In the real world there is no shire. The west is an outdated framing of the world. These weapons makers are more like Celebrimbor at best and at worst Sarumon. These companies will take whatever contracts they can get and are not going to ask whether it’s right or not and not going to ask whether these weapons are trained on the shire.
I want to get to the Star Trek future. I want the one where we figure it all out and survive together. That will not happen without a dedication to principles over the tribe.
I agree "Western" is a messy category. The long-term goal should be a global consciousness where our primary loyalty is to humanity itself rather than discrete nation-states—even if that's easier said than done. To some degree we are hardwired for tribalism. "Our Tribal Future" by David Samson is a good read on this.
As for Star Trek, the Federation is basically an open, liberal, enlightened democracy: exactly what Karp/Luckey claim to defend. Star Fleet's starships have phasers and photon torpedoes, right? (I love how we're trading LoTR for Star Trek).
Michael Steinberger's recent bio of Karp, "The Philosopher in the Valley," does a good job of holding Karp accountable for equipping the surveillance state (e.g., the ICE contracts and predictive policing in New Orleans/LA) while acknowledging Palantir's role in humanitarian efforts: Covid relief, the World Food Programme, evacuating civilians from Afghanistan during the Taliban takeover.
It's complicated: in theory, you want to equip democratic institutions (the United States, NATO, the Federation) with the best technology (and yes, weapons) possible but elections have consequences. You don't know who will inherit that tech from one administration to the next, but landing big contracts takes years, and then—whoops—you have an egotistical headcase in the White House equipped with some very dangerous toys. Trust me, I wish we had Picard in the chair.
The alternative is to reject Pax Americana altogether, turtle up, and let the chips fall where they may. Russia takes Ukraine, China takes Taiwan, Iran becomes a nuclear power, and so on. Not great.
The problem with Karp is that he uses the American flag as a shield and beats the patriotic drum pretty much regardless of the situation. I'm trying to think through a softer but still sufficiently compelling "tune" for us to collectively march to. Having every American march to the beat of a different drummer in their own curated reality bubble is...not working. (This is a strained metaphor but you get what I mean).
My next post will dig deeper into some hopefully actionable alternatives.
In the real world there is no shire. The west is an outdated framing of the world. These weapons makers are more like Celebrimbor at best and at worst Sarumon. These companies will take whatever contracts they can get and are not going to ask whether it’s right or not and not going to ask whether these weapons are trained on the shire.
I want to get to the Star Trek future. I want the one where we figure it all out and survive together. That will not happen without a dedication to principles over the tribe.
I agree "Western" is a messy category. The long-term goal should be a global consciousness where our primary loyalty is to humanity itself rather than discrete nation-states—even if that's easier said than done. To some degree we are hardwired for tribalism. "Our Tribal Future" by David Samson is a good read on this.
As for Star Trek, the Federation is basically an open, liberal, enlightened democracy: exactly what Karp/Luckey claim to defend. Star Fleet's starships have phasers and photon torpedoes, right? (I love how we're trading LoTR for Star Trek).
Michael Steinberger's recent bio of Karp, "The Philosopher in the Valley," does a good job of holding Karp accountable for equipping the surveillance state (e.g., the ICE contracts and predictive policing in New Orleans/LA) while acknowledging Palantir's role in humanitarian efforts: Covid relief, the World Food Programme, evacuating civilians from Afghanistan during the Taliban takeover.
It's complicated: in theory, you want to equip democratic institutions (the United States, NATO, the Federation) with the best technology (and yes, weapons) possible but elections have consequences. You don't know who will inherit that tech from one administration to the next, but landing big contracts takes years, and then—whoops—you have an egotistical headcase in the White House equipped with some very dangerous toys. Trust me, I wish we had Picard in the chair.
The alternative is to reject Pax Americana altogether, turtle up, and let the chips fall where they may. Russia takes Ukraine, China takes Taiwan, Iran becomes a nuclear power, and so on. Not great.
The problem with Karp is that he uses the American flag as a shield and beats the patriotic drum pretty much regardless of the situation. I'm trying to think through a softer but still sufficiently compelling "tune" for us to collectively march to. Having every American march to the beat of a different drummer in their own curated reality bubble is...not working. (This is a strained metaphor but you get what I mean).
My next post will dig deeper into some hopefully actionable alternatives.