10.260 be terrible.
01:00:11.420 Again,
01:00:12.000 the thing to
01:00:13.900 always remember
01:00:14.660 is that you
01:00:15.400 can only really
01:00:16.100 control the
01:00:16.680 sphere around
01:00:17.320 you, right?
01:00:18.120 And as much
01:00:19.440 as the, you
01:00:20.220 know, Jordan
01:00:20.640 Peterson clean up
01:00:21.380 your rune thing
01:00:21.980 is a cliche,
01:00:23.360 there's a lot
01:00:24.180 of truth in it,
01:00:24.820 right?
01:00:25.000 These are the
01:00:25.340 things that you
01:00:25.780 can control.
01:00:26.240 These are the
01:00:26.720 only things that
01:00:27.400 you can control.
01:00:28.340 That doesn't
01:00:28.880 mean that the
01:00:29.460 things around you
01:00:30.080 don't matter.
01:00:30.640 It doesn't mean
01:00:30.940 that you're not
01:00:31.300 going to be
01:00:31.560 impacted greatly
01:00:32.340 by world
01:00:32.960 historical forces.
01:00:34.680 But, you know,
01:00:35.260 as Oswald Spengler
01:00:36.360 said, optimism
01:00:37.160 is cowardice.
01:00:38.200 You know,
01:00:38.320 basically get over
01:00:39.580 it, right?
01:00:40.040 Like you're not
01:00:40.640 the first person
01:00:41.460 to be in a
01:00:42.080 difficult situation.
01:00:43.460 There's a lot of
01:00:43.960 people who have
01:00:44.320 been in difficult
01:00:44.820 situations and they
01:00:46.120 still met them
01:00:46.980 with a great degree
01:00:48.640 of virtue and valor
01:00:49.840 and strength.
01:00:50.980 And you need to
01:00:51.620 do the same thing.
01:00:52.580 You don't get to
01:00:53.240 escape the turn
01:00:54.460 of the wheel.
01:00:55.480 And that can be
01:00:56.460 a little concerning
01:00:58.320 when we were
01:00:59.660 watching, you
01:01:00.660 know, our parents
01:01:01.880 or grandparents
01:01:02.580 enjoy some of
01:01:04.280 the highest levels
01:01:05.160 of prosperity
01:01:05.880 throughout human
01:01:06.620 history.
01:01:07.180 And we thought
01:01:07.880 that, like, we
01:01:08.460 were just going
01:01:08.900 to get to enjoy
01:01:09.740 that, too.
01:01:10.740 But, you know,
01:01:11.480 that we may not
01:01:12.980 be there.
01:01:13.560 That may not be
01:01:14.400 your ultimate fate.
01:01:15.840 But that's okay.
01:01:16.960 You know, that's
01:01:18.000 all right.
01:01:18.420 That's not the end
01:01:19.060 of the world in the
01:01:19.900 same way that the
01:01:21.220 fall of the Roman 0.97
01:01:21.820 Empire wasn't the
01:01:22.700 end of the world.
01:01:23.520 You know, it
01:01:24.120 certainly wasn't
01:01:24.940 the time, perhaps,
01:01:26.220 that you wanted
01:01:26.620 to be born into.
01:01:27.600 Maybe not the
01:01:28.200 greatest thing.
01:01:29.060 But that doesn't
01:01:29.540 mean that you
01:01:30.200 as a person
01:01:31.240 can't be virtuous.
01:01:32.880 It doesn't mean
01:01:33.260 that you can't
01:01:33.840 build, you know,
01:01:34.600 strong families,
01:01:35.340 strong communities.
01:01:36.300 It doesn't mean
01:01:36.740 that you can't
01:01:37.380 live a meaningful
01:01:38.480 life.
01:01:39.240 So I think that
01:01:39.940 that's always
01:01:40.920 something to keep
01:01:41.740 in mind, even
01:01:42.360 when we talk
01:01:42.960 about how
01:01:43.980 changes are
01:01:45.140 inevitable and
01:01:45.780 some of them
01:01:46.140 might not be
01:01:47.100 so great.
01:01:49.420 Alexander
01:01:49.860 Jean says,
01:01:52.600 without
01:01:52.920 Catholicism,
01:01:54.080 the West
01:01:54.740 is dead.
01:01:56.360 Well, I mean,
01:01:57.560 I'm not a
01:01:58.280 Catholic.
01:01:58.960 I don't know
01:01:59.720 that that's
01:02:00.300 necessarily the
01:02:01.100 case.
01:02:01.520 America has 0.83
01:02:02.180 always been a
01:02:02.740 Protestant nation.
01:02:03.380 Maybe you would
01:02:03.820 say that's
01:02:04.780 America's problem. 0.88
01:02:05.800 You can make
01:02:06.760 those arguments
01:02:07.260 if you like.
01:02:08.220 I would say
01:02:08.920 that without
01:02:09.860 Christianity,
01:02:11.080 that is certainly
01:02:12.040 the case.
01:02:12.580 I think that is
01:02:13.080 the defining
01:02:13.660 trait and identity
01:02:15.200 of what most
01:02:16.000 people mean when
01:02:16.780 they say the
01:02:17.180 West.
01:02:17.920 They're really
01:02:18.520 referring to
01:02:19.240 Christendom.
01:02:19.760 and I
01:02:21.840 think without
01:02:22.300 that, I
01:02:23.420 think you
01:02:23.900 certainly are
01:02:24.480 in a very
01:02:24.840 serious state.
01:02:27.420 He also
01:02:28.240 follows up
01:02:28.780 with, don't
01:02:29.660 you think a
01:02:30.080 return to
01:02:30.620 tradition will
01:02:32.920 fix our
01:02:33.220 problem?
01:02:33.820 The
01:02:33.980 Enlightenment
01:02:34.560 activists tore
01:02:35.700 down that
01:02:36.280 which came
01:02:37.360 before.
01:02:38.160 Now the
01:02:38.560 moderns are
01:02:39.340 doing the
01:02:39.760 same thing.
01:02:40.760 It will
01:02:41.200 certainly help.
01:02:42.100 So I think
01:02:42.560 there's two
01:02:46.700 things to think
01:02:47.240 about here.
01:02:47.680 I think that
01:02:49.500 the strict
01:02:50.260 return to
01:02:51.180 tradition line
01:02:51.940 is kind of
01:02:52.640 a failure in
01:02:53.880 the sense that
01:02:54.520 you can never
01:02:55.060 truly go back
01:02:55.920 to something.
01:02:56.620 You can never
01:02:57.020 truly return to
01:02:58.620 a past.
01:03:00.100 That's not how
01:03:01.020 things work.
01:03:02.440 You cannot,
01:03:03.180 you know,
01:03:03.600 we are creatures
01:03:04.860 of our own
01:03:05.440 time.
01:03:05.860 We have to
01:03:06.200 face the
01:03:06.560 problems and
01:03:07.600 solve the
01:03:08.040 problems of
01:03:08.520 our own
01:03:08.860 times.
01:03:09.700 We can draw
01:03:10.220 wisdom and
01:03:11.820 strength from
01:03:12.580 traditions and
01:03:14.180 there are
01:03:14.660 certainly eternal
01:03:15.600 truths that are
01:03:17.160 encapsulated in
01:03:18.060 traditions that
01:03:18.740 continue into
01:03:19.460 our own
01:03:19.840 times and
01:03:21.260 the dismantling
01:03:22.020 of those
01:03:23.000 traditions is a
01:03:24.560 large part of
01:03:25.220 a problem.
01:03:25.640 You're right
01:03:25.880 about that.
01:03:26.700 At the same
01:03:27.180 time, I think
01:03:28.740 that for
01:03:29.160 traditions to
01:03:29.800 survive, and
01:03:31.120 this is from
01:03:31.740 this is from
01:03:32.700 Alisdell
01:03:33.560 McIntyre,
01:03:34.740 a philosopher
01:03:35.480 who I like
01:03:36.440 quite a bit.
01:03:37.120 He says that
01:03:37.760 they have to
01:03:38.180 confront their
01:03:39.300 crises and
01:03:40.080 they have to
01:03:40.500 be able to
01:03:41.020 go ahead and
01:03:42.240 overcome those
01:03:43.480 crises and move
01:03:44.520 forward to prove
01:03:45.540 the robustness of
01:03:46.360 a tradition is
01:03:47.620 for it to
01:03:48.300 go ahead and
01:03:49.380 meet the
01:03:50.820 problems of a
01:03:51.720 new generation
01:03:52.380 and overcome
01:03:52.940 them.
01:03:53.600 I think we're
01:03:54.060 going to find
01:03:54.480 that here.
01:03:55.000 I think we're
01:03:55.280 going to find
01:03:55.900 and I think
01:03:56.440 in many ways
01:03:57.000 we're starting
01:03:57.440 to find that
01:03:58.380 many of the
01:03:58.820 traditions that
01:03:59.280 we dismantled,
01:04:00.180 traditions like
01:04:00.720 the family,
01:04:01.220 traditions like
01:04:01.800 the nation,
01:04:02.680 were critical
01:04:03.540 and they were
01:04:04.480 ones that were
01:04:05.020 necessary and
01:04:06.080 the fact that
01:04:06.440 we dismantled
01:04:06.900 them is causing
01:04:07.420 us a large
01:04:07.940 amount of
01:04:08.260 problems and
01:04:08.980 a return in
01:04:10.400 some sense to
01:04:11.020 those traditions
01:04:11.540 is critical.
01:04:12.500 However, even
01:04:13.180 when we return
01:04:13.980 to them in
01:04:14.700 some sense,
01:04:15.680 it will still
01:04:16.600 be a version
01:04:17.280 of them that
01:04:18.100 is addressing
01:04:19.580 the issues of
01:04:20.160 our time.
01:04:21.140 So the truths
01:04:21.680 of those
01:04:22.000 traditions will
01:04:22.580 continue forward
01:04:23.360 but the way
01:04:24.100 that we assign
01:04:24.960 them, the way
01:04:25.400 that we go
01:04:26.660 ahead and act
01:04:27.360 them out and
01:04:27.780 live them out
01:04:28.360 in our kind
01:04:29.700 of modern
01:04:30.300 problem to
01:04:31.760 address our
01:04:32.200 modern problems
01:04:32.860 will be unique
01:04:33.620 to our time.
01:04:34.520 And so in
01:04:34.940 that way, they
01:04:36.140 will be new,
01:04:37.180 they will be
01:04:37.640 modified in some
01:04:38.540 sense, but that
01:04:39.380 is always true of
01:04:40.020 traditions.
01:04:40.640 No traditions are
01:04:41.600 internal in the
01:04:42.200 sense that they
01:04:42.680 never, ever, ever
01:04:43.520 change.
01:04:44.040 But they are
01:04:44.940 internal in the
01:04:45.420 sense that they
01:04:45.920 contain a way
01:04:46.920 of being, an
01:04:48.200 archetype, that
01:04:49.240 is necessary to
01:04:50.340 human flourishing.
01:04:51.600 And so to the
01:04:52.160 extent in which we
01:04:52.800 will return to
01:04:53.620 things that are
01:04:54.360 bettering our
01:04:55.060 human flourishing,
01:04:56.180 we will return
01:04:56.780 to tradition.
01:04:57.720 The idea that we
01:04:58.300 will simply return
01:04:59.140 to the traditions
01:05:00.160 one-to-one of
01:05:01.680 a previous time
01:05:02.420 without any
01:05:03.080 modification and
01:05:03.960 understanding of
01:05:04.640 our current
01:05:05.280 modern scenario
01:05:06.540 or problems, I
01:05:08.180 think that one
01:05:10.160 is incorrect.
01:05:10.900 I think that being
01:05:11.880 completely stuck in
01:05:13.180 the past,
01:05:14.040 is a problem.
01:05:15.060 As Nick Land
01:05:15.780 would say, the
01:05:16.640 only way out is
01:05:17.580 through.
01:05:18.380 And so I think we
01:05:19.140 are going to have
01:05:19.780 to face modernity
01:05:21.160 and its challenges
01:05:22.000 and post-modernity
01:05:22.960 and its challenges,
01:05:24.240 but we will face
01:05:25.620 them with the
01:05:27.060 eternal truths that
01:05:28.360 tradition provides
01:05:29.160 us.
01:05:30.000 All right, guys,
01:05:30.740 let's go ahead and
01:05:31.920 wrap things up.
01:05:32.920 Thank you, everybody,
01:05:33.660 for coming by.
01:05:34.480 It's always a
01:05:35.280 pleasure to talk
01:05:36.480 to you.
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01:06:01.020 And guys, if you'd
01:06:01.720 like to go ahead and
01:06:02.540 pre-order my book,
01:06:03.780 The Total State,
01:06:04.460 which will be coming
01:06:04.940 out May 7th, you can
01:06:06.380 do so on all your
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01:06:14.080 pre-order.
01:06:14.800 Thank you once again
01:06:15.580 guys for watching and
01:06:16.800 as always, I'll talk
01:06:17.860 to you next time.