Another older piece that was waiting to be read… Kaitlyn Tiffany in The Atlantic wrote a beautiful article about Silicon Valley utopian new cities for likeminded tech-elites. In her thoughtful reporting and musings, she weaves together several strands:
- Reporting on Zuzalu, a 2-month event and experience in Montenegro for tech-nomads who want to experiment with new forms of living and dream of building their own urban societies away from the nation state, with money from rich tech investors and entrepreneurs, hosted by often weak and dubious existing nation-states.
- A historical tracing of anti-nation-state political ideologies, from the likes of libertarian Ayn Rand, all the way up to today’s blockchain ideologues who feel that existing institutions, states and cities are failing and that building new utopian cities – or network-states – from scratch is the answer.
- Some criticisms of these ideals from a speaker invited at the event as a counter choice.
- A passionate plea for the messiness, friction, imperfection and the cultivation of dealing with all the everyday problems and societal issues of actually existing cities. And the beauty of it.
- Through the lines, the article also argues for the need to address today’s problems through political means, instead of tech-elites seceding and fleeing this messy earth with a bag full of investor money.
One quote from someone in the article rebuking critique of these developments, which IMO exposes the whataboutism logical fallacy so often used:
“I find it interesting that critics of the project seem to have no problem living in a city where homeless people are allowed to die on their doorsteps, in a country that murders people at home and abroad every day.”
Link to the article >>