This reminds me of the experience some years ago when I joined with a group of volunteers to move an upright piano up a flight of stairs. Men, women, kids. Just ordinary people. No one was particularly strong. We had a goal and we had trust in one another. With everyone working together, freely, we accomplished something that none of us could have done alone. There was no point where the effort of one person ended and the work of the next person began. It was a common effort, made possible by voluntary cooperation, trust, and commitment. At our best, we have amazing potential.
Peter Thiel needs to study what happened in history with the heading, “The Lavender Scare.” He wouldn’t care though because his whiteness and wealth give him immunity, while LGBT people are oppressed under this regime.
Our government works, it isn’t perfect and needs improvements. Why destroy instead of improve?
Let all the Thiel’s and Yarvin’s create their own TECHTOPIA!
Leave the people of the USA out of your futuristic ideology. We choose to advance in time together and as Mike said cooperate and work diligently!
As always, thanks Mike. Your contributions to society are caring, compassionate, and community based!❤️
I’ve been thinking about Yarvin and actually went back to a NYT video interview with transcript from 1/18/25.
I believe Yarvin inserts CEO instead of dictator. I don’t have a problem with those in tech industries, simply that not everyone is a genius at everything.
One sphere doesn’t need to be in charge, everyone can contribute. Again I say, “ go create your utopia! Why use Americans? Oh, and you will use tax contributions, right? You assume there won’t be a revolt?” My, oh my, conservatives like Yarvin!
We have our representatives in government so we don’t have to be there everyday fighting for the things we want or need. History has taught so much!
Our Constitution, imperfect as it may be, in need of revision to match “current times “ ( think of the guns our forefathers could not have predicted!) relies on moral men. Loyal public servants. Honesty, integrity, righteousness.
Dictator lives lavishly, pays cronies to build structures that crumble during earthquakes because no requirements existed, on & on…yet isn’t the farmer growing crops just as important as that CEO? The baker, the teacher? Can the CEO do it all? I don’t think so.
From the article referenced: “ …what others see as a highly distorting mix of gross oversimplification, cherry picking, and personal interpretation presented as fact”. Guess I’m one of “the others”.
As a Gernan I'd like to point out that much of the rocket propulsion tech originated in Nazi Germany. (Or more critically even, the Nazis were way ahead in using television as a propaganda tool, also a lot adaopted later.)
I'm very familiar with Wernher von Braun. I'm not sure this does any violence on my point. I'm talking about principles. And the people who adhere to them. I'm not making an argument from American exceptionalism. I tried very carefully to not do that, in fact.
I could sense that, that you did not want to promote American exceptionalism.
Also, I can see your point that there is no reason for defeatism on the side of democratically organised societies. That's an important point to make, and I appreciate that. And for that, it's a good example.
Just, if you look at history, things are a bit more complicated.
So I was also thinking of Edward Teller and Robert Oppenheimer, apart from von Braun. Or of the French Revolution and the way Republicanism unleashed the first modern, Pan-European war, which had a profound impact on Russia, the reverberations of which we can still see in the war in Ukraine. Etc etc.
This reminds me of the experience some years ago when I joined with a group of volunteers to move an upright piano up a flight of stairs. Men, women, kids. Just ordinary people. No one was particularly strong. We had a goal and we had trust in one another. With everyone working together, freely, we accomplished something that none of us could have done alone. There was no point where the effort of one person ended and the work of the next person began. It was a common effort, made possible by voluntary cooperation, trust, and commitment. At our best, we have amazing potential.
Peter Thiel needs to study what happened in history with the heading, “The Lavender Scare.” He wouldn’t care though because his whiteness and wealth give him immunity, while LGBT people are oppressed under this regime.
Our government works, it isn’t perfect and needs improvements. Why destroy instead of improve?
Let all the Thiel’s and Yarvin’s create their own TECHTOPIA!
Leave the people of the USA out of your futuristic ideology. We choose to advance in time together and as Mike said cooperate and work diligently!
As always, thanks Mike. Your contributions to society are caring, compassionate, and community based!❤️
One of my favorite stories from NASA in the 60s.
If there was one of those incredibly valuable Margaret Hamilton types at NASA in 2024, she got fired this year.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/margaret-hamilton-led-nasa-software-team-landed-astronauts-moon-180971575/
Thanks for the link/info.
I’ve been thinking about Yarvin and actually went back to a NYT video interview with transcript from 1/18/25.
I believe Yarvin inserts CEO instead of dictator. I don’t have a problem with those in tech industries, simply that not everyone is a genius at everything.
One sphere doesn’t need to be in charge, everyone can contribute. Again I say, “ go create your utopia! Why use Americans? Oh, and you will use tax contributions, right? You assume there won’t be a revolt?” My, oh my, conservatives like Yarvin!
We have our representatives in government so we don’t have to be there everyday fighting for the things we want or need. History has taught so much!
Our Constitution, imperfect as it may be, in need of revision to match “current times “ ( think of the guns our forefathers could not have predicted!) relies on moral men. Loyal public servants. Honesty, integrity, righteousness.
Dictator lives lavishly, pays cronies to build structures that crumble during earthquakes because no requirements existed, on & on…yet isn’t the farmer growing crops just as important as that CEO? The baker, the teacher? Can the CEO do it all? I don’t think so.
From the article referenced: “ …what others see as a highly distorting mix of gross oversimplification, cherry picking, and personal interpretation presented as fact”. Guess I’m one of “the others”.
As a Gernan I'd like to point out that much of the rocket propulsion tech originated in Nazi Germany. (Or more critically even, the Nazis were way ahead in using television as a propaganda tool, also a lot adaopted later.)
I'm very familiar with Wernher von Braun. I'm not sure this does any violence on my point. I'm talking about principles. And the people who adhere to them. I'm not making an argument from American exceptionalism. I tried very carefully to not do that, in fact.
I could sense that, that you did not want to promote American exceptionalism.
Also, I can see your point that there is no reason for defeatism on the side of democratically organised societies. That's an important point to make, and I appreciate that. And for that, it's a good example.
Just, if you look at history, things are a bit more complicated.
So I was also thinking of Edward Teller and Robert Oppenheimer, apart from von Braun. Or of the French Revolution and the way Republicanism unleashed the first modern, Pan-European war, which had a profound impact on Russia, the reverberations of which we can still see in the war in Ukraine. Etc etc.