This post is about Dark Enlightenment, one of the ideologies in Trump’s coalition of crazys. Note: this is a work in progress… Not very polished.
Tl;Dr: In Snowcrash Neal Stephenson wrote about neighborhood City/States with different laws. Dark Enlightenment wants to crash the U. S. to make this real, so they can live in Ayn Randian Liberteritories.
It’s hard to understand what motivates Donald Trump, he doesn’t seem to have a single ideology. Rather, I feel like he’s at the head of a coalition of strange bedfellows: Christian evangelicals, anti-immigration no-nothings, ‘family values’ obsessed biggots, and Tech Bros.
WTF are the tech bros doing in the mix?
Apparently: they want out of Democracy, and into little authoritarian ‘Networked States’. Instead of the Federal system we have in the USA right now (power divided between the federal government and 50 states) they are driving towards ‘many small separate states’ – think Singapore and you’ll be headed on the right track. So instead of the Federal government & the state of Illinois, you would have the Networked State of Chicago’s South Side.
I’m not really sure how deep this goes – as long as you are de-centralizing, why not separate state laws from geography? (Probably the reason is: if different laws apply to different people depending on something as abstract as ‘membership’ you will need some broader form of governance to ensure fair application of laws).
This isn’t new thinking. There are currently several dozen Microstates on earth, including the Principality of Sealand and Vatican_City.
What’s new here is:
- A group of powerful, extremely wealthy individuals who are prepared to pay to make this happen
- A political party headed by a Cult of Personality figure who’s happy to be bought
- A country who’s very divided
And the thinking is: If we can just disrupt the government enough that it falls apart, we can divide the geography of the US up into itty bitty city states where Owners decide the laws, and people vote with their feet.
The analogy makes tons of sense if you think about it like software: Are you an iPhone person or an Android person? What’s your recourse if you don’t like a decision made by Apple? Well, just give up your Iphone and get an Android!
To be more clear: The concept includes a weird mix of Authoritarian government and personal freedom. If you want to stay in the Networked State of the South Side of Chicago you must abide by the laws of the ‘Burb’ (determined authoritatively by the ‘owner). Don’t like them? You’re free to leave at any time to a different Networked State. Or, just make your own.
I am really not kidding about Neal Stephenson – he writes about the consequences of this pretty well in Snowcrash.
The Confederacy of Dunces aspect comes in once you start thinking about what this means: it’s basically headed back towards Feudalism, just like Ignatius J. Riley wanted. And because Trump’s coalition includes many other non-libertarian voices, you can imagine that at least some of the new Networked States will have Riley-like moral values built in to their Terms.of Service (Terms of citizenship?). This is fine of course: If you’d prefer to live in a state that allows abortion or recognizes fluid genders – well just make one! (Cost of entry to this market is probably in the $1bn dollar range).
Regarding MadMax – the Furiosa universe has already envisioned Networked States for us: The Green Place, BulletTown, GazTown, and the Citadel. I recommend the recent movie – it’s worth a watch.
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