The Auron MacIntyre Show - Cybernetics and Accelerationism ｜ 3⧸22⧸24

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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,

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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.

01:05:37.060 Of course, if this

01:05:37.860 is your first time

01:05:38.740 on the channel,

01:05:39.560 make sure that you

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01:05:58.380 That really helps

01:05:59.240 with the algorithm.

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

01:06:07.560 favorite retailers,

01:06:09.360 Amazon, Barnes &

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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.

The Auron MacIntyre Show - March 22, 2024

Cybernetics and Accelerationism ｜ 3⧸22⧸24

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