J. Nathan Matias šŸ¦£

"One of SVā€™s culture problems right now is that it has a lot of cult leaders who hate the dull routinization of everyday life, and desperately want to return to the age of charisma."

"The problem with prophecy is that ecstatic cults donā€™t scale."

Insightful, revealing post by @henryfarrell that uses Weber's work on the "routinization of charisma" to make sense of the intense focus in SV on charismatic founders from boosters, critics, and journalists alike.

https://crookedtimber.org/2023/05/06/the-cult-of-the-founders/

The Cult of the Founders

Since Iā€™m on the topic of Max Weber, religion and technology already, hereā€™s a half-developed theory of Elon Musk that Iā€™ve been nurturing for a while. Iā€™ve trotted it out iā€¦

Crooked Timber
May 6, 2023 at 4:52pmWeb
Show threadJ. Nathan Matias šŸ¦£May 6, 2023

@henryfarrell

This desire to be a prophet may explain why some tech leaders dramatically defect from large companies to naysay the things they created ā€” without acknowledging the critiques and groundwork of others.

Few ever become cult leaders by carefully citing the twenty people who saw the problems first and organizing equitable distribution of resources.

Show threadHenry FarrellMay 6, 2023
@natematias That is a really important and subtle point. Charismatic authority depends on a myth of individual virtuosity - to acknowledge the contribution of others is to deflate the myth. There is a lot that is problematic in Weber, but one of the good things is his insistence that good academics can't be prophets, because cult leadership cuts against the necessary humility of the (social) scientific enterprise.
Show threadBilly SmithMay 6, 2023

@henryfarrell @natematias

An excellent description of the behaviour patterns:

https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2009/10/07/the-gervais-principle-or-the-office-according-to-the-office/

The Gervais Principle, Or The Office According to ā€œThe Officeā€

Show threadCoach Pāį¹‡ini Ā®May 6, 2023
@BillySmith @henryfarrell @natematias Why isnā€™t VGR on Fediverse
Show threadBilly SmithMay 6, 2023

@paninid @henryfarrell @natematias

I think that he's been more focused on the group that he runs via his blog, his Discord server, and his newsletter @ substack.

Show threadRenee DiRestaMay 6, 2023
@henryfarrell @BillySmith @paninid @natematias he is ā€” heā€™s just more active on farcastr and occasionally bluesky.
Show threadRenee DiRestaMay 6, 2023
@natematias @BillySmith @paninid @henryfarrell I forgot farcastr is now Warpcast. The Great Decentralization is happening.
Show threadCoach Pāį¹‡ini Ā®May 6, 2023
@Noupside @natematias @BillySmith @henryfarrell Warpcast is not part of Fediverse / using ActivityPub?
Show threadRenee DiRestaMay 6, 2023
@paninid @henryfarrell @BillySmith @natematias no - youā€™re right itā€™s a different protocol. There was a ribbonfarm mastodon server at some point in the olden days, if Iā€™m not mistaken.
Show threadCoach Pāį¹‡ini Ā®May 6, 2023
@Noupside @henryfarrell @BillySmith @natematias was an interesting idea 3 months ago, I guess
Show threadCoach Pāį¹‡ini Ā®May 6, 2023
@BillySmith @henryfarrell @natematias Received just now, ironically: https://open.substack.com/pub/ribbonfarmstudio/p/summer-break-6a0?r=4hxgy&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
Summer Break

Ribbonfarm Studio is going on hiatus for a bit

Ribbonfarm Studio
Show threadtoxtethogradyMay 6, 2023
@natematias @henryfarrell All the original prophets of Biblical times basically did it to shame the populace into reforming their ways. A few were even handy with a sword...
https://www.sefaria.org/I_Samuel.15.33?lang=bi
I Samuel 15:33

Samuel said:ā€œAs your sword has bereaved women,So shall your mother be bereaved among women.ā€And Samuel bMeaning of Heb. uncertain.cut Agag down-b before the...

Show threadBilly SmithMay 6, 2023

@natematias @henryfarrell

Are they following the playbook from here? :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvVHPVe525Q

Mind Control Made Easy (or How to Become a Cult Leader)

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

YouTube
Show threadLuis VillaMay 9, 2023

@natematias @henryfarrell argh, I wish I had time to write on this at greater length. In brief:

(1) some prophetic leaders can scale, where hard engineering barriers and mostly-constrained problems hide the leaderā€™s oddities from the public. Ford/Ford, Musk/Tesla. When the leaderā€™s personality is given free reignā€¦ yeah, you get Twitter. Suspect Zuckā€™s metaverse will also fall into that latter bucket. But same guy scales fine with FB.

(2) the US govt has no clue what to do with prophets