Links to Consider, 2/5

Yarvin on Linker on Yarvin; Erik Torenberg on Money Crypto vs. Tech Crypto; The WSJ's reminder of my Public Choice meme; Jason Manning on Caplow's theory of coalitions

Curtis Yarvin writes,

leftism is what generates more power. Leftism always has more energy and more excitement. This is because its ideas generate power—leftist ideas always involve impact on the world. If science is put in charge of science, science will favor ideas which make science more powerful, which will be or become leftist ideas. Leftism at bottom is just the natural and inevitable human urge to matter.

Pointer from a reader. Recall Richard Hanania’s view that ultimately people on the left care more about politics than people on the right. Yarvin would say that the left cares more about power. Not a charitable view, of course.

Later on in the essay, Yarvin says,

The feeling that Harvard has gone insane is like realizing that Mom and Dad are both on heroin. Attacking Harvard is not the way to calm this anxiety; taking over Harvard, or replacing Harvard, are the only paths to true leadership.

I think the only option is replacing Harvard. Taking it over? There are certain parts of this country, Major Strasser, that I would advise you not to try to invade.

Erik Torenberg writes,

Money Crypto is specifically “Bitcoin, not blockchain”. Nearly all Blockchain use cases are not merely unnecessary — they also make the application slower and more expensive.

…Tech Crypto says the blockchain will disintermediate all middlemen — not merely all of payments ($500B,) but banks, social networks, marketplace operators, etc.

I am neither. I think that money and finance are intimately tied to government, and you cannot change that. I think that blockchain is neither necessary nor sufficient for disintermediation. The classic example I give is property title insurance in the United States. Obtaining title insurance in the United States is pure waste. It is obvious that you could register titles on a computer, and make the latest entry in the database definitive. We could have done that more than 50 years ago, long before blockchain was invented as a tool for creating a ledger in a decentralized way. The reason we have not is that the American Land Title Association, whose members make a living out the existing inefficient system, has an ironclad grip on Congress.

The WSJ lead editorial January 30 opens,

The Biden Administration is heavily subsidizing electric vehicles, but at the same time it is blocking mineral projects needed to produce them. Another example of this head-scratching contradiction came Thursday when Interior Secretary Deb Haaland walled off much of Minnesota’s Superior National Forest from mining.

It is not head-scratching if you remember my meme.

Jason Manning writes,

Caplow starts with a hypothetical example: Imagine three smugglers alone on an island, deciding how to divvy up their loot.  Two of the smugglers are equal in strength. The third is stronger than each of the others, but weaker than the both of them joined together.  The most likely coalition would be between the two weaker smugglers.

It gets more complicated from there. I had not heard of Caplow’s “triad” model. It seems like something I ought to study.

Substacks referenced above:

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Books: Two Against One

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Money Crypto vs Tech Crypto

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The boomer map