Peter Thiel on "The Straussian Moment"

Reading and commenting on Peter Thiel's famous essay, which aims to rethink the foundations of modern politics in light of the Islamic terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001. The essay is available here: gwern.net/doc/politics/2007-t...
The Millerman School teaches several of the thinkers Thiel refers to in his article, including Leo Strauss and Carl Schmitt. Visit www.MillermanSchool.com for more information. And if you enjoy this video, be sure to like, share, comment, and subscribe.
Thanks for watching.
MM.
NEW: My essay on "The End of the Straussian Moment?" -- www.academia.edu/112826498/Th...

[@cb73]

“If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice” from the great philosopher, Geddy Lee

[@x0rn312]

This is fantastic

[@gmw3083]

De-side. Chose the middle path. Definitely not zionism, which I believe is Thiels lifelong choice....

[@stuarthicks2696]

It was taken from Ayn Rand.

[@grecko8762]

Your analysis helps me understand these essays Michael - I have learned so much from your read throughs. I look forward to the next!

[@victorsavkov8363]

Michael, thank you very much for your reading and commenting. First time I encountered the essay in Thiel's interview on Hoover's Institute channel, Unknown Knowledge. Your comments are helping to get better understanding.

[@MrJanes-cl5sj]

your content and analysis is just outstanding professor: thank you

[@Queenfisher444]

Even though we diverge on many points, the intellectual consistency and rigour of your investigations are truly a unique thing in the modern world. If the many opposing viewpoints of todays age were presented with the brilliance you present yours we would be an intergalactic species by now. Thankyou.

[@blockpartyvintage1568]

Hey Micheal. Ive heard you mention in a recent video that Dugin has a volume or a book about the Spiritual aspect of warfare or something to that effect but hasnt been translated to English. If you can recll what the name of that book is? Thanks

[@millerman]

Noomakhia. It's a series of books.

[@NicoFromTheWaves]

Excellent video. Glad I discovered your channel, thanks for making this.

[@JosephKelly-uj1zo]

Didn't Evolva explain this would happen?

[@Bread_Butter]

Enjoyed every moment!

[@herlocksholmes9369]

Interesting stream. By the way, at 59:32 when he talks about how people are “amusing themselves to death”, it is probably a reference to Neil Postman’s book “Amusing Ourselves to Death” from 1985. I haven't read the book myself, but it seems that it has only become more relevant in our time where most of the information we obtain is mediated by the internet, social media and smart phones.

[@plaiche]

The book is exceptional and as relevant as when he wrote it ~40 years ago. The only tweak required being "television" is now the hybrid of traditional programming and the broader tele-vision that is the internet, dominated by an increasingly concentrated cluster of state and private entities.

[@sameash3153]

Postman was amazing. I would also recommend Disappearance of Childhood and Technopoly

[@nathanrodriguez7943]

Thanks for this!

[@MihailGeorgeNeamtu]

Good job! Great exegesis. Merry Christmas 🎄

[@tomv4408]

😅I've read the article twice, but hearing this talk helped me to understand it more. I'll need to read it again with underlining, etc.

[@brianbob7514]

I am a fan of deep analysis but also we should not forget the simple explanations. Man sees violence and injustices against his people from an ultra powerful foe, man plots revenge.

[@mcdramabear]

Great video! I’m a novice in philosophy, but here is my question: is the “murder society is founded upon”, “the scapegoat”, that is referred to in the video/essay a reference to Christianity/ Jesus? Can you give some more detail on what that specifically means?

[@millerman]

Thank you. The best thing is to look up Rene Girard on the scapegoat and you'll get his specific formulations. There's a video lecture serious by @johnathan_bi on Girard that you might find helpful as well. If I'm not mistaken, the unique accomplishment of the Gospels for Girard is that they unveil the innocence of the sacrificial victim like no pre-Christian myth ever did.

[@mcdramabear]

@@millerman thank you

[@ebad841]

Thanks for this. After the discussion on Heidegger's Black Book, this is my favorite post by you.

[@mostlynotworking4112]

Did you see Paul Vanderklays coverage of your piece?

[@millerman]

No

[@Wypipo]

You did this really well. You seem cool and funny and could probably get a lot out of not forcing the dryness.

[@vantagepointmoon]

Billionaire aside, also an interesting thinker. And quite symptomatic that when faced with the problems that push the established boundaries, he returns to both history and philosophy. It will be interesting to see how his ideas develop as he has the means not just argue and reason, but act on them and build the systems that embody those ideas. We shall see

[@lenovo7999]

He also pushes colons since he likes men

[@lenovo7999]

Or maybe he gets his pushed in I don’t know

[@lenovo7999]

Talking about homo sex

[@josepharimathea589]

"Why not *reflective* defense of the city?" ...Consider reading Guénon, among other works, his "Crisis of the Modern World", especially chapter six on the social chaos

[@tuckerbugeater]

And I bet he knows who really carried out the 9/11 attacks because he's a genius and all.

[@Johnconno]

Think he'll ever make his knowledge public? Because he's a genius and all.

[@jbsweeney1077]

Where you been Mike?! Make more videos!

[@sjuvanet]

your channel is so good dawg

[@bertclements]

Awesome discussion and essay! If one wants a well organized Good Society, it must be a hierarchical society with wise men and women at the highest echelons of the hierarchy. We do not have this today. To defend this Good Society a strong military and industrial complex must exist with the Warfighter held in the highest esteem. The ancient ideas of glory and conquest shall return. A true distinction between friend and enemy will return. The absurd liberal principles of state sovereignty, international law, and failed U.N. mechanisms for resolving conflicts will all go away. The notion that a weak state can be allowed to attack a powerful neighbor without any recourse is unsustainable.

[@foremarke]

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:00 📚 *Exploring Peter Thiel's essay "The Straussian Moment" to understand its implications for the relationship between tech founders and political philosophy.* 01:20 🌐 *Thiel's essay starts with the 9/11 attacks, questioning the foundations of the 19th and 20th-century political and military framework.* 02:47 🤔 *Thiel raises questions about deterring terrorists operating outside the norms of the liberal West and the need for security compromising freedom.* 03:42 🌍 *The aftermath of 9/11 led to a compromise favoring security over freedom, challenging the 20th-century policy debate on violence containment.* 05:35 💰 *Thiel critiques the 20th-century wealth transfer approach for economic development, questioning its effectiveness in preventing violence.* 07:51 🌐 *The essay challenges economically motivated political thought, highlighting the inadequacy of economic factors in explaining the actions of figures like Osama Bin Laden.* 08:57 🧐 *Thiel declares the essay's agenda: to suggest a reexamination of the foundations of modern politics, questioning prevalent economic interpretations.* 10:06 🤔 *Thiel emphasizes the importance of considering human nature when reevaluating the foundations of modern politics, given the prevalent economic interpretations.* 16:01 🌐 *Thiel traces the shift from the old tradition to the modern era, where questions of virtue and religion became private, leading to the birth of the modern individual.* 17:44 🔄 *The essay explores the disintegration of older traditions in the 16th and 17th centuries, leading to the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 and the privatization of questions of virtue and religion.* 21:08 💼 *John Locke's role in the modern American compromise is highlighted, with Thiel noting the replacement of questions about human nature with economics and capitalism.* 25:33 🌐 *Thiel discusses Leo Strauss's view on Christ concealing his teachings to avoid threatening civic order, drawing parallels to the gradual drift from Christian principles in the United States.* 26:51 📜 *Leo Strauss is portrayed as almost the founder of America, interpreting Christianity in a way compatible with liberalism and capitalism, offering a reform of Christian teachings.* 28:00 🤔 *In a capitalist world, Thiel explains that violent debates about truth, including religion, interfere with commerce. It's advocated to eliminate or obscure such questions for a peaceful economic order.* 29:21 🔄 *Thiel contrasts Hobbes and Strauss on the reduction of human complexity to the desire for power, emphasizing Lo's celebration of power in his essay on human understanding.* 31:25 🤷 *The awareness of ignorance about human nature, designated as the unknowable X, serves as the foundation for the stable liberal rights in the American founding according to Locke.* 35:14 💼 *Thiel highlights Locke's approach to the origins of property, downplaying the value of the state of nature and emphasizing the future creation of wealth through strong property rights enforcement.* 37:35 ⚖️ *The West forgets two boundaries: the violent acquisition of property and the division from the non-Western world. Thiel suggests that the non-Western world maintains a different worldview despite Enlightenment progress.* 38:03 🌍 *The non-Western world, having not experienced Westphalian peace, still centers questions of religion and humanity's purpose. Thiel contrasts the contrasting views of Bush and Bin Laden on the importance of religion.* 40:53 💰 *Thiel argues that Locke's theory fails to account for the violent origins of the oil industry, highlighting the significant role of crime in building fortunes and challenging Lockean generalizations.* 42:02 🧠 *In response to self-preservation, Thiel emphasizes the need for a reevaluation of Enlightenment presuppositions, suggesting a period of intellectual slumber and amnesia that needs to be awakened from.* 45:11 ⚔️ *Thiel introduces Carl Schmitt, presenting an alternative to Locke and the Enlightenment. Schmitt argues for the inevitability of political division and the necessity of recognizing enemies, contrary to Locke's emphasis on the unknowability of human nature.* 48:21 🌐 *Schmitt contends that a world state politically uniting humanity is a logical impossibility, and the distinction of friend and enemy persists as long as there are multiple states and human groupings.* 49:18 ⚖️ *Schmidt sees the permanent political division of humanity as a reflection of an eschatologically conceived state of historicity, linking political and religious aspects by forcing people to choose or reject Christ.* 49:47 🌐 *Peter Thiel discusses Carl Schmitt's political theology, emphasizing its theological foundation in concepts like Resurrection and Incarnation.* 52:22 🌍 *Thiel highlights the radical difference in how the West and Islam perceive their confrontation, with Islam seeing it as a religious duty, while the West struggles to define the civilizational war.* 53:45 🚨 *Schmidt's solution to the West's potential defeat involves affirming the political, emphasizing the importance of confronting the enemy decisively.* 54:39 💔 *Thiel introduces the dilemma: If the West adopts Schmitt's approach and mirrors Islamic zealotry, it risks losing its modern Enlightenment values, questioning the compatibility of the two.* 56:26 🤖 *Thiel explores the possibility of a global abandonment of politics, echoing Alexander Kojève's idea of the end of history leading to the disappearance of human discourse and the transformation of humanity into animals.* 59:10 🌐 *Thiel delves into Schmitt's vision of an artificial world dominated by entertainment after the end of politics, raising questions about who holds the power in such a world.* 01:01:15 🧙 *Thiel discusses Schmitt's fear of an artificial unity under the Antichrist, manipulating people with promises of peace and security, emphasizing parallels with contemporary discussions on AI governance.* 01:02:33 📖 *Thiel explains Strauss's esoteric writing style, emphasizing the difficulty of understanding his writings but highlighting Strauss's belief in an underlying truth about human nature.* 01:06:03 🤯 *Thiel discusses the benefits of Strauss's esoteric discourse, protecting philosophers from persecution, and Strauss's emphasis on the truth about human nature that can be known to humanity.* 01:10:13 🌐 *Teal suggests that Strauss offers insights beyond Enlightenment political thought, including considerations of city founding, origins, and the relation between religion and the best regime.* 01:16:29 🕊️ *Teal highlights the challenges in Strauss's middle course, where theoretical esotericism combined with practical implementation creates self-referential problems, making the unreflective defense of the city impossible.* 01:19:34 🏛️ *Teal discusses Thiel's perspective on the limitations imposed by America's constitutional machinery, preventing ambitious reconstruction, leading to political paralysis.* 01:28:29 🔄 *Teal shifts to Girard's perspective, emphasizing the shared theme of the Enlightenment whitewashing human violence and discussing Girard's insights on mimesis and imitation.* 01:37:13 🏛️ *Gerard argues that culture is intertwined with violence, and the scapegoat mechanism has been revealed in the modern world, challenging traditional archaic rituals.* 01:39:33 ☢️ *From Girard's perspective, current political debates fail to acknowledge the foundational role of violence caused by human imitation (mimesis), leading to a systematic underestimation of apocalyptic violence risks, especially with nuclear weapons.* 01:41:20 ☠️ *Both liberals and conservatives are ill-equipped to handle the evolving situation, risking a synthesis of violence and globalization where boundaries on violence are abolished, leading to unbounded apocalyptic violence, exemplified by terrorism.* 01:42:42 🌐 *Gerard sees the unveiling of the truth about human history as catastrophic, posing a challenge to the foundations of the world, with the Christian apocalypse symbolizing the end of the world.* 01:45:29 📚 *Manent criticizes Girard, suggesting that revealing the foundational violence may destroy humanity under the guise of non-violence. Girard responds that the revelation is inevitable, and events, not books, will establish the truths.* 01:48:13 🌍 *The decisive difference between Girard and Strauss is on historicism, with Girard believing the revelation is inevitable over time. The Christian statesman, unlike Strauss, must understand the impermanence of the Modern Age and make wise decisions in close cases favoring peace.* 01:51:40 ⚖️ *Christian statesmen must recognize the temporary nature of the Modern Age, balancing violence and peace judiciously, as the cumulative decisions in close instances may determine the destiny of the postmodern world.* Made with HARPA AI

[@SatSingh-mm4gg]

Locke wasn't wrong about oil then, because there wasn't an internal combustion engine?

[@stephenoverdorf4917]

Thiel is a brilliant mind and interesting person. His takes, ideas and opinions in this essay really cut to the chase. He along with Moldbug and BAP are some of my favorites. Thank you once again for your excellent work.

[@divinegon4671]

Yes, BAP and Yarvin… Jews who promote what’s good for Jews. Not surprise.

[@gmw3083]

​@@divinegon4671use juice instead. You're comment is invisible.

[@gmw3083]

Thiel is a brilliant zionist. Certainly wiser than Netanyahu...

[@AK-ru9rs]

It's okay to read homosexuals like BAP sometimes

[@edwardmclaughlin7935]

"You can't have a political theory or a model of the world that makes the election of Donald Trump impossible..." MSM "Hold my beer"

[@Avicena-tf5uj]

It could all be summed up in that last sentence of his.

[@DioscuriA85]

Thiel is a great thinker. I like his philosophy. The important question is what kind of world he wants or what does his world look like.?

[@SusnataSeal]

it looks like techno feudalism with antennas coming out of your head that connect to a bigger crucifix shaped antenna on top of the palantir headquarters

[@tuckerbugeater]

And you're not going to stop it

[@acropolisnow9466]

None of us are. @@tuckerbugeater

[@gmw3083]

It's not impossible to escape. Abandon Babylon. Of course if you're addicted to the bread and circuses that may be difficult...

[@christiansgrignoli3351]

I fear you are onto something. Hope and pray Erik weinstein or musk does. I'm curious what there relationship is now

[@SSJKamui]

The Theory of the Scapegoat closely mirrors Freuds Theory of Religion in Totem and Taboo

[@jaysphilosophy1951]

Now 20 years later.......

[@OrwellsHousecat]

If only one of the bright young dedicated thinking men could translate that esoteric to exoteric such that those who don't wish to sacrifice their lives (or don't have the requisites) to become devotees might understand the thoughts of that author without the process itself becoming shaping 9f one's lens, faculties and identity. Some may consider the process alchemy, and the failures the casualties of pursuit mere collateral damage, but others recognise that fools gold is relished as much as the real thing when the struggle to find it has been intense.

[@riccardodececco4404]

Arguing with false dychothomies, like "belief" versus "rationality", love of one´s own country and tradition versus inventiveness and development - to refer to the quotation of Pierre Manent: in the middle ages the knight prayed and worshipped in deepest devotion to Christian ideals, yet mounted his horse afterwards to go to fight... the true irrational age is the western "modernity".....

[@riccardodececco4404]

"Who is trading liberty for security, will eventually lose both..." Franklin, probably...

[@olivegrovebear]

My thoughts on Thiel have always been , he's financial gangster of the Neo liberal banker ilk , he is a talented sophist .

[@sneedle252]

Lockebros… IS IT OVER?!?

[@TheWhitehiker]

Constant moving of the arrow is distracting-- otherwise interesting.

[@ziryabjamal]

check out Prof Shadia Drury's "Leo Strauss and the American Right".

[@Johnconno]

Thiels view is predicated on the official 9/11 story, I've never believed the official 9/11 story.

[@morganp7238]

Good topics. Well done.

[@marcuscato3599]

Why is Peter Thiel talking about a "Christian Statesman". He is not a Christian. Just so bizarre.

[@SatSingh-mm4gg]

"@1:00:00, "end quote of the Schmidt." 😂 How about an audience survey of college majors?

[@cinhofilms]

What we as humans have is the inherent right to learn to bio-logically steward an ecosystem that includes our bodies; we subsequently have various bio-logical rights such as the right to available nourishment due to our digestive system, a right to an available vaccine due to our immune system, an eventual mutual right to marry a member of the opposite sex because of our reproductive system, at least in relation to complimentary organs that help each other through some nod to reproductive nature, the right to care because we have bio-logical parents. Within a social context, our formation of worded abstract pluralisable concepts depended on learning language from someone who already had judged, worded abstract pluralisable concepts which means that a judgemental desire to logically regard worded, abstract pluralisable concepts has always existed and that in beginning was the Word, the Logos through whom all things we made by His Father through a logical desire to regard, for example human nature so that the bio-logical implications of human nature are respected, through, for example the interaction of Jesus Christ, the logical Word made flesh who is now the most high King to whom we are all accountable who commands us to honour everyone which involves considering their vote of stewardship without enacting the illogical, policy of any majority. I think turning the other cheek means trying to create a space for repentance and reconciliation on earth now; that doesn't look like allowing others or ourselves be murdered; we are to encourage everyone to be offering a living bio-logical service that flourishes life on earth.

[@johncracker5217]

I am a friend of Michael Millerman

[@OrwellsHousecat]

Imitate - is Thiel justifying Transhumanism as a way to juxtaposition humanity and it's Transhumanist/AI imitation that the nature of humanity, X, might be more apparent?

[@mathquir190]

''some people are still evil (with a lot of pulsions/drives)'' I would say that they are just wild as nature is. If you can't put it it in... Let's say you have to push them to control these pulsions/drives into a way they profit to the community. These drives are essentials and existentials. They are pushing for the profit that make the community enable to sustain over time by using this profit to cope with the materialistically lowest profitable kind of the group that profit in a social, cultural way.

[@nicholasmichaelravnikar]

That bin Laden came from wealth does not refute the concerns that redistribution aimed to address - it only shows that threats to an established order may come, for other reasons, from the upper crust. This is not to say there aren’t other reasons to dispute Marx, only that the rationale presented here doesn’t track. There may be significance and intention behind that lapse.

[@huveja9799]

A rhetorical piece that commits the same sin as the Enlightenment, to be persuaded by the rhetoric of new intellectuals who try to mold the world in their image and likeness through their ideas, or rather, to project "new" images into the cave. The beauty of the good news of Christ is visible to anyone who wants to look, God came to earth and sacrificed himself for everyone, it is the foundational sacrifice that begins his kingdom, it is visible to everyone and the victim is innocent, nothing less than God. Thiel, either he doesn't have the courage to state it publicly, or he is confused in his attempt to reconcile Mammon with God, which is clearly impossible, Mammon always wins when the heart is divided ..

[@PostWokeWorld]

Please no Project Blue Beam for a one world utopia 😂

[@christiansgrignoli3351]

I expect this, or illegal immigration false flag, or emp.

[@Avicena-tf5uj]

After this essay, it probably makes sense to do. It’s the best way to pacify blind instincts and create the “kingdom of God”. This seemed obvious from the beginning. History ends by pacifying the beasts.

[@johnshaplin]

The old world is dying, the new world has yet to be born. 1:51:38

[@marcuscato3599]

Can't imagine what further ugliness and depravity they have in mind

[@berserker4940]

Not outright rejecting christianity is just Classical Age liberalism

[@Trizzer89]

Any chance Elon renamed Twitter to X in reference to this?

[@slavhondacivicsi]

I prefer life, liberty & property 22:21

[@billguschwan4112]

1:03:36 Strauss is finally introduced.

[@billguschwan4112]

1:28:16 girard

[@PostWokeWorld]

Thank you! You’re a great professor! The essay is brilliant. Your interpretation is so helpful. He must have been ruminating over this quite awhile. He and Elon both wax philosophical at their core it seems. I wonder if Elon has written any essays . Somehow I can’t imagine George Bush, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, or any recent American English or Canadian politician writing anything like this😂. I bet Putin reads philosophy though. He’s an intellectual.

[@christiansgrignoli3351]

I'm american and have respect for putin. He's fighting for his country. Elites have been trying to rob and control that country for centuries

[@plaiche]

Was this actually written in 2019? If it were 2003 maybe (and I stress maybe) it would have been somewhat relevant, but the entire foundation, like the essence of Strauss’ great man, elitist lens, is preposterous on its face. Strauss is hardly “obscure” unless you slept through the 1992-2008 and missed the multi trillion dollar debacle from PNAC, and the ensuing neoconservative reshaping of the middle east, and, for convenience, ending with the new cast brought in with Obama (which measured by countries being attacked by the US, quietly escalated high tech military adventurism substantially wherever the “wretched” and disgruntled (now universally relabeled “terrorism”) showed signs of displeasure, hunger, or other consequences of the shifts induced by the largely unilateral mobilization of an empire in decline (see Libya, Syria, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia etc), but I digress). For Thiel to frame the world based on the official 911 narrative in 2019 is uber-Straussian indeed, as it attempts to presume the world largely still believes the infantile fiction of the box cutter bandits, despite the immense scholarship that long ago annihilated every inch of this transparent false flag and the attempted installation of this next chapter in the “good guys vs bad guys” binary that Strauss and his ilk are famous for anachronistically believing was sufficient to control the wretched and their domestic, overfed, pharmaceuticalized counterparts. Its almost infantile to hear it referenced as the foundation for the present, while no doubt being true to some degree, but being at best a durable, force fed fiction (ala JFK in 63) that lingers from the force of will and discipline of intellectual gatekeepers unwilling to “go there” despite the obviousness that in the internet era, you can’t hide something so vast and absurd under a rug anymore. Even for those who might tend to uncritically accept official narratives and who will never dig deep to understand it, intuition and the absurd, self defeating nature of all that has followed, manifest in the measurable and precipitous decline in trust of governments and their collaborators in the private sector. Ignoring this is akin to ignoring a ticking time bomb in the room. With that as a foundation, I didn’t get very far. I’d learn more from a children’s story or a Hollywood movie, where at least I’ve agreed to suspend my disbelief at the onset before allowing my empirical observations to be shredded by some manipulative storytelling only worthy of any attention based on the net worth of the author in this case. Drivel (no disrespect to the earnest efforts of the professor to take this self serving, awkward, insecure buffoon seriously. Gawker rolls over in its grave).

[@tmp88]

Yeah, hes smart enough to know the truth. He just wants to justify his psychopathic vision of the future.

[@royAB3822]

Point/s

[@nuagiste]

Thrust of initial theme hollows brutally misinterpreting mass media terror derisively. Publication is not made obvious

[@drummersagainstitk]

Peter Thiel has lost his mind. "When a man stops believing in God, he then doesn't believe in nothing, he believes in anything" G.K. Chesterton.

[@Redactedlllllllllllll]

This is absolutely wrong, religion has been around for thousands of years, didn't make anything better, and it's constantly a catalyst for mass violence by their mindless "believers".

[@jaysphilosophy1951]

Did the IMF give the third world money, or did they LOAN the third world money? Finance capitalism tends to ask for that money back...

[@marcuscato3599]

Peters thesis on this is incredibly naive. He doesn't even understand what the IMF, World bank and foreign aid are.

[@JosephKelly-uj1zo]

Dude...NICE.

[@Anabsurdsuggestion]

Thiel writes like an undergraduate. This is his attempt at pseudo-washing his revolting nature. He is unsuccessful in this. Nothing can hide the problems of greed and exploitation he epitomises.

[@Godfrey544]

Marxism is obsolete :) get over it

[@VonHumboldtZg]

No older Tradition failed

[@OrwellsHousecat]

Isn't the fact that they were superceeded a proof of some kind of failure?

[@VonHumboldtZg]

@@OrwellsHousecat not if I see it right, you still have institutions of Athens at the Academia, and that of an Empire in today's elites. sad or not depends how good succesors they R...

[@sethbracken]

Yes, Machiavelli and then Locke tore down Chesterton’s Fence and the resulting mess is what has failed.

[@user-hu3iy9gz5j]

​@@sethbrackenNothing that "is" has failed

[@marcuscato3599]

@@user-hu3iy9gz5j Nothing that is, will permentately last. So should we say it is a success or failure in the moment?

[@MarsBorg]

Theaton Spieler - NeoCon Oligarch

[@billnorris8457]

Theil is brilliant and so is Millerman. But it is simply a deeper dive into the unfathomable inductive logic necessary to maintain a Liberty therefore by necessity Virtue Constitutional Republic. Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens. The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice ? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle. It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government. The rule, indeed, extends with more or less force to every species of free government. Who that is a sincere friend to it can look with indifference upon attempts to shake the foundation of the fabric? Promote then, as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened. The great debate between commercial (practical life-improving innovation Bacon) productivity and industrious civilization versus bucolic but far less energetic 'detached' and therefore 'disinterested' therefore Fair mind citizen who values Judeo-Christian justice, citizen yeoman. The balance between defending against the elite interests of the Great European Empires and maintaining Constitutionally secured God-given rights AND inculcating the duties of citizens and men. As a portion of civic virtue. Rome and all the just defensive wars of the Republic. Which unbalanced irrecoverably the Republic. The above are a few simple words that skip over the academic scholastic proofs to what should be known by common sense. The above is necessary if we are to live free and seek to correct our injustices. As a sin. Mend every error in our greatest civic songs. I view the political faction engine with rational suspicion. Neither side is ever filled with unerrant popes of virtue. But there are imperfect men as servant leaders, who touch the sublime and divine. LIncolh with the meditations of the will of God and Gettysburg Address. The necessity of hard or exhaustion tactics war in the same Methodist believer who saw the 'contraband' camp could therefore should-be an engine for black people to become full and equal virtuous citizens. The necessary answer is the Christian transhumanism of Paul before the Greeks. The progressive project has always rested on a foundation of disdain for the common man. Dressed up in any fig leaf, it is simply the old will-to-power of Hume or more closely Nietzsche. As we witness today. The Lessica Tarloof zombie whispers do not believe their Democrat daily Berney talking points. But they carry it out to maintain their elite lifestyle and social position. There are even terrible examples like Juan Williams who seems to have lost all agency and reads the mental control messaging as a sort of emotional holy text. It is not sexist to state the directly observed obvious. Single childless and lonely, especially older, women are most easily manipulated. Something the progressive NAZI did not miss, either. NOt all of course. BUt enough to potentially to bring down our Constitutional system. Fittingly and terribly in the demand abortion of babies, even theirs, should have or can have no ethical constraint. What the Henhouse COven View does. All it does. Boil Boil Toil and trouble. Which sadly does explain the disablement of the powerful and successful American Black culture from Booker T to Double Victory periods. My experience with my American Black brothers is actually a generally higher level of personal virtue. But reflexively protect the virtueless in the progressive forged ghettos. Then lament ordinary greedy people with black faces are not the great and imperfect yet always striving to be better Judeo-Christain leaders like Lincoln, Grant, Douglas, or Booker T. Especially those self evidently corrupted by the progressive materialism and rings of power. The terribly sad case of the unrecovered Mr. Libertarian No Chest Jones is a common model. He already passed 30 and still has not gone to gain healthy enlightenment from the Hillsdale wizards! Nor does he take the logical action of full out supporting and sustaining proven men like Jim Brown, Honorable Woodson. Ian Rowe, Pastor Brooks or even Wiley Glenn..... Once again rebuilding the civic virtue intermediation associations and institutions. Even as MadWho realizes the most aware men could not have stopped the vainglorious materialist hedinonist bi-racial Obama from sadly becoming our President. It is rather as it always is, what must we do from here. The logical answer is a mulligan as we are all imperfect and Obama had no attachment to the durable and strong American Black culture. It is not the pigment, it is the ethics or sand in the man. There is no contradiction in placing Dr. Carson and Jim Brown side by side. (Wizard Glenn is still in the French section but repenting his way out) Brilliant Thiel has his necessary answer in Lockeian forms. Liberty is not and can not be a self-absorbed civic license in the social contract of free men. This is exactly why the current crop of progressives empowers the orcs and golems. We empirically or by experience know what 'forms' most benefit the people. Which is why the progressives obscure truth in their emotionalism. Especially manipulating understandable hurt as the active mechanism of social/mental control. Poor Theil and MIllerman got MadWho thinking so public babbling. Who is not responsible due to madness. Better still, only no one has to read the resulting random meditation babble.

[@cpp2300]

peter thiel'shomosexuality speaks loudly through his writing ...!

[@anhumblemessengerofthelawo3858]

General Geoege Patton 2024

[@Paul-talk]

Thiel has bitten off more than he can chew philosphically, but his objective isn't philosophical. This piece of writing is intellectual cover for unavouable intentions - hiding them first from himself, and then from his partners in crime. Thiel is a modern Alcebiades eager to live ambitions that reduce others to instruments. Speaking of Gerard's narrow and nasty notions in the same breath as Strauss is not good. What this comes down to is a psudo-philoesophical screen for what amounts to a great reset. The disgusting business of slyly using Strauss to justify a post-modern tyranny should be fought, not treated with respect. Thiel seems as bad as Dugin.

[@tmp88]

☝🏿 someone gets it. Surely an IQ above 120.

[@Redactedlllllllllllll]

Humans have been instruments of the powerful, long before this guy.

[@GilesMcRiker]

I don't think Leo Strauss is that obscure

[@jeremykrak]

This content isn’t for me

[@millerman]

And yet here you are

[@jeremykrak]

Nah i left this right before i logged off@@millerman

[@carlyellison8498]

More for me!

[@emZee1994]

I never knew Thiel was so based

[@divinegon4671]

You’re a fool

[@sr-gc6vh]

Peter Thiel, one of the worst human beings alive and cynical to boot. An enemy of Humanity.

[@gmw3083]

1:13:43 this is where Thiel exposes his zionist roots...

[@remnantoftheeye5580]

The whole piece seems quite lame.

[@ccchhris]

“Human-nature”, is basically an oxymoron, humans live in society, not nature, but humans come from nature, but are overcoming nature in society. Humans are not “rational” economic _individual_ capitalist actors (haha), but are interpolated socially. Isolated “man in nature” is bourgeois ideology. Isn't the whole point of philosophy not to obfuscate, but to understand, very nice though, I never thought of the “unknowability” of “true natures” justifying free-man’s prostitution, drugs, poverty, etc. In capitalism, poverty is criminalized (crime against private-property) while the rich are the real criminals (Osama CIA asset terrorism, see how he was funded by the CIA to fight the soviets in Afghanistan, so typical, the west tries to manufacture its own enemies because it has no _raison d’être._ ), but that doesn’t mean everyone should just be poor. It seems then, Osama was just responding to NATO imperialism, ultimately economic, the “religious wars” then just being economic wars.

[@x0rn312]

I see you completely missed the point

[@lkae4]

No. Bin Laden was practicing Islam according to Qur'an, hadith and Shari'a. Marx was a deadbeat and a racist amongst the elite. Is that right?

[@divinegon4671]

@@x0rn312even if he did, I enjoyed reading it.

[@tuckerbugeater]

Yeah and who built the dam that made it so the Taliban came to power period who backed Israel that caused OPEC to boycott the United States and then the United States to make a deal with Saudi Arabia to create the petrodollar that made the Saudi Prince's super rich so they could fund Jihad and who created the Iranian Revolution and then funded the Taliban fighting the Soviet Union

[@gmw3083]

​@@tuckerbugeatermy guess is the American superVæmpire, but it's biting the dust....

[@lenovo7999]

Peter thiel is a preeminent homosexual thinker and Republican business owner.