Pro-Technology = Marxist?

From Esoteric Trad: Neoreaction’s elephant in the room

Techno-Commercialists make up a portion of NRx and their position is quite popular.

Maybe he means it’s popular outside of NRx, but from my observation it’s no longer popular inside of NRx, in which the trichotomy has become a dichotomy of traditionalists and ethno-nationalists, with the techno-commercialists on the periphery. This ideological friction is understandable because capitalism can sometimes conflict with ethno-nationalist interests. But where we agree is in our rejection of egalitarianism and democracy. And there are some possible valid criticisms of capitalism: how commercialism and the breakdown of the family structure can cause anxiety and anomie. Free market capitalism demands a lot from people to ‘keep up with the joneses’, and many people cannot keep up – due to biology and other reasons. The stock market making new highs, but many people are left out. But the problem isn’t capitalism or greedy people, it’s low IQs and bad life choices – majoring in worthless subjects, bad work ethic and poor manners (Charles Murray offers some advice), and, for better or worse, some people just aren’t smart enough (which is the thesis of The Bell Curve and other Charles Murray books). Immigration and outsourcing may also play a role, which is where the friction between ethno-nationalists and commercialists lies. In an earlier post, I present evidence H-1B visas don’t depress wages or employment.

The NRx ‘trichotomy‘:

So, yeah he doesn’t have to lose sleep over technologists taking over NRx. But I think some technologists who may agree with parts of NRx be may be hesitant to bear the NRx/Dark Enlightenment label for fear of bad press. Just talking about ‘exit’ is enough to stir a frenzy.

Marxism is another belief system that inherently is striving for more and more efficient technology, to liberate man from the conditions of work.

Not so sure about this…while Marxists may support technology to bring about a post-labor society, not everyone who supports technology and post-labor is a Marxist. There will always be capitalism, scarcity, and markets, even if the labor force shrinks and or a lot of job become automated (which is assuming the Luddite Fallacy stops being a fallacy). Rapid gains in technology hasn’t made healthcare or tuition more affordable. Same for insurance, day care, and other services. There will always be demand for positional goods to signal status. There may even be a form of capitalism that exists between apps and robots, excluding almost all people. And also, many on the left criticize technology for creating wealth inequality and separating workers from their ‘means of production’. Technological determinism – a reductionist theory that presumes that a society’s technology drives the development of its social structure and cultural values – does not have to lead to Marxism (abolition of private ownership of production), despite originating from Karl Marx. It’s liberals who are, in fact, ‘pro-work’, not conservatives. It was the welfare left in 2008 & 2009 who wanted to put everyone to work, against market forces, the result being a useless stimulus that created few jobs relative to its cost due to market forces working against it. Liberals want to put everyone to work, provided the jobs are overpaid, have excessive benefits, and employers don’t make too much profits. This ‘pro-work’ sentiment was taken to extreme by Communist regimes where millions of people were worked to death – hardly in agreement with the post-labor utopia Marx wrote about.

Nick B also counters:

I don’t think “faith […] in technological advancement” is the right way to frame Neoreaction’s position. Man is a tool builder. As Man advances, so will his tools, so helping Man advance, and so on. This pattern is nothing other than the development of civilization. A priori, it is a difficult achievement. Few peoples find it. But they’re mostly extinct. The “faith” you speak of, so much as it exists, is more in Man’s nature as a builder of technologies that help him master the physical world as well as the social.

Agree. Tools are how man controls his environment instead of being enslaved by the whims of it. It’s this desire to create, partly motivated by our understanding of our mortality, is what separates man from less evolved animals.

Then you have the whole Red Pill movement, which is ideologically similar to NRx and also pro-STEM. STEM not only pays well and brings respect, but is an island of sanity and rationalism in a sea of leftist higher education indoctrination. We need to stand behind the technologists who are also under assault by the SJWs, not turn our backs on them:

Tim Cook, who is gay and has social justice tendencies, doesn’t speak for all technologists. Just as a pedophile priest isn’t representative of all Catholics.