A Gentle Introduction to Mencius Moldbug Part 7: "The Hand of the Machine"
So far in our examination of historical trends we have ignored the biggest, most obvious, trend in human history. Human beings do gain knowledge of the world over time. We pass it on, generation-to-generation. We do improve our understanding, increase our yields, improve our efficiencies, generate larger margins, and push the boundaries between ourselves and our families and the hardness of natural existence. And under these circumstances, the nature of the antinomian to loosen the rules and punishments, turn out, more often than not, to be vindicated. We must work to prepare for winter, but thanks to improved farming, winter seems farther and farther away.
One can imagine a hypothetical dialogue between our ant and grasshopper:
Ant: “The law says work of the Earth from sunup to sundown.”
Grasshopper: “with the newly invented plows and crop rotations we need less work.”
Ant: “Idle hands are the devil's plaything!”
Grasshopper: “Come let us enjoy the fruits of our leisure time!”
I don't think it's hard to see what eventually wins.
Technology and wealth liberate us from the regulations and structures we once needed to maintain survival in a harsh world. And as this occurs, the antinomians triumph. The progressive is vindicated by technology, and history obtains it's well known left-wing bias.Through technology and loosening of norms humanity is happier, or at least richer, and we return to the pursuit of our goals with more ease. And ss technology accelerates, so does the left increase its own ability to become obtain long-term political victory again and again.
And so we have finally come to accomplish our task, an explanation of the leftward force in history that explains both the simplicity of progressivism and the predictability of its victories. Moldbug’s model seems to explain the nature of the left and also a sort of Hegelian idea that history is moving towards some kind of conclusion or outcome.
Returning to our timeline of conservatives through the ages, we can see at every interval that what separates each conservative from the last is their relationship to the disestablishment of institutional norms, the belief that certain rules should be done away with or relaxed and that the promises of the older society should be loosened.
So with some effort, we have successfully explained the first of Conquest’s Three Laws of politics.
We see that people are more conservative about the things that they love, because they're looking to preserve them. And we see that institutions, by their nature, become more progressive over time, because they degenerate.
So now that we might recognize that the leftward force in history is driven by human technological progress, how do we feel about it? Is not this entire process a good thing? Should we not be grateful for it? Is this not a victory over nature, a victory for humanity, a vindication of the concept of human progress? Well, perhaps, and perhaps not.
This type of progress may be the ultimate salvation of humanity, but is there not a fly in the ointment?