Marc Andreessen Profile picture
Feb 17 13 tweets 2 min read
"The world of the future. The world I want. A world of obedience and unity. A world where the thought of each man will not be his own, but an attempt to guess the thought of his neighbor, who'll have no thought of his own but an attempt to guess...and so on, around the globe."
"All must agree with all. A world where no man will hold a desire for himself, but will direct all his efforts to satisfy the desires of his neighbor, who'll have no desire except to satisfy the desires of the next neighbor who will have no desires except... around the globe."
"All must serve all. A world in which man will not work for money, but for that headless monster--prestige. The approval of his fellows--their good opinion--the opinion of men who'll be allowed to hold no opinion. An octopus, all tentacles and no brain."
"Judgment? Not judgment, but public polls. An average drawn upon zeros--since no individuality will be permitted. A world with its motor cut off and a single heart, pumped by hand. My hand--and the hands of a few, a very few other men like me."
"Those who know what makes you tick--you great, wonderful average, you who have not risen in fury when we called you the average, the little, the common, you who've liked and accepted those names."
"You'll sit enthroned and enshrined, you, the 'little people', the absolute ruler to make all past rulers squirm with envy, the absolute, the unlimited, God and Prophet and King combined. Vox populi. The average, the common, the general."
"But even the trite has to be originated by someone at some time. We'll do the originating. Vox dei. We'll enjoy unlimited submission--from men who've learned nothing except to submit."
"You'll fall over one another in a scramble to see who can submit better and more. There will be no other distinction to seek. No other form of personal achivement. Everything that can't be ruled, must go."
"And if freaks persist in being born occasionally, they will not survive beyond their twelfth year. When their brain begins to function, it will feel the pressure and it will explode. The pressure gauged to a vaccum."
"What of us, the rulers? I'll achieve no more than you will. I'll have no purpose save to keep you contented. To lie, to flatter you, to praise you, to inflate your vanity. To make speeches about the people and the common good."
" I'm the most selfless man you've ever known. I have less independence than you, who I just forced to sell your soul. I want nothing for myself. I use people for the sake of what I can do to them. It's my only function and satisfaction. I have no private purpose. I want power."
"I want my world of the future. Let all live for all. Let all sacrifice and none profit. Let all suffer and none enjoy. Let progress stop. Let all stagnate. There's equality in stagnation. A great circle--and a total equality. The world of the future..."
-- A fictional character who could never exist in real life, I assume.

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More from @pmarca

Feb 18
"The manager of a fruit-and-vegetable shop places in his window the slogan: 'Workers of the world, unite!' Why does he do it? What is he trying to communicate to the world? Is he genuinely enthusiastic about the idea of unity among the workers of the world?"
"Is his enthusiasm so great that he feels an irrepressible impulse to acquaint the public with his ideals? Has he really given more than a moment's thought to how such a unification might occur and what it would mean?"
"That poster was delivered to our greengrocer from headquarters along with the onions and carrots. He put them all into the window simply because it has been done that way for years, because everyone does it, and because that is the way it has to be."
Read 66 tweets
Feb 18
"An Availability Cascade is a self-reinforcing process of collective belief formation -- an expressed perception triggers a chain reaction that gives the perception increasing plausibility through its rising availability in public discourse."
"The driving mechanism involves a combination of informational and reputational motives: Individuals endorse the perception partly by learning from the apparent beliefs of others, and partly by distorting their public responses in the interest of maintaining social acceptance."
"Availability Entrepreneurs -- activists who manipulate the content of public discourse -- strive to trigger Availability Cascades likely to advance their agendas."
Read 26 tweets
Feb 17
"You should imagine stock market quotations as coming from a remarkably accommodating fellow named Mr. Market who is your partner in a private business. Without fail, Mr. Market appears daily and names a price at which he will either buy your interest or sell you his."
"Even though the business that the two of you own may have economic characteristics that are stable, Mr. Market’s quotations will be anything but. For, sad to say, the poor fellow has incurable emotional problems."
"At times he feels euphoric and can see only the favorable factors affecting the business. When in that mood, he names a very high buy-sell price because he fears that you will snap up his interest and rob him of imminent gains."
Read 13 tweets
Feb 17
"Would it shock you to know that two people, one with the traits of Extreme-Altruism (X-Altruism) and the other the traits of a sociopath, could be related? Even siblings? And that their personality traits are very similar, with only a few features to distinguish them?"
"We look at do-gooders as a special breed; people who possess extraordinary traits of altruism, even at the expense of their own existence. Sociopaths also have an extraordinary set of traits--extreme selfishness, lack of impulse control, no respect for rules, and no conscience."
"There may be a closer link than than most people would think between the Extreme-Altruistic personality and sociopathic personality. Their personality traits are very similar, with only a few features to distinguish them."
Read 15 tweets
Feb 15
"The soul is that which can't be ruled. It must be broken. Drive a wedge in, get your fingers on it--and the man is yours. You won't need a whip--he'll bring it to you and ask to be whipped. Set him in reverse--and his own mechanism will do your work for you."
"Want to know how it's done? There are many ways. Here's one. Make man feel small. Make him feel guilty. Kill his aspiration and integrity. That's difficult. The worst among you gropes for an ideal in his own twisted way."
"Direct man toward a goal destructive of all integrity. Tell man that he must live for others, that altruism is the ideal. Not a single one of them has ever achieved it or ever will. His every living instinct screams against it. But don't you see what you accomplish?"
Read 14 tweets
Feb 15
"A Breastplate of Righteousness is 'a protective shield of [fake] superpropriety with a shining quality, blinding observers to certain of the wearer’s practices'."
"A Breastplate of Righteousness creates 'a social image and presentation of self-respectability to a fault.'"
"Seeking to learn more about who participates in [anonymous gay sex in public venues], sociologist Laud Humphreys analyzed interview data he collected from a social health survey of the men he surreptitiously contacted a year after the [anonymous public gay sex] observations."
Read 12 tweets

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