At first look, Marc Andreessen would seem to have all kinds of contradictory beliefs. From a distance, the enterprise capitalist spouts your customary model of right-wing libertarianism, however he’s additionally by some means a big fan of the Pentagon. He’s a large fan of “America” however doesn’t appear to love most Individuals very a lot. His VC agency, Andreessen Horowitz, has claimed that the U.S. authorities is being strangled by particular pursuits and lobbying however, final yr, he spent an ungodly sum of money lobbying that very same authorities.
Whereas Andreessen could also be far and wide ideologically, while you burrow right down to his core beliefs they appear fairly easy. He’s a giant fan of energy. That’s energy for sure individuals—i.e., individuals like him. Wealthy individuals, in different phrases. I used to think about Andreessen to be one thing of a buffoon—a man who has been so wealthy for thus lengthy that it’s successfully addled his mind. His love of investing in dangerous concepts had me satisfied of this. Now, nevertheless, I believe a extra apt descriptor is perhaps “maniac.” He looks as if a zealous believer in something that helps maintain or improve the American elite’s energy accumulation, all different issues be damned.
A current Forbes story about Andreessen Horowitz’s comparatively new American Dynamism fund, which is populated by protection startups, sheds some contemporary gentle on this. Once more, you’ll assume for somebody who has ceaselessly railed towards large authorities, feeding the American Struggle Machine is perhaps a bit taboo. However, no, he appears completely tremendous with it. The story focuses on the “Gundo Bros,” a gaggle of patriotic software program builders connected to protection startups which can be endorsed by a16z. Mentioned “bros” sound like they principally take their cues from Nineteen Eighties motion motion pictures:
They pump iron whereas they code, host weekly bonfires on the seashore, and shotgun vitality drinks. They’re calling for a return to America’s hardware-building roots in El Segundo, the place pioneers like Jack Northrop and Allan Lockheed constructed the pillars of America’s arsenal. And so they embrace Efficient Accelerationism, a philosophy that requires know-how to advance regardless of the fee (and which counts Andreessen as its poster endorser).
A16z’s American Dynamism fund is undeniably humorous at first look. On its web site, a storied timeline lays declare to a number of spectacular historic occasions—the Wright brothers’ first flight, the invention of the transistor, the Manhattan Mission, the moon touchdown—and frames all of them as a part of the American Dynamism “motion,” as if A16z had one thing to do with any of that stuff. “American Dynamism embodies the spirit of innovation, progress, and resilience that drives the USA ahead. This highly effective power is exemplified by groundbreaking achievements in know-how and innovation, shaping each our nation and the worldwide panorama,” the location says. A web site customer studying by way of this rubbish is perhaps distracted sufficient to overlook that the fund is selling a number of personal protection, surveillance, and weapons contractors who will hoard breakthroughs for themselves.
Seen in its totality, Andreessen’s pursuits have a sure, chaotic uniformity. The perspective appears to be: throw something on the wall, as long as it accelerates your cash and energy—deregulation, technological disruption, berzerk AI, missiles and bombs—it’s all great things! Some tenets of Andreessen’s perception system had been laid naked final yr in his “Techno-Optimist’s Manifesto,” which he printed on his enterprise capital agency’s weblog. Mentioned “manifesto” is mainly a spastic apology for company greed and wealth accumulation by a technocratic elite. It reads like some bizarre combination of Gordon Gekko and Steve Jobs’ keynote speeches with a bit of little bit of Patrick Bateman rhetoric thrown in.
Given his cartoonishly rich-douche outlook on life, it is smart that Andreessen wouldn’t assume fondly of the segments of society that don’t conform to his ubermensch-style aspirations. That’s to say, The American Prospect printed a private essay by the writer Rick Perlstein final week that appears to supply additional proof of Andreessen’s hopelessly elitist outlook.
Based on Perlstein, he was invited to what appears like a very unbearable get together at considered one of Andreessen’s multi-million greenback mansions again in 2017. Throughout this occasion, amidst bouts of annoying pseudo-intellectual ramblings by the dinner contributors that had been current, Andreessen is alleged to have mentioned one thing actually dick-ish about rural Individuals. Right here’s that change as Perlstein relates it:
I introduced up the unusual comforts of kinship, friendship, craft, reminiscence, legend, lore, expertise handed down throughout generations, and different advantages that small cities present: issues that make human beings human beings. I identified that there should be one thing within the form of locations he grew up in price preserving. I dared enterprise that it’s at all times price mourning when a venerable human neighborhood passes from the Earth; that possibly individuals are extra than simply figures discovering their correct worth on the steadiness sheet of life …
And that’s when the person within the fortress with the seven fireplaces mentioned it.
“I’m glad there’s OxyContin and video video games to maintain these individuals quiet.”
Or one thing like that. Perlstein equivocates a bit of bit on the precise wording that Andreessen used, claiming:
I’m taking the freedom of placing it in citation marks, although I can’t ensure these had been his precise phrases. Marc, for those who’re studying, be at liberty to get in contact and refresh my reminiscence. Perhaps he mentioned “quiescent,” or “docile,” or possibly “powerless.” One thing, definitely, alongside these traces.
Nonetheless, it appears like one thing he would say.
From what I can glean from his earlier feedback, Andreessen doesn’t have a lot fondness for anybody who doesn’t have an enormous checking account. Among the many charming issues he’s reportedly mentioned through the years is that the American center class was an “accident of historical past,” that the American center class “is a fantasy” and/or an “artifact” and that it was an “experiment [that] has been run and it was a catastrophic failure.” One other enjoyable factor Andreessen has mentioned: “I’m not saying we should always have sweatshops within the US and I’m not saying we shouldn’t have any environmental rules, however it’s more durable to do enterprise in most states within the US than it’s to do enterprise in quite a lot of locations around the globe.”
If the American center class was an accident, and rules are dangerous for enterprise, and the perfect factor that rural Individuals can do is take painkillers and play video video games, however the American warfare machine is completely superior…it appears like you’ll be able to draw a reasonably clear image of what Andreessen thinks concerning the majority of Individuals and the place he thinks our nation ought to go. You’d be forgiven for those who aren’t as enthusiastic about it as he’s.
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