{"id":26844,"date":"2023-12-21T10:46:45","date_gmt":"2023-12-21T15:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/?p=26844"},"modified":"2023-12-21T10:46:45","modified_gmt":"2023-12-21T15:46:45","slug":"curtis-yarvin-doles-out-some-holiday-pessimism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/21\/curtis-yarvin-doles-out-some-holiday-pessimism\/","title":{"rendered":"Curtis Yarvin Doles Out Some Holiday Pessimism"},"content":{"rendered":"

My favorite neo-corpora-monarchist provides one of his maximalist essays<\/a> on why technology isn’t going to save mankind and in fact may do the opposite.<\/p>\n

“Johannesburg and Kinshasa have the same technology level<\/em> as Palo Alto and Berkeley.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

…<\/strong><\/p>\n

The implicit premise of techno-optimism is that\u00a0technology drives civilization<\/em>. To fix any and all of the problems of society, just get out of the way of technology.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Across history, do we find this premise to be true?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

It seems clear that the Third World is, in the medium term at least, humanity\u2019s future. The barriers that separate the First and Third Worlds are geographical accidents or legacies of the 20th or even 19th century. Everywhere they are visibly crumbling.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In even the medium term, the problem of curing the Third World becomes equivalent to the problem of preserving the First World from whatever is ailing the Third World. Indeed it is not hard to find recognizable patches of Third World inside the First. If this does not strike you as the most important historical problem of our period, more travel may be indicated\u2014or at least, just read a\u00a0Paul Theroux book<\/a>.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

And then it goes down hill from there:<\/p>\n

“Historically, civilizations of last men tend to fall when they are overrun by barbarians. Technology can artificially forestall this fate\u2014but as Hannah Arendt put it, every new generation is its own barbarian invasion. Barbarians may not even be needed. In the end, Walter Benjamin prophesied, the last man will simply put himself to death:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Humanity\u2019s self-alienation has reached such a degree that it can experience its own destruction as an aesthetic pleasure of the first order.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed, if present trends continue,\u00a0\u201cvoluntary human extinction\u201d<\/a> seems likely to become a live political issue within our children\u2019s lifetimes. You laugh.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Merry Christmas from Curtis Yarvin?\u00a0 Interesting but pessimistic and long read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My favorite neo-corpora-monarchist provides one of his maximalist essays on why technology isn’t going to save mankind and in fact may do the opposite. “Johannesburg<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2062,2063,146],"class_list":["post-26844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","tag-curtis-yarvin","tag-mencius-moldbug","tag-technology"],"yoast_head":"\nCurtis Yarvin Doles Out Some Holiday Pessimism - Orion's Cold Fire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orionscoldfire.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/21\/curtis-yarvin-doles-out-some-holiday-pessimism\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Curtis Yarvin Doles Out Some Holiday Pessimism - 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