Despite the fact that he views the media as one half of “The Cathedral” – his term for what he believes is the repressive ideological power made up of journalists and academics that secretly runs Western society – he agrees to meet me in Berkeley, California. We go on a short hike while Yarvin, who looks like an ageing punk rocker, speaks in circuitous, long-winded yarns that reference esoteric texts and periods of history to prove his points.<\/p>\n
In our conversation, he outlines his “Patchwork” concept, in which traditional nation-states are replaced with a global network of sovereign mini-countries owned by shareholders and competing for citizens like a business competes for customers. He believes blockchain can be used to bring this world about and that the result would be “corporate monarchies” ruled over by “CEO-kings”. These corporate monarchs would be accountable to a hidden board of shareholders, who could potentially even control the military and police through something he called a “crypto dingus” that would allow them to essentially disable all guns.<\/p>\n
Many of these tech billionaires see Trump, and his office, as outdated, something that will eventually be replaced with their superior technology. Throughout my time meeting tech billionaires, I increasingly got the sense that they saw themselves as the real holders of power.<\/p>\n