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The libertarian futurism of a Silicon Valley billionaire.

Rejected submission by aristarchus at 2016-11-16 05:30:42
Digital Liberty

We sometimes wonder, what would happen if the engineers, the mechanics, the philosophers, were put in charge of things? Of course, that is just ridiculous.

Thiel—who grew up middle class, earned degrees from Stanford and Stanford Law School, worked at a white-shoe New York law firm and a premier Wall Street investment bank, employs two assistants and a chef, and is currently reading obscure essays by the philosopher Leo Strauss—holds élites in contempt. “This is always a problem with élites, they’re always skewed in an optimistic direction,” he said. “It may be true to an even greater extent at present."

But on the other hand, if we left the direction of the future of society up to those who make the most money?

Thiel’s own story of progress began near the end of the golden age, in 1967, in Frankfurt, Germany. When Peter was one, his father, Klaus, moved the family to Cleveland. Klaus’s employment in various large engineering firms kept uprooting the family—South Africa and Namibia were other locations—and Peter attended seven elementary schools. The final one was near Foster City, a planned community, along the southern edge of San Francisco Bay, where the Thiels settled when he was in fifth grade.

The source for all this is the New Yorker, an article by George Packer, titled [newyorker.com] No Death, No Taxes. [newyorker.com] Interesting reading.

For those of you not familiar with Leo Strauss and the Chicago School of screwing over American democracy, please consult this link. [wikipedia.org]

So, we are back to the original question: Why do we allow venture capitalists to control politics? Why does SoylentNews reject any submission that even mentions Peter Thiel? Are our editors afraid? Or are they in the bubble? Inquiring Minds want to know. Because SoylentNews is people. And not all people are members of the Pay-Pal mafia. Courage, editors!


Original Submission