"Dark Enlightenment"...Another Destructive Muskian Notion!
Decency, compassion, and appreciation for intellect are part of America's foundation,
I knew I didn’t like AI…now I know why!
I am often annoyed by those pop-up labels that ask if I want to compose with AI. No, thank you—I am perfectly capable of writing an intelligible paragraph! Even Pope Leo has observed that artificial intelligence is a major human issue. More on that some other time. For now, it is just one more tool in the fascist tool box.
I am growing so weary of the daily chaos…the lies and gaslighting…the sheer incompetence…and especially of the intentional cruelty. It is all part of a grand plan, I am afraid, even though MAGA denies it. Remember Project 2025?
Other commentators have suggested that truth and common decency in the Trump regime are indicative of a “dark enlightenment,” the not-too-tacit acceptance of a political orthodoxy that is actually heretical to any traditional understanding of democracy. None of it comes close to serving the historical narrative of America’s founding, and it is unworthy of the human sacrifice that is part and parcel of the struggle for liberty for the past 250 years!
If you have never heard of the “dark enlightenment” movement, here is a little background:
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti liked automobiles, particularly his four-cylinder Fiat sports car. For him, the car represented innovation and vitality, even violence. Most of all, it signified the future. An Italian poet, performer, and pamphleteer, Marinetti was a reactionary; he loathed egalitarianism and democracy. He also wasn’t a conservative in any traditional sense, for there was little that he, and others in the Futurist art movement that he founded, wished to conserve.
In his 1909 treatise, Founding and Manifesto of Futurism, he wrote, “We will destroy the museums, libraries, academies of every kind.” A precursor to the fascism that would envelop Europe, Marinetti was an influence on Benito Mussolini, and that ideology, which would soon fulfill that dark promise of destroying Europe’s museums, libraries, and academies.
Marinetti’s stronghold over Mussolini has striking parallels to America today—particularly with the rise of the “Dark Enlightenment” movement and its most vocal steward: software engineer and blogger Curtis Yarvin.
Largely ignored by academic philosophers, the “Dark Enlightenment” movement and Yarvin have curried favor and influence with tech executives in recent years. A software engineer by training, Yarvin has become a kind of official philosopher for tech leaders like PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel and Mosaic founder Marc Andreessen. Not unlike the Futurists, Yarvin advocates for replacing democracy with a kind of techno-feudal state—for the government to be run like a corporation, with the president as its “CEO.”
What’s even more alarming is that Yarvin’s outsize influence on tech executives has now made its way to Washington…Meanwhile, Elon Musk, though not outwardly tipping his hat to Yarvin, seemingly has a similar philosophy: In 2020, Musk told the Wall Street Journal that the “government is simply the largest corporation.” Five years later, Musk has been using his position as an unofficial advisor to the second Trump administration and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to operationalize what Yarvin has called “a hard reboot” of the government.
—Ed Simon, “What We Must Understand About the Dark Enlightenment Movement”, Time, March 24, 2025
A techno-feudal state? Is that the sort of country we want to be? Worse yet, are we comfortable with the sort of cruelty and indifference we have seen playing out of late?
Elon Musk is on-record having said that democracy is out-of-date and that empathy is weakness. This is the guy who wants to fire all of the humans who run the Social Security Administration and rely instead on AI to run the agency. No risk there, right?
This is all part of a monumental repudiation of the Enlightenment Era values on which America was founded. The American independence impetus came directly out of the Enlightenment thinking of the 18th century when the application of reason was considered the most worthwhile pursuit for humankind. It had been a long-time coming as humans came to recognize that superstition and the dominance of kings was inconsistent with the goals of a just and free society. In that context, the notion that “all men were created equal” was the rationale on which all government would be based.
We thought we had made progress, but this present moment is the one the right wing has been waiting for.
With an ignorant and incredibly cruel man in the White House, and having successfully persuaded a large number of Americans that our problems are caused by the presence of the existential other, the ground has been well-plowed for the growth of an illiberal society—one that is directly in opposition to the values of the Enlightenment. The growth of religious intolerance and the rise of aberrations like Christian Nationalism create an environment where even cherished traditions like the rule of law are endangered.
It is as if the Enlightenment never happened—the advent of the Dark Enlightenment!
The vision of men like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel is one in which corporations and technology dominate human society.
To be fair, Trump did not come up with any of this—he is clearly incapable of such thinking—but he recognized the ripeness of the moment. He is a huckster with an uncanny ability to sniff out vulnerability and to exploit it.
Meanwhile, planes are falling out of the sky, people are being “disappeared”, and measles are back. A leaked memo warns that FEMA is not even close to readiness for the upcoming hurricane season. Oh, and did I mention the vulnerability of the Pentagon at the hands of an incompetent drunk?
But Trump has had the laying on of hands in the White House—that ought to do it.
The Founders are spinning in their graves!
