I concede partially to your point about not believing in capitalism,
the issue is I think though Smith sincere I do not think that Smith's
moral positions are based on a need to ascribe moral value to the
budding industrialists and the moral scorn on the aristocracy and Tory
power. The adoption of these ideas by the British empire is that they
are the best way to exploit and the talk of free markets by empires
both British, American and Chinese? (later no doubt) is that they are
to be promoted when it is useful to do so. The best capitalists
therefore are the ones who understand subconsciously or consciously
that the ability manipulate the market by some means or to have the
market already pre-figured in your favor is the purpose of the talk of
the good of the free market. It is true how ever that free market no
doubt turns against all empires and the economic, political, military
reality shifts in a way that is outside the control of the empire.
That is all to say that the cynical attitude of Andreesen or Thiel is
what I think it's always been about. I probably sound a little Marxist
or just cynical but I am not a Marxist and I do right and wrong, I do
think that the modern theories of morality should be understood
cynically as their purpose is primarily a political attempt to change
or preserve something and in some sense when one examines them deeply
we see self interest usually hidden and diffused by moralising prose
and sentiments in these modern theories of morality. So techno
optimism manifesto is a more brash, bold and crass version of these
works of moral theory indeed a making a sort of unintentional
parody. None of this is to say that political economy is only
moralising (which techno optimism is).
That is all to say that the cynical attitude of Andreesen or Thiel is what I think it's always been about. I probably sound a little Marxist or just cynical but I am not a Marxist and I do right and wrong, I do think that the modern theories of morality should be understood cynically as their purpose is primarily a political attempt to change or preserve something and in some sense when one examines them deeply we see self interest usually hidden and diffused by moralising prose and sentiments in these modern theories of morality. So techno optimism manifesto is a more brash, bold and crass version of these works of moral theory indeed a making a sort of unintentional parody. None of this is to say that political economy is only moralising (which techno optimism is).