Up-Wingers

Not so long ago, I found on the internet Esther Vilar’s book the Manipulated Man, this anti-feminist classic is banned on Amazon, and my post mostly dealt with the censorship of the book, I later included an audio version that somebody posted to YouTube. Here I found another rare gem of literature. The Up-Wingers by FM 2030 Fereidoun M. Esfandiary. FM 2030 (While writing this I discovered Vice did a profile of him) adopted this pseudonym because he believed 2030 to be a magical date at which humanity should reach some kind of turning point in its evolution. FM 2030 is credited with coining the term “Transhumanism”. (Although this is probably not correct)

This book is so hopelessly out of print that I was never able to get a copy. I bought one on American Amazon, but it never arrived, and I was not even able to appeal for a refund. A lesson for everyone, if you are about to buy a rare book, look for a free copy online. I have obtained at least three books this way. There is also another book by FM 2030: Optimism one which preceded Up-wingers.

Off topic but in Czechia you can find print versions of books banned on Amazon, or hopelessly out of print and at reasonable prices, here at local online vendors. 😆

Up-wingers is like a politico-philosophical manifesto. It is a critique of left right politics and rather shifts the readers focus to transhumanism and space flight. FM2024 says we can as humanity conquer the human condition. A condition that leads to suffering and death. Technology can liberate us from things such as giving birth, death by disease and old age withering, and would make consciousness multi planetary. You need a great deal of optimism to battle the skepticism that is ever present with humanity.

FM2024 believes that the traditional left and right are not proposing real solutions but rather applying antiquated “solutions” to problems. Much of the progress happens not because of capitalism, socialism but rather despite of it. The Up-winger does not want to modernize archaic systems such as marriage, family, school, money, work, leadership, government, or nations, they want to do away with them. And this may seem too radical but only if you don’t give it a deeper thought. I shall discuss this later in this post.

Sociologist Steve Fuller thinks up-wingers are rising:

Any sophisticated observer of politics already knows that the Left and the Right are houses divided against themselves. On the one hand, the Left consists of an uneasy alliance of top-down technocrats and bottom-up communitarians; on the other, the Right is defined by the tension between past-facing traditionalists and future-facing libertarians.

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The “90-degree revolution” I foresee is that the communitarians and the traditionalists will team up to form the ‘down-winging’ Green pole, while the technocrats and the libertarians will join forces to form the ‘up-winging’ Black pole.

Feminists are now opposing Trans individuals and the artificial womb. They are now traditionalists. In fact, a drift towards traditional conservatism was apparent among women even before the rise of the woke and Trans. Some women have realized they have more to gain from espousing traditional values than from radical feminism. Achievements of feminism with traditional chivalry and simping is woman’s dream. Somehow the future debate will be about the essence of womanhood, can technology liberate women from their biological constrains, or can women find true fulfillment in traditional femininity? There will be an increasing anxiety about the preservation of humanity over technology.

Is MGTOW an up-winger ideology? MGTOW was always about male freedom from women and the state. It was never about bringing about some form of male supremacy over women as is often claimed. Men going their own way are not waiting on women to see the light and start treating men differently. MGTOW is somehow about overriding the biological urge for pussy and asserting male independence. Up-wingers views our biological predicament as tragic and something to be overcome. MGTOW not only shows men another way but some even advocated technological solutions, like artificial womb that would allow men not to deal with women that can often be erratic and an overall detriment to man’s wellbeing.

Elon Musk is definitely an up-winger. He is a former liberal (his own words). He is a former darling of the liberal crowd. He has joined hands now with the libertarian right. Elon wants this species to break out of its home planet and colonize the universe. He delves into things like cybernetics and AI. Other oligarchs seem to follow suit to a various degree. There seems to a more gradual shift of these oligarchs to a more libertarian ethos. Trump presidency should accelerate the process, they should squeeze the maximum out of it. The question is who will get us off this planet, and make us immortal? The current crop of politicians or the techno king?

FM2030 had some rather radical ideas that seem hard to implement. He proposed that children be raised in communes where the relationship between parents would be nonexistent. He considered the relationship between husband and wife, and parents and child to be possessive. I don’t know if this isn’t a flight of idealistic folly from him. Human babies need slightly more than a decade before they become fully developed. Compare that to a dog which leaves the vulnerable state rather early. I am not sure if humans don’t share this with other primates but the bottom line is that children need direction. Who gives that direction is up to a debate. Immediately we however see a relationship of top down authority.

FM2030 had the idea that modern communes should be rather nomadic, and not tied to a place. They have to free themselves of old relationships like family, religion, profession, and ancestry. Basically, they would have to let all of things that bind them to the past, the land, parents. Ultimately being tied to these structures limits your growth. FM2030 wished to replace home with mobilia a temporary place of rest and socialization.FM2030 wanted this mobilia to be mobile all over this planet and likely beyond. I personally would not be able to pursue my interests if I didn’t have money and property but I find this radical vision strangely alluring. Imagine a world, where I wouldn’t need all the shit, all the stress and would still achieve what I want, or more? How would this even work?

FM2030 pretty much says that single people are becoming mainstream, and this brings me back to the question of whether MGTOW is an Up-winger ideology. It kinda is, although male separatism is not what FM 2030 envisioned. Male separatism is motivated by social structures that are harming men, and which FM2030 would likely have opposed. Although, I would say the passport bro lifestyle combined with digital nomadism would appeal to FM2030 even more. Even though, FM2030 was a communist, he foresaw the abolition of private property. Things in mobilia would be shared. And there isn’t indication that mobilia would be exclusive clubs. He was a complete anti-individualist. He was even against people making the decision to have sex on their own. 😆👌

In the sense he is correct that the human herd needs to be controlled. People cannot do as they wish in many instances. Like you can no longer beat your wife and throw garbage into the river, and all this is done to help the collective and the environment we all live in. In fact even people having sex and procreating comes with a great responsibility. Much like you have a responsibility to the environment, should you not have a responsibility to the human race, and not pollute it with your defective genes?🧬 60% of all diseases are genetic. Modern technology allows us to make better and healthier humans. Sounds like eugenics and people would need to be conditioned to accept this practice.

FM2030 calls having kids “an act of supreme selfishness” And women are compelled into having kids by cultural pressures. He goes further, he says women use motherhood as a cop out of life. A reason to go out of work. Sort of reminds of arguments of Marxist Feminists. I don’t know much about FM2030’s political orientation. He says also that in our times one cannot be sure of holding onto husband or lover, and the child becomes a source of security and rootedness. If I was to give an advice to women, it would be to have their own money, that is a job usually, and children. The husband can leave you, your own money will be of help, children will be of help. The latter aren’t 100% certain, nothing is but they are a good investment. FM 2030 sees further, to a world without money and these familial relationships.

FM2030 actually believes that economic inequality that the Marxists have addressed is the result of a biological injustice. We have been dealt bad cards by Mother Nature. We should be grown! Basically, young people should be encouraged to deposit their genetic material, sperm, eggs to special centers, where the best genetic material would be selected. Then surrogate mothers would carry the best specimen, who would then be raised by people other than any of their biological parents and thus would not have any ties to anybody, and any notion of ancestry. And this individual as he is growing up would be passed between these centers and then enter a life of a traveler between mobilia. 😆👌FM 2023 was not aware of things such as gene editing, although he might have suspected it.

Summarizing, I could say that such a world would require a highly technological society. It is definitely not impossible to achieve but I find it that FM 2030 overlooks human psychology that derives identity from possessions. How would we deal with that on our way to rootless cosmopolitanism is unclear? I can’t help but think that child centers where children would be raised by random people would be a haven for pedophiles. On the other hand, breaking these traditional bonds and biological imperatives would probably bring about a freer future. But it would only be possible in a society of massive control.

FM 2030 Realized Back in the 1970s That School Sucks

Right off the bat, FM 2030 makes the mistake of assuming that kids go to school to learn. He says that in our ever changing world, the pace of progress is so great that the school curriculum doesn’t keep up. School system also conflicts with FM 2030s vision of mobile world, where the people would change location. Basically according to FM 3000 we need fewer schools and more communication satellites and international travel. Kids can find all the stuff they need on the internet now. Besides, I can order books from abroad and they will be delivered to my doorstep. One other author that claims this that I know of is Aaron Clarey, he talks about it in his 2016 book Curse of the high IQ. I agree with this but there is a little problem…

The schools have always been indoctrination centers. From day one, when they appeared in Central Europe in the eighteenth century. Today, they exist as a place where the parents can drop their kids and go to work. Of course FM 2030 envisages a world without money or family. Probably without job and employment as we know them. But at present, one needs money to survive and the parents are legally responsible for the children, and for sending the kids to school. I can hardly imagine this to be changing without the abolishing the state. Which is also something FM 2030 would no doubt like to abolish.

The state is the one that needs the schools the most. Early mass schooling had like 2 years of classes. It did not exist to teach the kids much but rather to inculcate in them loyalty to the local prince or king. And I don’t think schools today are there to teach kids much but to practice rituals of a flag, anthem, pledge of allegiance, watch some big daddy on a portrait or face the symbols of the ruling ideology like the red star on a school I attended or a school in Vietnam that I saw with hammer and sickle. Or maybe some novel ideology of transitioning sexually, or being tolerant to homosexuals, and immigrants. Bottom line is they are daycare centers for children of parents that have to spend their lives at work. Unless this changes, there will be need and demand for schools. But kids can also stay home and study at home. The kiddies are getting homework and are already studying at home.

FM2030 says that schools are an anachronism and that mass media provide a much better avenue to schools. Broadcasts on TV and radio could probably reach many more people that schools. He wrote this before the internet but he envisaged a centralized computer that would distribute information. It would save resources building schools. And I wholeheartedly agree.

Beyond Industrialism

In relation to creating his teletechnological utopia FM2030 said there are two obstacles, 1 is the dismantling of old technology and replacing it with new, and the other one is technophobia of the masses. We can clearly see this today, our civilization requires ever more electricity but we don’t have the generation, the plants, and the grid to carry it. There is anxiety over AI replacing jobs.

FM2030 proposed automated monorail trains in cities, Maglev trains that can travel 600 kph, Robo taxis, even flying taxis, and planes, supersonic, and hypersonic planes, and space shuttles to carry people from Earth to Astrocolonies. (I am actually skeptical of humans in space, maybe some genetically modified cyborg kind of humans can make it over there). FM2030 envisaged smart phones, he called them pocket phones, picture phones, videophones, portable computers. He envisaged an interactive TV, where you could stop the program. He even imagined remote viewing a camera stationed in another city. Little did he know bitches will show their tits and people will say nasty things as long as the mic is on. FM2030 also envisaged internet of things and online shopping. Although, he thought we will reach this level of development by the 1990s, it fell on the 2000s.

Cities Suck

In similar manner, FM2030 is critical of the cities we have. He comes across as envisaging a trailer park as opposed to a settlement. He says that most cities are medieval, or in cases they are modern, they are unfortunately built according to old fashioned methods. He envisages a city that is in line with his mobilia, an instant city built of instant homes, that can be dismantled and moved elsewhere at any moment. Inflatable homes that you can blow and shrink at your whim. And I was left with a question why? Did FM2030 ever ponder why humans build settlements? Why they like a settled life? Why they abandoned hunting mammoths for agrarian villages? He talked about controlled weather, inflatable domes. He wrote about abundant energy, good transportation system, hotels, ports of all kinds. You know, London has Underground, Overground, Cross Rail, Docklands Light Railway, several Airports, hotels and AirBNBs everywhere. I am not sure I would like to live in London again. The idea about people travelling a lot would require a lot of energy, and I don’t know if as a society we will reach this any time soon. There are some people that live in a van, or are digital nomads, they are mentally far ahead of me I guess.

FM2030 is geared toward mobility and fun. In this chapter FM2030 reveals himself as a non-meat eater that considers consuming meat an act of violence. Motherfucka, I am eating an Argentinian steak. Animals were put here to be eaten by humans. The best source of protein. FM2030 probably died prematurely because of his habits.

Something better that he proposes is direct democracy. Representative democracy is sorely outdated, and I believe countries are slowly moving towards elements of direct democracy. Like here in Czechia, you can have local referendums during elections.

FM Promises Fully Automated Luxury Communism

FM2030 says that modern governments and society are obsessed with jobs. Work hard, and hard work is the path to success. People cannot relax even on vacation. FM2030 is right about this but he says some of the way out of this is computer automation, cybernetics. All this made me think of was AI rejecting your job application. FM 2030 thinks however, that the technology would not be enough, values of the society need to change. Attitudes to work needs to change. If you depend on your work, you are a slave, a wage slave. There are some in the Gen Z that are realizing this, slowly. Governments are concerned about tackling unemployment but what needs to change is the way we think about employment. FM2030 also identified a global trend towards unemployment due to automation and cybernation. He however believed that home office, and AI, although he did not use these terms would liberate people rather than do harm. And this is actually what I believe. If your job could be sensibly done by AI, I am sorry, find yourself something else, or learn how to used AI to your advantage. You can now work from your laptop on a beach, drinking pina colada, without a rigid schedule, and don’t have to commute to work.

FM2030 was very optimistic that modern communications could undo poverty in the world. This might be happening, slowly because it is easier said than done. He predicted digital transactions of money, cash is going obsolete. FM2030 could not predict Bitcoin or CBDC’s. FM2030 also predicted a gig economy, and shared economy. And this business model works rather well. Why buy an apartment in Italy, rent the apartment. Why buy a woodchipper, just rent in. You can even rent a movie on YouTube, but you can also own it. But there will be somebody, who will own all the things you can rent. Probably some corporation, a sovereign fund, or even the state directly. It will be what Varoufakis calls Technofeudalism. We will never build utopia, really…

FM2030 actually proposes something I have also advocated for. Less work! 4 days work week, by-weekly days off, 6 month in the years off. Literally spend less time in your job, and just chill, enjoy yourself! FM2030 is also critical of punctuality and efficiency as a virtue. He says such qualities should be expected from robots. I am glad he did not live to see AI. I am currently using ChatGPT to illustrate a small project I have, and not a day passes by without a fuck up. Minor mistakes are kinda cute and I don’t even care but some of the stuff it churns out is plain unusable. FM2030 said you should not stay in one job for more than 3 years. I have really only had full time employment for three years in my entire life. On one hand he realizes there is trend towards unemployment, and at the same time he suggests to change jobs like clothing. That’s easier said than done in today’s economy.

FM2030 envisaged a quantum leap into a World of Abundance Creativity Leisure. Fewer people working can produce more. I agree…

FM2030 is Against Nationalism

FM2030 noted an unprecedented international cooperation in his time. He said an up-winger should support open borders, and global government. Quite frankly, global government is a good idea and the cooperation between nations is also better than rivalry? But is competition a bad thing? It forces parties to adapt and innovate. Too much cooperation would lead to complacency, hegemonic control, and eventual stagnation. It is clear that pooling resources can achieve great things but a great deal of regional autonomy is also good. The EU has been a project intended to unite and make stronger the European continent but the regulation is halting development and the EU is now overtaken by US and China.

You know, all this citizen of the world thing is fine and dandy and some people are already on it. Many have the citizenship of several countries, money and assets in several jurisdictions. But the problem I see is human, humans use resources and they produce waste. And resources and waste need management. Maybe in the future the issue of resources and waste management will be solved but this will be a highly technological society. In fact FM2030 is always making appeals to technology, particularly modern communications. He instinctively knows that the vision he has is impossible without it. The problem I see is not in nationalism, patriotism, free movement of individuals but rather in ecology. Humans are not entitled to any place on the planet. There needs to be clear divide between the human realm and the wild.

Into the Stars

FM2030 wrote this book in 1973, and was very much inspired by the space race, and called on humanity to take up this challenge. Strive to colonize other worlds, search for extraterrestrial life, and achieve immortality.

Freedom is not Enough

FM2030 says we are trapped inside bodies that we did not choose. The bodies we inhabit are imperfect and temporal and this is wrong. Some blokes today make their lives easier by transitioning into a bitch. 😆👌Political and economic freedoms cannot compensate for being a sub 5 genetic loser with bad personality.

Anyway guys, I am going to stop this rant right here…