The Mont Order Club’s first ever video conference in our society’s long existence was made in February, and saw spirited participation from our advisers. Foremost in importance were some of the wise judgments our advisers rendered on the ongoing crisis of the Westphalian nation-state. Namely, our advisers spoke of the challenges posed by the Internet and other new media to the archaic international system.
Arguably on the front line of the transition to a stateless society is the Zero State, a transnational collective and radical alternative community participating in the Mont Order. The Zero State was represented on our panel by one of its leading activists, Dirk Bruere. Describing the somewhat mysterious Zero State as an “autonomous transnational state”, Bruere also drew attention to the recent establishment of Transhumanist Parties. The Mont Order already embraces transhumanism as part of the wider WAVE network recognized at the Transhumanist Party established by Amon Twyman and Zoltan Istvan. The Mont Order Club will be following the development of these parties and offering assistance via its publicists and media contacts.
The formation of transhumanist parties is aimed at raising awareness of transhumanism and making transhumanism into a political force, to give this highly futuristic philosophy more leverage over lawmakers in our countries. Our advisers, and indeed the Order itself, remain highly critical of the predominantly two-party political systems that are the norm in western countries. We envisage the formation of influential “organized third party” movements aiming to lobby and lever existing political systems to accommodate radical changes we propose to society using the catalysts of technological advancement.
We have noted the effectiveness of campaigning via a third party on the other side of the fence, in reactionary politics, with the primary example we spoke of being the Tea Party in the United States. The Order believes that a similar influential movement would be able to propel our marginal and dissident views about technological and social progress into mainstream politics. This has been our intention with the Transhumanist Parties.
While it is unlikely that our futuristic transhumanist vision, termed “social futurism” by Amon Twyman, will be able to propel Transhumanist Party presidential candidate Zoltan Istvan into the White House any time soon, the attempt certainly helps to raise significant awareness of our plans for humanity’s future. We each bear highly futuristic visions for society, of increased longevity and universal healthcare, and the guarantee of the maximum liberty to define human biological and social norms. While many transhumanists differ on what aspects of technoscience are most essential to our future, we all share a view that technology’s present direction is good for social change and we hope to help make it continue to be so.
The challenge of raising awareness of this transhumanist manifesto for the world is one that Dirk Bruere stated clearly at one point in our discussion. At this present juncture in political history, too many people simply don’t know what transhumanism is, so they can’t see its profound political implications and the impact it is sure to have on their own lives. Few can yet truly comprehend this incredible promise of radically expanded human lifespan, liberty and potential promises.
As Bruere noted, many would continue to guess that transhumanism has something to do with cross-dressing, or some sinister agenda to implant microchips in our bodies that is only discussed on conspiracy theorist threads. What transhumanism really represents has consequences that reach much farther than either of those two, and are truly benevolent.
Voltaire once wrote that if God did not exist, it would become necessary for man to create him. The desire to use ever-improving technology to emulate and surpass human brains with artificial general intelligence, coupled with the limitless promises of expanding our own abilities with human enhancement technologies, makes that vision of godhood not only possible but morally essential. This is a noble aim emphasized in Bruere’s own pamphlet The Praxis, and it is something the Mont Order maintains a strong interest in.
We see the idea of expanding human abilities beyond their biological nature, and the subordination of what was once “fate” to human control, as potentially the most significant change in political history. Man is a political animal. Hence, ceasing to be an animal with the aid of advanced and nature-challenging technology will be the most significant political change in our history.
One manifestation of the change entailed by transhumanism is already clear to the Mont Order, in the example of the spy-turned whistleblower Edward Snowden’s actions. In that man’s actions, we learn how a single individual with the right knowledge and the right tools can be the ultimate revolutionary, shaking the world and effecting more change than any mere president. His single-handed revolution against the US government has shaken the global system of US hegemony, but that is just one shock among many to be delivered by a computer genius-turned-rebel. If more computer users are enhanced, turned into heroes by the unprecedented privileges and abilities now bestowed on individuals by advances in technology, a new kind of activist is emerging who could eventually unravel the state itself.
The Mont Order Club endeavors to see things before others. It brings radical futurist predictions to the table, and we try to anticipate the challenges that lie ahead for society. It may lead us to make somewhat idiosyncratic claims, but our predictions to date have always come true. Most importantly of all, the nation-state is archaic, experiencing a fundamental crisis as a system. In consequence, models of “national security” are based on outdated conceptions of homeland and kin, no longer compatible with life in heterogeneous western societies.
Nation-states are lamentably still treated as “sacred” but we intend to shatter that image. We will prove that they are nothing but empty shreds of old cloth and outdated documents, and that their pretence to represent our security interests cannot withstand the test of history. At present, nation-states do nothing but harm, breeding differences and confusions about security and impeding conflict resolution in troubled regions. All of this is accompanied by what we have witnessed in our own countries as the declining state of liberty and government legitimacy. Espionage has become universal, no-fly lists against our activists are commonplace, and endless wars with pompous and illegitimate leadership dominate our foreign policy.
The Mont Order Club’s participants see themselves as helping to publicize and legitimize the growing skepticism felt by people towards their governments and the reactionary establishment upholding such regimes. Our advisers reiterate that the Order should continue to grow, to influence and bring together at the table a hundred unique groups and movements in its broad network. We await many more participants in our great transnational association, and we welcome expressions of devotion and support from the awakened public.
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