# How people politically confront the Modern Eldritch

Recently, I wrote about [the Eldritch in the 21st century](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/kbezWvZsMos6TSyfj/the-eldritch-in-the-21st-century). In there, I made the case that *cosmic horror* is the major theme of the modern condition.

We are dominated by super-structures, Eldritch Deities, that we neither understand nor control.

**𝕄𝕒𝕣𝕜𝕖𝕥𝕤, 𝔾𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕟𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕤, 𝕀𝕕𝕖𝕠𝕝𝕠𝕘𝕚𝕖𝕤, 𝕊𝕠𝕔𝕚𝕒𝕝 𝕄𝕖𝕕𝕚𝕒**. They all dominate our lives, with little we can do about them, despite us having built them in the first place.

While we give them names, we understand very little of them. What understanding of their **𝔾𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕟𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥** does the average citizen have? Almost none, it’s a completely Eldritch Entity that takes, binds, rules, and sometimes gives.[1](https://cognition.cafe/p/how-people-politically-confront-the#footnote-1-173230783)

—

Most feel that this is dreadfully wrong. Some even feel that we are losing ground to the Eldritch.

Sadly, people are bad at *living* with this feeling. With [The Absurd](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absurdism). With the felt sense that most of existence is meaningless, because we are at the mercy of circumstances far beyond our control.

**All modern movements must come up with a satisfying answer, lest they be outcompeted**.

**What can we meaningfully do in a world ruled by The Eldritch**?

In this essay, I want to show a couple of bad ways in which modern movements answer this crucial question.

I believe their answers to the Eldritch are representative of a large part of the psychology that underpins these movements.

(Of course, political movements are partly intellectual, and offer some depth of thought. However, this essay is *specifically* not about addressing their intellectual points. It is only about how their answer to The Eldritch drives many of their talking points *regardless of their intellectual content*.)

FIGHT
=====

A common answer is **FIGHT**. **FIGHT** says that all problems come from some Modern Eldritch Deity, and that we should fight it.

![Sweet man-made horrors beyond my comprehension. : r/blackmirror](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!DpMm!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffabb3d30-0393-4cd0-96c2-3df4981a1b47_640x484.jpeg)

FIGHT’s favourite cynical meme.

**FIGHT** is very confused.

**FIGHT** doesn’t address why we conjured the specific Deity they want to tear down. There’s a reason why we built Media, States, Markets and all the like. Even though they introduce problems, destroying them wholesale is not viable.

**FIGHT** misses that a world free of some specific Modern Eldritch Deity is *not* a free world. It is just a world dominated by other Modern Eldritch Deities, Traditional Eldritch Deities or Natural Eldritch Deities.

Nonetheless, **FIGHT** does one thing well. It catalyses confusion and fear into action. The sad part is that these actions are usually unusually destructive.

The [Reactionary](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionary) Answer: FIGHT **M̷̤̆͝Ō̵̻͘D̴̛̩̕͜Ë̶̟Ŗ̴͇́N̸̯͐͂Ȉ̷̱̘T̷̡̏Ÿ̴̼̫́̚**
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A popular **FIGHT** answer is [reactionism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactionary). There are many flavours of reactionism, from old-school religious extremism to the more modern NRx matters.

**And yet, the reactionary answer is always a variant of “Reject M̷̤̆͝Ō̵̻͘D̴̛̩̕͜Ë̶̟Ŗ̴͇́N̸̯͐͂Ȉ̷̱̘T̷̡̏Ÿ̴̼̫́̚, RETVRN to Tradition**.**”**

Their core idea is that the modern world is too complex, full of the Eldritch. Things were simpler in the past, which made them better. Thus, we should go back to the past.

This wish is naive in the obvious ways.

People died much more and lived materially much worse lives in the past.

People were much less free, they were enslaved to *𝕋𝕙𝕖 ℂ𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕦𝕟𝕚𝕥𝕪* in a way that civilised people nowadays would rightly regard as tribal.

“Tradition” is a fantasy. There have always been many different traditions, very often fustigated for their novelty when introduced, with people killing each other over the differences.

Reactionism is an [Obscurantist](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obscurantism) project. It cherry-picks and rewrites history, and it is squarely anti-future.

And yet, it is a natural *reaction* to the Eldritch.

—

The reactionary writer [Zero HP Lovecraft](https://substack.com/@0x49fa98) labelled himself a horrorist, and continued the horrorist tradition in the same terms. He wrote several short novels specifically framing the Modern Condition in Eldritch terms.

**In the same vein, a major political commentator used horrorist imagery in 2009. Moldbug, the originator of the NRx movement**.

**He** [**wrote in 2009**](https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2009/01/gentle-introduction-to-unqualified/) **the infamous punchline: “𝐂𝐭𝐡𝐮𝐥𝐡𝐮 may swim slowly. But he only swims left**.**”**

![Zero HP Lovecraft | Substack](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!SnOY!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ffacb85d5-cf6f-4810-88e9-750208d689e3_329x329.jpeg)

Zero HP Lovecraft’s Picture

Indeed, in the last 100 years, we have collectively become more left-wing. Taxes and redistribution increased a lot, and egalitarianism made great strides: we ended the legal inequalities between races, sexes, and sexual orientation.

This may have seemed like a sign of our societies growing wiser. That as we got more educated, we got wiser and thus more left-wing. **To many, it seemed like the political equations were simple: “LEFT = PROGRESS = GOOD” and “RIGHT = SUPERSTITION = BAD”.**

However, the speed at which people got seduced and crushed by Wokeism crushed that hope. Wokeism was obscurantist through and through, completely opposed to wisdom. It invited and celebrated the silencing of its political opponents, creating the now infamous [Cancel Culture](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancel_culture). Wokeism censored not only *scientific results* that it disagreed with, but even *research* into topics that it deemed improper, the most notorious being any research using IQ as a measurement tool. It penetrated all spheres of public life, including universities, [corporate advertising](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_capitalism) and [cinema](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LGBTQ-related_films_by_year).

As a result, many grew fearful of T̷͉͂H̸̱͒͝É̸͇̒ ̴̧̅L̴͈̯̅̚Ë̵͉͗F̷͔̿͘T̸̬̃̚,. They projected all of their fears onto it. **And they adopted the same worldview as the Wokeists! “Everyone is either leftist or rightist, and the only goal is to gain power.”**

**This led to the equally stupid, reactionary version of the political equations: “M̶̤͝O̵̪̭͘͝D̵̫͎̀Ę̵̩̽R̴̫̜͗N̸̯͑̈́Į̷̍T̴̜́̚Y̶̙͝ = L̴͈̯̅̚Ë̵͉͗F̷͔̿͘T̸̬̃̚ = BAD”, “NOT MODERNITY = RIGHT = GOOD”**.

![Amazon.com: Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft: The Original Classic – A  Haunting Tale of Unknown Horror: 9781917067720: Lovecraft, Howard Phillips:  Books](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!oClR!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fcb94ec9d-e5b1-437b-b93f-cf586a4dfa03_625x1000.jpeg)

T̷͉͂H̸̱͒͝É̸͇̒ ̴̧̅L̴͈̯̅̚Ë̵͉͗F̷͔̿͘T̸̬̃̚, according to many reactionaries.

The Communist Answer: FIGHT C̵̘̃Ä̸̹́Ṕ̴̤̯̔I̸̢̦̋͝Ṯ̶̅͋Ȧ̸̞͍̉L̴͕̦̋Ḭ̵̩̃̎S̴͒ͅM̷̬̑
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The left-wing variant of the **FIGHT** answer is Communism. Communism is very old, and is split into many different factions.

But the core tenet across all the factions, is to a large extent: **“Everything is bad because of C̵̘̃Ä̸̹́Ṕ̴̤̯̔I̸̢̦̋͝Ṯ̶̅͋Ȧ̸̞͍̉L̴͕̦̋Ḭ̵̩̃̎S̴͒ͅM̷̬̑., so we must FIGHT it.”**

Basically, C̵̘̃Ä̸̹́Ṕ̴̤̯̔I̸̢̦̋͝Ṯ̶̅͋Ȧ̸̞͍̉L̴͕̦̋Ḭ̵̩̃̎S̴͒ͅM̷̬̑ is the Eldritch Deity that is responsible for all the ailments that we face today.

—

Given how big communism is nowadays, I think it’s worth exploring more its key theme, namely, ***alienation***. [Marx wrote a lot about it](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marx%27s_theory_of_alienation).

In the past, people grew crops to subsist, and built things to use or trade directly. With the industrial revolution and factory work, this direct connection to the output of one’s work got severed.

**In capitalism, both the factory worker** ***and*** **the factory are fungible**.

The worker is an alien in his workplace, he doesn’t know (nor care!) about what his work is doing. He will never see nor sell the final output. He has no stake in making things go well.

If he puts care into his work, there’s no reward, no share of the profits. There’s no carrot. Only a stick, only a boot. 0 upside and unlimited downsides. The incentives are to do as little as one can get away with.

This feels terrible to people, who naturally want to feel productive and helpful to others.

**In a capitalist system, everything is like this. Everyone becomes alienated from everything.** People do not trade and barter goods they care about, they buy and sell in cash. Founders do not start projects of public utility, only ventures and startups. Government officials do not help citizens, they provide standardised services that one can easily put a price on. Non-profits sell out to get more money.

Everything becomes fungible and commoditised, even human relationships.

There’s only one thing that is made easy to get and use in a capitalist society, and it’s money. Everything else becomes of secondary importance.

—

Alienation feels very close to the Eldritch. C̵̘̃Ä̸̹́Ṕ̴̤̯̔I̸̢̦̋͝Ṯ̶̅͋Ȧ̸̞͍̉L̴͕̦̋Ḭ̵̩̃̎S̴͒ͅM̷̬̑ is the ur-Eldritch entity that has power over everyone.

Thus, it’s not surprising that the gap was bridged with Ginsberg’s poem named [Howl](https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49303/howl), and [the later meditations on it](https://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/30/meditations-on-moloch/) from Scott Alexander. In which, C̵̘̃Ä̸̹́Ṕ̴̤̯̔I̸̢̦̋͝Ṯ̶̅͋Ȧ̸̞͍̉L̴͕̦̋Ḭ̵̩̃̎S̴͒ͅM̷̬̑ is embodied in the Torahic [M̸̧͎̒Ȏ̷̜̭L̴͕̘̿O̵͓̐͂C̵̯̬̈͝H̸̠͙̄](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moloch), the Eldritch Deity that constantly demands sacrifices from humans.[2](https://cognition.cafe/p/how-people-politically-confront-the#footnote-2-173230783)

> Moloch! Solitude! Filth! Ugliness! Ashcans and unobtainable dollars! Children screaming under the stairways! Boys sobbing in armies! Old men weeping in the parks!
> 
> Moloch! Moloch! Nightmare of Moloch! Moloch the loveless! Mental Moloch! Moloch the heavy judger of men!
> 
> Moloch the incomprehensible prison! Moloch the crossbone soulless jailhouse and Congress of sorrows! Moloch whose buildings are judgment! Moloch the vast stone of war! Moloch the stunned governments!
> 
> Moloch whose mind is pure machinery! Moloch whose blood is running money! Moloch whose fingers are ten armies! Moloch whose breast is a cannibal dynamo! Moloch whose ear is a smoking tomb!

![undefined](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!QRkt!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_lossy/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa9072b08-3303-4697-acae-f1e74f0191c0_319x561.gif)

Imagine, if you will, that Capitalism was a deity that demanded sacrifices.

ᴄᴛʜᴜʟʜᴜ is the Big Bad Guy of reactionaries. **But the Big Bad Guy of communists is** [**🅼🅾🅻🅾🅲🅷**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howl_(poem)#Part_II_2)**, the Eldritch embodiment of the industrial civilisation and the capitalist system.**

Communists believe that by setting up a global prisoner’s dilemma where everyone is incentivised to be as bad and competitive as possible, Ć̴͓̲̚A̸̲͇͝P̴̭̪̂͋I̴̺̗͐T̴̺͗ͅẠ̶̍͝L̷͈̈́Ǐ̷̡͕S̵̫̾M̴̫̯̓ is naturally self-defeating. This is what they call “[the inherent contradictions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crisis_theory#Application) of Ć̴͓̲̚A̸̲͇͝P̴̭̪̂͋I̴̺̗͐T̴̺͗ͅẠ̶̍͝L̷͈̈́Ǐ̷̡͕S̵̫̾M̴̫̯̓.”

Their answer is mindless **FIGHT**. We should accelerate all of the prisoner’s dilemma, create as much class conflict as possible, fight all the agents of Ć̴͓̲̚A̸̲͇͝P̴̭̪̂͋I̴̺̗͐T̴̺͗ͅẠ̶̍͝L̷͈̈́Ǐ̷̡͕S̵̫̾M̴̫̯̓ and usher in The Great Revolution.

The mindless **FIGHT** is again thoroughly naive.

There’s no standard proposal for how a small region could ditch markets and move to a non-market based economy.

This is dehumanisation at scale, where disagreement is taken as evidence of being an agent of Ć̴͓̲̚A̸̲͇͝P̴̭̪̂͋I̴̺̗͐T̴̺͗ͅẠ̶̍͝L̷͈̈́Ǐ̷̡͕S̵̫̾M̴̫̯̓.

Communist revolutions have reliably ended in disasters.

Accelerationism in general is just a terrible idea. Making things worse so that they get better in the end just makes them worse.

—

More generally, governance and managing an economy are very hard problems.

We are very far from being able to solve them in one go.

**This means that whatever governance and economic systems we adopt, they must intrinsically be compatible with experimentation and iteration**.

And communist revolutions do not tend to be that.

The Anarchist Answer: FIGHT The S̸̈́ͅT̶̩͕͐Å̴̭̕Ṭ̴̾͘E̵͔̿̚
--------------------------------------------------------

At this point in the post, it should be easy to understand the anarchist FIGHT answer.

The anarchists may be left-wing anarcho-communists and libertarian anarcho-capitalists, but they are quite similar.

Everything bad comes from The S̸̈́ͅT̶̩͕͐Å̴̭̕Ṭ̴̾͘E̵͔̿̚. The S̸̈́ͅT̶̩͕͐Å̴̭̕Ṭ̴̾͘E̵͔̿̚ prevents the natural flow of human relationships, whether that flow is understood to be markets or peaceful harmony.

**FIGHT** is, one more time, naive.

The stateless state, [the state of nature](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_nature), is a terrible place.

[Failed states](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Failed_state) are terrible places.

When a state disappears, it exceedingly rarely leads to an improvement of its ex-citizens’ lives.

—

And yet, [some libertarians bite the bullet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFUmWho7fBE&t=1125s)!

**They say that “In Somalia you have a chance, in America you do not”** because of the “instinct to dominate of the G̶͔̯͑O̷̤͛͆V̴̘̊͊Ȩ̷̨͌̈́R̶̲̲̈Ǹ̶̪̣̇M̸̘̬̏E̴̜̐̀N̷̝̎͐T̴͚̹̄”, and that the only reason why they do not migrate to Somalia is that “\[they are\] just not that strong.”

I consider this lunacy.

SURRENDER
=========

For all I criticise it, to some extent, I relate to the **FIGHT** answer.

When I feel constrained, I want to break the chains. Even if I am just [a rat in a cage](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8BjKQkym8w&list=RDK8BjKQkym8w&start_radio=1), I prefer **FIGHTING** over doing nothing.

When things are bad, it feels natural to me to want to *change* them.

—

But there’s a thing that I truly do not relate to.

It is **SURRENDER**.

When **SURRENDER** confronts the Eldritch fauna, **SURRENDER** says that one should pick an Eldritch Entity that resonates with them and surrender to it. Then, that Eldritch Entity will take care of everything.

When I was young, several people literally tried to make their religion appealing to me with a **SURRENDER** argument. The logic was:

*   The world is not fully understandable by humans. Science does not have all the answers.
*   We are at the mercy of many circumstances beyond our control.
*   If we accept that G̷͔͊O̵̡̊D̶̟̈́̾ is in control, knows what’s best, and **SURRENDER**, then everything will be much more bearable.

Even as a child, this logic felt deeply wrong.

**My mind is my temple. It is sacred, and I will not defile it with lies of convenience**.

And yet, here they were, with a cavalier attitude, casually talking about deciding their metaphysics on what felt good in the moment.

—

Enough on this though, let’s go back to how **SURRENDER** manifests.

For the reasons above, the quality of this section will be much lower than the one above. I spent much more time with **FIGHT** people than **SURRENDER** people and I naturally feel more inclination towards **FIGHT**.

So, expect my ability to pass an [Ideological Turing Test](https://ituringtest.com/), to comprehend someone who **SURRENDER**s, to be worse here.

The Naturalist Answer: SURRENDER to 𝒢𝒜𝐼𝒜
--------------------------------------------

There are many different *naturalists*. The most common ones nowadays are The Greens. But I have met many non-Greens naturalists: New Age people who feel Energy, as well as more rural farmer types.

The common thread is a belief that ＮＡＴＵＲＥ knows best. Quite a few seriously call it ＭＯＴＨＥＲ ＥＡＲＴＨ, and I have heard ＧＡＩＡ in real life.

A large chunk of their belief systems is basically [an appeal to nature](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature). Nature is good, nature is beautiful, nature should be preserved, etc.

I think to **SURRENDER** to 𝒢𝒜𝐼𝒜 is especially naive.

𝒢𝒜𝐼𝒜 was the original Eldritch Deity that we had to grapple with! Our ancestors did their best to survive 𝒢𝒜𝐼𝒜’s constant assaults.

The only reason people can afford to romanticise it is that in the whole Eldritch Pantheon, 𝒢𝒜𝐼𝒜 is the closest one that we got to defeating.

While it might still have control over the oceans, the depths of the Earth, and some particularly inhospitable deserts, we’ve conquered basically almost all of the land territories.

—

While I am sure that we could benefit from listening to 𝒢𝒜𝐼𝒜 in some ways, my immediate reaction is “How about no?”

On the altar of 𝒢𝒜𝐼𝒜, we sacrificed GMOs, nuclear energy, and now artificial meat.

Even on climate change, where one might expect people who defer to 𝒢𝒜𝐼𝒜 to have something to contribute, blind faith makes them counterproductive.

For an emblematic example: Greenpeace and +600 groups, in a letter addressed to Congress, wrote in January 2019:

> **Further, we will vigorously oppose any legislation that: \[…\] (3) promotes corporate schemes \[like\] market-based mechanisms and technology options such as carbon and emissions trading and offsets, carbon capture and storage, nuclear power, waste-to-energy and biomass energy**.

In general, I tend to think that we need less 𝒢𝒜𝐼𝒜 in our collective thinking, not more.

![The Hand of Mother Earth | A beautiful display combining wat… | Flickr](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!cvjm!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F7a67b06c-9e89-4850-973a-410bd7fea94d_1024x680.jpeg)

Strong aesthetics. Terrible politics.

—

Even worse, many of 𝒢𝒜𝐼𝒜’s servants are explicitly anti-human.

I have heard people celebrate 𝒢𝒜𝐼𝒜’s “revenge” when speaking of climate change. I have met a few people who believe that we are past our “[carrying capacity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrying_capacity)”, that we should have fewer people, that people have too many children, and that this is part of why [degrowth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degrowth) is important.

I have heard people celebrate useless regulations because it bothers people and forces them to be aware of 𝒢𝒜𝐼𝒜.

They want to block any solution that would let people live their lives conveniently. The point of forcing them to not use AC, to use unpleasant straws, to recycle, is specifically to be inconvenient enough to count as a sacrifice that makes the issue more salient.

This is in large part why they want to block technological solutions, market-based mechanisms, and enforce degrowth. The latter is the only one that signals subservience to 𝒢𝒜𝐼𝒜 and that we’re humbling ourselves.

—

It’s hard to express how much I despise this way of thinking.

When I’m compassionate, I see **FIGHT** as misdirected energy. Humans who want to rebel against the Eldritch and take back control, but who don’t know how.

When I’m mean, I see **FIGHT** as a self-righteous outlet for people who want to hate others and destroy things. And I get it. Like most people, I also feel some violent impulses. I just practise combat sports and play Counter Strike instead.

When I’m compassionate, I see **SURRENDER** as the hope for a legible Good that one may pray to. Humans who want peace, to not have to constantly fight and finally rest.

But when I’m mean, I see **SURRENDER** as much worse than a self-righteous **FIGHT**. I see it as *perverse*. It is finding joy in replacing humanity with an Eldritch Deity that doesn’t care for us.

SURRENDER TO 𝒯𝐸𝒞𝐻𝒩𝒪-𝒞𝒜𝒫𝐼𝒯𝒜𝐿
----------------------------------------

There is a vision of the world in which there’s basically only one thing that made the world better.

Not establishing a prosocial culture that values freedom, work, equality and civilisation.

Not the whole humanism thing during the age of the enlightenment.

Not building constitutional republics.

Not the great strides in democratic socialism, providing security and education for all, as opposed to only the rich.

**Nope. In this view, the only thing that made and makes things better was 𝒯𝐸𝒞𝐻𝒩𝒪-𝒞𝒜𝒫𝐼𝒯𝒜𝐿. We must SURRENDER to it**.

To the extent things improved, it was because we got ECONOMIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL GROWTH!

If we became nicer, it’s because we became richer! The richer we are, the nicer we are. The more economic growth, the better everything gets. Graph goes up means everything more gooder.

![This, but unironically : r/neoliberal](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!wKLm!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fee702f52-781b-4b32-9df7-5ef547c68632_960x705.jpeg)

All else equal, higher GDP is good. Ergo, all projects about increasing GDP are good, regardless of their costs. QED.

The natural conclusion is that to the extent that we want things to get better, we should just accelerate technical progress, and do more capitalism.

If there is a big fertility crash? We should just do some fertility tech and fertility markets.

If some people getting fat lack the discipline needed to eat less? We should do some weight markets and create a discipline drug.[3](https://cognition.cafe/p/how-people-politically-confront-the#footnote-3-173230783)

If there is a big AI problem? With [the top AI experts warning of literal extinction risks of humanity](https://safe.ai/work/statement-on-ai-risk)? We should absolutely avoid policy solutions, and instead work on safety tech, and safety markets.

If people are too isolated, and have fewer friends, marriage and sex? We should build AI companions and markets for relationships.

—

There is a common bait-and-switch argument among 𝒯𝐸𝒞𝐻𝒩𝒪-𝒞𝒜𝒫𝐼𝒯𝒜𝐿 worshippers.

On one hand, there is the quite non-objectionable “All else equal, it is better to be richer.”

On the other hand, we get to the revisionist “Wealth has been the main driver of freedom and social progress.”

I have met several who told me that historically, progress came from economic growth, and thus we should just work to get economic growth and things will improve by themselves.

When I mention other historical factors, they have then claimed that it’s too hard to analyse them. In other words, their analysis is purposefully one dimensional.

They purposefully reject thinking about novel governance, specific regulations or constraints on technology, instead retreating to a vague “growth is good, any constraint on it is degrowth”.

—

In the process of helping with our material problems, 𝒯𝐸𝒞𝐻𝒩𝒪-𝒞𝒜𝒫𝐼𝒯𝒜𝐿 has created many others, that are obvious to any human.

People feel extremely alienated, with many perceiving their work as bullshit.

We have the densest cities ever in the history of the world, yet there is almost no community, with fewer and fewer people knowing their neighbours.

People have much less sex, marriages, friends and children.

People are blasted with the lifestyles of people much wealthier than them *all the time*. At the same time, they are hypocritically told that of course, everyone is equal, and that [𝒯𝐸𝒞𝐻𝒩𝒪-𝒞𝒜𝒫𝐼𝒯𝒜𝐿 is universalist](https://a16z.com/the-techno-optimist-manifesto/#:~:text=universalist).

That any difference is just based on the actual contributions of individuals to society. Never mind that this reasoning does not hold with trust fund and nepo babies, and that 𝒯𝐸𝒞𝐻𝒩𝒪-𝒞𝒜𝒫𝐼𝒯𝒜𝐿 simultaneously opposes strongly any type of inheritance tax.

People see that many 𝒯𝐸𝒞𝐻𝒩𝒪-𝒞𝒜𝒫𝐼𝒯𝒜𝐿 apostles [massively lobby and subvert governments](https://cognition.cafe/p/when-money-becomes-power), despite their stated libertarianism.

People see that 𝒯𝐸𝒞𝐻𝒩𝒪-𝒞𝒜𝒫𝐼𝒯𝒜𝐿 is trying to automate them, annihilating their only form of bargaining power in a world ruled by 𝒯𝐸𝒞𝐻𝒩𝒪-𝒞𝒜𝒫𝐼𝒯𝒜𝐿.

At the same time, they are told that if they are replaced, it will be with their own good in mind. :)

![](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!sg3i!,w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F23518332-1e08-493c-bd62-f95d7e8a96be_856x542.png)

Thanks! :)

—

The same way we don’t need more 𝒢𝒜𝐼𝒜, more 𝒯𝐸𝒞𝐻𝒩𝒪-𝒞𝒜𝒫𝐼𝒯𝒜𝐿 is not the solution to the problems it introduces.

Even on technologies like AI, that are so risky that it may cause [the extinction of humanity from the development of superintelligence](https://cognition.cafe/p/preventing-extinction-from-superintelligence), we see extreme amounts of pearl clutching, and a strong resistance from 𝒯𝐸𝒞𝐻𝒩𝒪-𝒞𝒜𝒫𝐼𝒯𝒜𝐿 to any type of control.

I have mentioned the ridiculous letter to Congress from 𝒢𝒜𝐼𝒜’s proponents. But the efforts of 𝒯𝐸𝒞𝐻𝒩𝒪-𝒞𝒜𝒫𝐼𝒯𝒜𝐿 are no less ridiculous. It tried to pass [a federal US bill that would have **prevented states from regulating AI for 10 years**](https://time.com/7299044/senators-reject-10-year-ban-on-state-level-ai-regulation-in-blow-to-big-tech/)! Following this failure, the efforts are now continuing in [the form of a super PAC to the tune of 200 million dollars](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/technology/silicon-valley-ai-super-pacs.html).

—

Beyond the mere mismanagement of the risks of extinction from AI, I have witnessed extreme amounts of anti-humanism from 𝒯𝐸𝒞𝐻𝒩𝒪-𝒞𝒜𝒫𝐼𝒯𝒜𝐿 apostles.

[E/accs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effective_accelerationism) are the proverbial butt of the joke here, with their focus on racing to AGI with as little care as possible, and their goal to “maximise entropy”.

But 𝒯𝐸𝒞𝐻𝒩𝒪-𝒞𝒜𝒫𝐼𝒯𝒜𝐿 has tentacles far beyond e/accs, especially in SF.

I once had a conversation with the CEO of a SF-based nonprofit, wherein he told me point blank…[4](https://cognition.cafe/p/how-people-politically-confront-the#footnote-4-173230783)

*   People are egoists for caring about their happiness and their children.
*   They should care about the trillions of future beings that AGI will enable instead.
*   Fortunately, people largely have no power and do not matter, and the only people who matter are the ones building technology.

—

**𝒯𝐸𝒞𝐻𝒩𝒪-𝒞𝒜𝒫𝐼𝒯𝒜𝐿 and 𝒢𝒜𝐼𝒜 are both horrific Eldritch entities working against the interest of humans**.

But the former is currently winning, and many of its apostles are so captured that they are not even realising what is happening. So in practice, it’s the one that I interact with the most.

Nevertheless, the next one may actually be objectively the worst one.

SURRENDER to The 🅿🅾🅻🅸🆃🅸🅲🅸🅰🅽🆂
---------------------------------------

This section is about Trump, but largely isn’t.

It is foremost about the childish hope that we can all rally behind a Strong Man, a True Adult, to face the Eldritch in our stead. Or a group of True Adults, like a Political Party.

This hope is doomed to failure in practice.

While it is possible in theory to look at the track record of a politician, check all of the policies that they have supported in the past, see how they helped people, and build an accurate model of them, almost no one does so.

People lack the time, the interest, the intellectual ability, or the background knowledge needed to do so.

So in practice, people follow 🅿🅾🅻🅸🆃🅸🅲🅸🅰🅽🆂 that they know next to nothing about. They know less about their 🅿🅾🅻🅸🆃🅸🅲🅸🅰🅽🆂 than they know about a friend’s friend, and yet they will trust 🅿🅾🅻🅸🆃🅸🅲🅸🅰🅽🆂 more.

—

For instance, of those who follow Trump…

Who knows him?

Who has talked to him?

Who has spent time any non-trivial amount of time?

Who would have expected his policies?

Statistically, almost no one.

In practice, they have no idea who Trump is as a human being. They are not following Trump The Human, they are following 🆃🆁🆄🅼🅿. An Eldritch Deity that has the face of a man, and promises to take care of everything should one **SURRENDER** to him.

—

The same is true Kamala or Biden’s past supporters.

Despite knowing very little about their political career, their personal or opinion and whatnot, they put all of their loyalty behind these politicians.

Very often, people’s loyalty to 🆃🆁🆄🅼🅿 or 🅱🅸🅳🅴🅽 was enough to sow discord and drive people to insult each other.

For all that, the Eldritch doesn’t care for us, and conveniently uses and abuses us when it stands to profit from it.

The reason why I single out 🆃🆁🆄🅼🅿 is that *it* is an extreme version of this phenomenon, rarely found in the west.

I think in the last 20 years, in the west, Trump is literally the only major politician who has stated anything close to [his people being so loyal, that he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue, shoot someone, and not lose any voters](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTACH1eVIaA).

Conclusion
==========

I think it is quite obvious that neither **FIGHT** nor **SURRENDER** are pragmatic answers to the Eldritch question.

They only work at an emotional level. At the intellectual level, they do not create the tools for how Humanity to steer its future. **FIGHT** is purely oppositional, while **SURRENDER** is only about sacrificing everything to a chosen Eldritch Deity in the hope that it takes care of things for us.

To be clear, I am not saying that the underlying political movements have zero intellectual content or that they hold no grain of truth.

**I am just saying that specifically, they do not pragmatically deal with the Eldritch**.

—

I will likely write about my personal approach to the problem later, in a part 3, but this article is already quite long!

On this, cheers :)