The reason we have government isn’t that we sat down once upon a time in the state of nature to design a political system.
I believe the main thrust of Moldbug’s writings is that we should be (but aren’t) solving an engineering problem rather than moralizing when we engage in politics (although, he seems to fall into this trap himself what with all his blaming of “leftists” for everything under the sun).
So much of Moldbug’s belief system, and even his constructed identity as an “enlightened reactionary”, ride on his complete rejection of whiggish historical narratives; however, he takes this to such an extent that he ends up falling into the very trap that Whig Interpretation’s original critic, Herbert Butterfield warned of in his seminal work on the subject:
Further, it cannot be said that all faults of bias may be balanced by work that is deliberately written with the opposite bias; for we do not gain true history by merely adding the speech of the prosecution to the speech for the defence; and though there have been Tory – as there have been many Catholic – partisan histories, it is still true that there is no corresponding tendency for the subject itself to lean in this direction; the dice cannot be secretly loaded by virtue of the same kind of original unconscious fallacy.
I believe the main thrust of Moldbug’s writings is that we should be (but aren’t) solving an engineering problem rather than moralizing when we engage in politics (although, he seems to fall into this trap himself what with all his blaming of “leftists” for everything under the sun).
Except, none of his prescriptions are sensible engineering. Crypto-controlled weapons as foundation for social order are more science-fiction than sensible design for controlling violence in society. it’s much too easy for people to build or buy weapons, or else circumvent the protections. Pinning your whole society on perfect security seems pretty crazy from a design point of view.
I believe the main thrust of Moldbug’s writings is that we should be (but aren’t) solving an engineering problem rather than moralizing when we engage in politics (although, he seems to fall into this trap himself what with all his blaming of “leftists” for everything under the sun).
So much of Moldbug’s belief system, and even his constructed identity as an “enlightened reactionary”, ride on his complete rejection of whiggish historical narratives; however, he takes this to such an extent that he ends up falling into the very trap that Whig Interpretation’s original critic, Herbert Butterfield warned of in his seminal work on the subject:
Except, none of his prescriptions are sensible engineering. Crypto-controlled weapons as foundation for social order are more science-fiction than sensible design for controlling violence in society. it’s much too easy for people to build or buy weapons, or else circumvent the protections. Pinning your whole society on perfect security seems pretty crazy from a design point of view.
Right, I don’t think he succeeds either. I was merely trying to summarize his project as I think he sees it.