The Post-Partisan Emporium

  The Technocratic Control of USrael Iain Davis In the United States (US) a gaggle of Silicon Valley oligarchs has formed a partnership that has seized operational control of the US defence sector. This group of oligarchs can be distinguished by their liking for the ideas presented in Nick Land’s Dark Enlightenment and their enthusiasm for Technocracy . They want to build what their guru Curtis Yarvin called a “patchwork of realms” in the form of a transnational network of privately owned city-states , or neostates . Inspired by both the Dark Enlightenment and Technocracy, a wider Neoreactionary movement (NRx) has formed, and the Silicon Valley oligarchs are its inspirational leaders. The NRx oligarchs’ investment strategy focuses on seed funding “disruptive technology” startup ventures. In keeping with the Dark Enlightenment, this is called accelerationism . The NRx-aligned oligarchs—often referred to as the PayPal Mafia—include Peter Thiel (Palantir Technologies), Marc Andreess...

  Lilies, the Devil, and Rainbow Colors A Brief History of Our Sacred Symbols Vuk Bačanović Sarajevo’s first Pride march in which took place on 8 September 2019. Participants are marching under the slogan “Ponosno zajedno” (Proudly Together). Photo credit: Antonio Balic This year’s Sarajevo Pride produced exactly what contemporary politics increasingly specializes in: a symbolic scandal. A participant dressed as the Devil marched at the front of the parade, another wrapped Bosnia’s medieval lily emblem in rainbow symbolism, and within hours social media was flooded with warnings about sacrilege, national humiliation, and moral catastrophe. In a country that has survived war, ethnic cleansing, state capture, mass corruption, deindustrialization, and the systematic looting of public wealth, it was apparently a young man with a rainbow flag who finally crossed the red line. Let us set aside, for a moment, the fact that the struggle against discrimination based on whom people share the...

  The Infectious Disease Frenzy By  David Bell In our enlightened age the public seems tirelessly bombarded with warnings of existential threat from infectious disease. Another distant outbreak is spreading, this time it could be Disease X ! “…and there is no vaccine …!” How, one might ask, is our species still extant? A few decades ago, life was less torn by impending doom. Public health officials were investigating diarrhoea outbreaks linked to the local café. The Woodstock festival happened during the last large influenza pandemic, and no one really noticed, let alone wore a mask. They just listened to the music, lived as their ancestors had, and somehow managed to expand the species. Medical technology and biotech innovation have blossomed since Woodstock. If you had a heart attack in the 1960s, you got some morphine for pain and a firm mattress, a bit of nitroglycerin under the tongue or some basic drugs to steady an erratic heartbeat. Now you will be rushed into a maze ...