Planet Earth has billions of humans and plenty of resources. So why the hell do we need States? Simple: States have claimed for themselves the unique power to create laws democratically, regulate human life, and, at least in theory, do so in the name of Public Interest. This is basic.
The modern democratic State is a system of laws that acts as a barrier, in the name of Public Interest, between Private Power’s profit and us humans.
It’s nothing new that Private Power, for the past 70 years—ever since advanced democracies became fully functional—has been trying everything to corrupt States and get them out of the way. They already tried during the Gilded Age, flaunting the arrogance of wealth, but they had to bow down to the rising democracies. So, still determined to eliminate States and their regulations, they invented Lobbying, electoral funding, corruption, and even an entire massive economic ideology called Neoliberalism, which still dominates governments and universities today and is built on the very motto “Less State!” Yet, even now, States have resisted somewhat, still standing in the way of Private Power with regulatory agencies, ministries, surviving laws, and supranational organizations.
Because State taxes still exist in the world—despite tax evasion—acting as a real obstacle to Private Power’s complete domination over States. Few realize that one of the fundamental reasons taxes were invented was precisely to prevent a private oligarchy from amassing so much economic power—so much money—that it could become more powerful than a State itself (at least a Western State). The State taxes wealth, at least slowing it down a little.
So, to summarize, in the deadly race between Private Power and States, the Private side is still far from claiming its longed-for victory of wiping out States and their laws entirely. And this brings us to Falcon Heavy and Elon Musk’s SpaceX. Let me repeat what Casey Dreier of the American think tank Planetary Society said: “What’s new with this launch is that corporations’ ambition to truly surpass the power of governments is now showing its real face… We are in a new Gilded Age (1865-1914), with multi-billionaires who want to single-handedly redesign humanity’s future.”
Indeed, as I’ve been saying for a while, something unprecedented has emerged on the global stage: private super TECH & AI firms whose colossal power—unlike anything in history—is creating what I call the Private Masters of the Planet, holding the Keys to Life. And here, for the first time in human history, Private Power can see the final destruction of States on the horizon. These private super TECH & AI firms are too complex to be regulated by States, for a simple reason: States and their technocrats don’t understand them at all. But beware—at the same time, States and their technocrats can no longer do without them. And worse: States and their technocrats have embraced the deadly Neoliberal dogma of no public spending so thoroughly that they no longer even have the financial means to counter the Private Masters of the Planet, holding the Keys to Life.
I could stop here—the picture is crystal clear: thanks to super TECH & AI, Private Power is now definitively dismantling the existence and meaning of States.
This is happening in medicine, engineering, finance, communications, transportation—everything. The State is disappearing, making way for the Private Masters of the Planet, holding the Keys to Life. And unfortunately, this is even happening in the legislative power of public regulation. Once that is ‘killed,’ the race of Private Power to erase States from the Earth will be complete.
Okay, I won’t go further. Now you know what’s behind some seemingly crazy guy throwing half a billion dollars just to send a mannequin doing absolutely nothing into Space. The goal? To win, and say goodbye to States forever.
Don’t create future Stateless kids. [Paolo Barnard]