At first look, Marc Andreessen would seem to have all types of contradictory beliefs. From a distance, the enterprise capitalist spouts your standard brand of right-wing libertarianism, however he’s additionally someway a huge fan of the Pentagon. He’s a big 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 amount of money lobbying that very same authorities.
Whereas Andreessen could also be all over ideologically, whenever you burrow all the way down to his core beliefs they appear fairly easy. He’s an enormous fan of energy. That’s energy for sure individuals—i.e., individuals like him. Wealthy individuals, in different phrases. I used to contemplate Andreessen to be one thing of a buffoon—a man who has been so wealthy for therefore lengthy that it’s successfully addled his mind. His love of investing in bad ideas had me satisfied of this. Now, nevertheless, I believe a extra apt descriptor is perhaps “maniac.” He looks like a zealous believer in something that helps maintain or improve the American elite’s energy accumulation, all different issues be damned.
A recent Forbes story about Andreessen Horowitz’s comparatively new American Dynamism fund, which is populated by protection startups, sheds some recent mild on this. Once more, you’d assume for somebody who has ceaselessly railed in opposition to big government, feeding the American Warfare Machine is perhaps a bit taboo. However, no, he appears completely nice with it. The story focuses on the “Gundo Bros,” a gaggle of patriotic software program builders hooked up to protection startups which might be endorsed by a16z. Mentioned “bros” sound like they largely take their cues from Eighties motion motion pictures:
They pump iron whereas they code, host weekly bonfires on the seaside, and shotgun power 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 Effective 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 website, a storied timeline lays declare to a bunch of spectacular historic occasions—the Wright brothers’ first flight, the invention of the transistor, the Manhattan Challenge, 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 US ahead. This highly effective pressure is exemplified by groundbreaking achievements in know-how and innovation, shaping each our nation and the worldwide panorama,” the positioning says. A web site customer studying by this rubbish is perhaps distracted sufficient to overlook that the fund is promoting a host of private defense, surveillance, and weapons contractors who will hoard breakthroughs for themselves.
Considered 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 have 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 just a little little bit of Patrick Bateman rhetoric thrown in.
Given his cartoonishly rich-douche outlook on life, it is sensible 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 personal essay by the writer Rick Perlstein final week that appears to offer additional proof of Andreessen’s hopelessly elitist outlook.
In line with Perlstein, he was invited to what seems like a very unbearable social gathering at one among Andreessen’s multi-million greenback mansions again in 2017. Throughout this occasion, amidst bouts of annoying pseudo-intellectual ramblings by the dinner members that have been current, Andreessen is alleged to have stated one thing really dick-ish about rural Individuals. Right here’s that change as Perlstein relates it:
I introduced up the peculiar comforts of kinship, friendship, craft, reminiscence, legend, lore, abilities handed down throughout generations, and different advantages that small cities present: issues that make human beings human beings. I identified that there have to be one thing within the type of locations he grew up in price preserving. I dared enterprise that it’s all the time price mourning when a venerable human group passes from the Earth; that perhaps individuals are extra than simply figures discovering their correct worth on the stability sheet of life …
And that’s when the person within the fort with the seven fireplaces stated it.
“I’m glad there’s OxyContin and video video games to maintain these individuals quiet.”
Or one thing like that. Perlstein equivocates just a little 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 have been his actual phrases. Marc, if you happen to’re studying, be at liberty to get in contact and refresh my reminiscence. Possibly he stated “quiescent,” or “docile,” or perhaps “powerless.” One thing, definitely, alongside these traces.
Nonetheless, it seems 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 stated through the years is that the American center class was an “accident of history,” that the American center class “is a delusion” 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 said: “I’m not saying we should always have sweatshops within the US and I’m not saying we should not have any environmental rules, however it’s tougher to do enterprise in most states within the US than it’s to do enterprise in a whole lot of locations all over the world.”
If the American center class was an accident, and rules are dangerous for enterprise, and one of the best factor that rural Individuals can do is take painkillers and play video video games, however the American struggle 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 if you happen to aren’t as enthusiastic about it as he’s.
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