The Fifth Ramone
Curtis Yarvin is is finally interviewed by the New York Times.
Here’s another interview in the New York Times with another friend of mine, formerly Mencius Moldbug.
I always call Curtis the Fifth Ramome:
The Interview
Curtis Yarvin Says Democracy Is Done. Powerful Conservatives Are Listening.
By David Marchese
Jan. 18, 2025
Some highlights:
Curtis: When you say to a New York Times reader, “Democracy is bad,” they’re a little bit shocked. But when you say to them, “Politics is bad” or even “Populism is bad,” they’re like, Of course, these are horrible things. So when you want to say democracy is not a good system of government, just bridge that immediately to saying populism is not a good system of government, and then you’ll be like, Yes, of course, actually policy and laws should be set by wise experts and people in the courts and lawyers and professors. Then you’ll realize that what you’re actually endorsing is aristocracy rather than democracy. …
I don’t think I’m even going to the inauguration.
NYT: Were you invited?
CY: No. I’m an outsider, man. I’m an intellectual. The actual ways my ideas get into circulation is mostly through the staffers who swim in this very online soup. What’s happening now in D.C. is there’s definitely an attempt to revive the White House as an executive organization which governs the executive branch.
Indeed.
NYT: This is an example you use a lot, where you say, If Apple ran California, wouldn’t that be better?
Curtis: Whereas if your MacBook Pro was made by the California Department of Computing, you can only imagine it. I’m sorry, I’m here in this building, and I keep forgetting to make my best argument for monarchy, which is that people trust The New York Times more than any other source in the world, and how is The New York Times managed? It is a fifth-generation hereditary absolute monarchy. And this was very much the vision of the early progressives, by the way. The early progressives, you go back to a book like “Drift and Mastery” —
NYT: I have to say, I find the depth of your background information to be obfuscating, rather than illuminating. How can I change that?
CY: By answering the questions more directly and succinctly. [Laughs.] Fine, I’ll try.
I actually am not all that awesome, but, still, …
NYT Interviewer: “your background information confuses me.” (All this obfuscation! Sounds like a freshman complaining in a philosophy class.) And yet the NYT hails itself as America’s, and possibly the world’s, preeminent daily.
And that is the problem at the core of Moldbug’s argument. He seems to argue that any king (or absolutist corporate state) is better than any democracy. And yet we’re as likely to get Boeing kings as we are Apple kings. More likely I’d bet, since “capitalists” these days primarily seem to hollow out their product lines and human staff so that they can manipulate currency, buy back stocks, and play with the numbers of their books.
I like Yarvin. He makes me think. And making fun of the interviewer is rock star cool. Just make sure you aren’t taking him too seriously
Yarvin is interesting and I get the allure of dispensing with democracy since the system we have regularly ignores public opinion (illegal immigration, DEI) and busies itself with things completely unrelated to the welfare of the public but which are very important to various contractors that live off of federal largesse and offer lucrative post ‘public service’ employment. But I am not sure that I have seen any good explanation of how his alternative would avoid the same problem.