An Open Letter to Open-Minded Progressives
Mencius Moldbug
„An Open Letter to Open-Minded Progressives” is one of the first pieces of writing that Curtis Yarvin a.k.a. Mencius Moldbug put on his influential blog „Unqualified Reservations”. „Open Letter” is a form of manifesto in which Moldbug criticizes democratic system of governance and tries to dismantle its core beliefs while giving an alternative solution, known as neo-cameralism.
Neocameralism at its core revolves around the idea of centering the political power around a single ruler, known as the „Receiver”. The Receiver has absolute power over the state and is only controlled by a group of appointed corporate style trustees, who oversee that the Receiver’s actions produce profit for the state. The trustees are also responsible for removing the receiver from the office if the state suffers loses. As for the citizens of the state themselves, they are treated like companie’s shareholders and participate in the profit produced by the state.
Well then, one could ask – what is the difference between a neo-cameralist and a welfare state in which everybody participates in the profit produced? The difference is that in the neo-cameralist state the political power is not affected by the public opinion. Public opinion, according to Moldbug is an obstacle to the effective rule, since among others it creates lobbyists, coteries, cliques and other groups of influence that distort effective rule.
I would sincerely invite you to read the „Open Letter” yourself (it's free to download from Curtis Yarvin's blog), as I’m by no means a political expert, so misrepresentations of the topic at hand can occur. It is also worth to note that Moldbugs „Open Letter” is only an intro to the subject and to understand fully the topic at hand it would be advisable to go through Yarvin’s other books as well, perhaps also read authors like Thomas Carlyle or Nick Land, who share a similar neocameralist approach.
