Neocameralism/Definitions

These are some definitions pertaining to neocameralism.

Terms Yarvin defines

• Agreement: Moldbug, Mencius (26 June 2008). "OLXI: the truth about left and right". Unqualified Reservations. A pair of reciprocal promises, a common phenomenon on Urplat, is an agreement.
• Anarchism: Moldbug, Mencius (26 June 2008). "OLXI: the truth about left and right". Unqualified Reservations. Thus, anarchism defines itself: it is an attempt to capture the state, and its juicy revenues, through extortion, robbery and murder. When it succeeds, it will distribute the loot among its accomplices, and "establish well-being for all." At least in theory.
• Antidemotist: Moldbug, Mencius (16 August 2007). "Against political freedom". Unqualified Reservations. Presumably then an antidemotist would be one who disbelieved in democracy, who thought that democracy in general is basically a bad thing. An antidemotist might use the word demotist in much the way some demotists seem to call anything they don't like fascist.
• Antinomian: Moldbug, Mencius (26 June 2008). "OLXI: the truth about left and right". Unqualified Reservations. An antinomian is anyone who seeks, consciously or unconsciously, to disrupt or destroy the nomos. He is a breaker of oaths, a burner of deeds, a mocker of laws - at least, from the pronomian perspective. From his own perspective he is a champion of freedom and justice.
• Areligion: Moldbug, Mencius (12 June 2008). "OL9: how to uninstall a cathedral". Unqualified Reservations. Let's rectify this linguistic sabotage by calling a no-god tradition an areligion.
• Believing in religion: Moldbug, Mencius (25 April 2007). "Why do atheists believe in religion?". Unqualified Reservations. By "believing in religion," I mean recognizing a significant categorical distinction between "religious" phenomena, and those that are "nonreligious" or "secular."
• Caste: Moldbug, Mencius (6 May 2007). "Castes of the United States". Unqualified Reservations. Let's define a "caste" as a social group with its own internal status system.
• Cathedral: Moldbug, Mencius (8 January 2009). "A gentle introduction to Unqualified Reservations (part 1)". Unqualified Reservations. And the left is the party of the educational organs, at whose head is the press and universities. This is our 20th-century version of the established church. Here at UR, we sometimes call it the Cathedral - although it is essential to note that, unlike an ordinary organization, it has no central administrator. No, this will not make it easier to deal with.
• Church: Moldbug, Mencius (8 January 2009). "A gentle introduction to Unqualified Reservations (part 1)". Unqualified Reservations. We have just said: a church is an organization or movement which tells people how to think.
• Corporation: Moldbug, Mencius (13 December 2007). "Why I am not a libertarian". Unqualified Reservations. The US government today has no king. On the other hand, it is certainly a distinct entity, and we can regard it as a corporation, that is, a virtual person with a single identity.
• Coup: Moldbug, Mencius (10 July 2008). "OLXIII: tactics and structures of any prospective restoration". Unqualified Reservations. For obvious reasons, I prefer the word reset. But English does have a word for a discontinuous transition in sovereignty: coup. Not every coup is a reset, but every reset is a coup. The French meaning, a blow or strike, is a perfect shorthand for a discontinuous transition of sovereignty. If this transition involves a complete replacement of the sovereign decision structure, it is a reset. For example, if Plaingov's military initiates a reset, as obviously it will always have the power to, we would be looking at a military reset.
• Covenant: Moldbug, Mencius (20 November 2008). "Patchwork 2: profit strategies for our new corporate overlords". Unqualified Reservations. A realm signs a formal contract, or covenant, with all responsible residents. The deal is this: the resident agrees not to misbehave, the realm agrees not to mistreat him. Definitions of each are set down in great detail.
• Delegate: Moldbug, Mencius (20 November 2008). "Patchwork 2: profit strategies for our new corporate overlords". Unqualified Reservations. For our overall realm design, let's simplify the Anglo-American corporate model slightly. We'll have direct shareholder sovereignty, with no board of directors. The board layer strikes me as a bit of an anachronism, and it is certainly one place stuff can go wrong. Deleted. And I also dislike the term 'CEO,' which seems a bit vainglorious for a sovereign organization. A softer word with a pleasant Quaker feel is delegate, although we will compromise on a capital. And we can call the logical holder of each share its proprietor. Therefore: a Patchwork realm is governed by a Delegate, who is the proxy of the proprietors, and can be replaced by a majority of them at any time and for any reason. The Delegate exercises undivided sovereign authority, as in divine-right monarchy. Ie, in English: total power.
• Democoup: Moldbug, Mencius (10 July 2008). "OLXIII: tactics and structures of any prospective restoration". Unqualified Reservations. The only alternative to a military coup is a political coup, or to be catchy a democoup. In a democoup, the government is overthrown by organizing a critical mass of political opposition to which it surrenders, ideally just as the result of overwhelming peer pressure.
• Demotist: Moldbug, Mencius (16 August 2007). "Against political freedom". Unqualified Reservations. Let's call anyone who believes in democracy a demotist. A demotist is just anyone who has a positive association with the compound of demos and kratos. He or she thinks that democracy in general, if not necessarily every specific use to which this vague and ancient term has ever attached itself, is basically a good thing.
• Dissident: Moldbug, Mencius (26 June 2008). "OLXI: the truth about left and right". Unqualified Reservations. Dissidents by definition are people who think for themselves.
• Education: Moldbug, Mencius (8 January 2009). "A gentle introduction to Unqualified Reservations (part 1)". Unqualified Reservations. Education is defined as the inculcation of correct facts and good morals. Thus an institution which is educational and secular, such as Harvard, simply becomes a "Church, which shall Teach only the Truth." Like the Puritans of old New England, in seeking to disestablish one state church, we have established another.
• Fiat currency: Moldbug, Mencius (19 June 2008). "OLX: a simple sovereign bankruptcy procedure". Unqualified Reservations. In other words, we can define fiat currency as dubious equity. Owning a grubnick is like owning a share in Yukos. If you own all the shares of Yukos, you own a lawsuit against the Russian government. What is this worth? It's up to the Russian government. At present the answer appears to be nothing, but Putin might always change his mind.
• Idealist (capitalized): Moldbug, Mencius (14 May 2007). "Idealism is not great". Unqualified Reservations. An Idealist is a person who believes that universals exist independently. Specifically, in the modern sense, your Idealist believes in concepts such as Democracy, the Environment, Peace, Freedom, Human Rights, Equality, Justice, etc, etc.
• Judicial supremacy: Moldbug, Mencius (20 November 2008). "Patchwork 2: profit strategies for our new corporate overlords". Unqualified Reservations. Judicial supremacy is a management design in which ultimate sovereign authority rests with committees of arbitrators who are experts in proper government procedure.
• King: Moldbug, Mencius (4 February 2010). "From Mises to Carlyle: my sick journey to the dark side of the force". Unqualified Reservations. And all organizations, big or small, public or private, military or civilian, are managed best when managed by a single executive. Hence: royalism. However he or she is selected, the title of such an executive, in a sovereign capacity, is King - or, at least, anything else is a euphemism.
• Left: Moldbug, Mencius (8 January 2009). "A gentle introduction to Unqualified Reservations (part 1)". Unqualified Reservations. First, we need to define left and right. In my opinion, obviously a controversial one, the explanation for this mysterious asymmetric dimension is easy: it is political entropy. Right represents peace, order and security; left represents war, anarchy and crime.
• Nomos: Moldbug, Mencius (26 June 2008). "OLXI: the truth about left and right". Unqualified Reservations. The nomos is the natural structure of formal promises around which Urplatins organize their lives.
• Orwellian government: Moldbug, Mencius (8 January 2009). "A gentle introduction to Unqualified Reservations (part 1)". Unqualified Reservations. I'd say a fair definition of an Orwellian government is one whose principle of public legitimacy (Mosca's political formula, if you care) is contradicted by an accurate perception of reality.
• Personal freedom: Moldbug, Mencius (16 August 2007). "Against political freedom". Unqualified Reservations. Personal freedom is the freedom to engage in all other acts that satisfy you directly, and that do not infringe the rights of others.
• Plainland: Moldbug, Mencius (20 January 2008). "How to defeat the US government: summary". Unqualified Reservations. We start with the perception that USG, or Washcorp, is a problem. Its problem is that the interests Washcorp serves seem quite a good match for its own. They do not seem to match the interests of the residents of the territory Washcorp owns, central North America or Plainland. (Using these neutral names helps us separate ourselves from symbolic emotional attachments, which also serve Washcorp's interest.)
• Political freedom: Moldbug, Mencius (16 August 2007). "Against political freedom". Unqualified Reservations. Political freedom is the freedom to engage in acts whose purpose is not direct satisfaction, but indirect satisfaction obtained by influencing government policy. When you vote, demonstrate, print underground leaflets, etc, you are engaged in acts of political freedom. You do these things only because you believe they have some political effect.
• Popularchy: Moldbug, Mencius (21 May 2007). "Popularchy: rule of the People". Unqualified Reservations. It's a new system of government I call popularchy. A popularchy secures itself by making itself popular with its subjects. It trains them to love, honor and obey it.
• Power:

• Moldbug, Mencius (8 January 2009). "A gentle introduction to Unqualified Reservations (part 1)". Unqualified Reservations. I define power as personal influence over important events; I don't know of any other definition.
• Moldbug, Mencius (12 May 2007). "The iron polygon: power in the United States". Unqualified Reservations. As a formalist, I define power as the ability to change the rules, or to clarify them when no rules exist. In a mature, sclerotic megastate like the US, it can be very hard to see where the power is, because (by historical standards) there is almost no change in the US.

• Progressive atheocracy: Moldbug, Mencius (12 June 2008). "OL9: how to uninstall a cathedral". Unqualified Reservations. Which implies quite inexorably that the America we do live in, the real one, can be fairly described as a progressive atheocracy - that is, a system of government based on an official areligion, progressivism.
• Property: Moldbug, Mencius (26 June 2008). "OLXI: the truth about left and right". Unqualified Reservations. Property is a system in which one Urplatin claims the sole power to dominate some good - play with a toy, drive a car, fence off a plot of land - and all other Urplatins promise to respect that right.
• Proprietor: Moldbug, Mencius (20 November 2008). "Patchwork 2: profit strategies for our new corporate overlords". Unqualified Reservations. For our overall realm design, let's simplify the Anglo-American corporate model slightly. We'll have direct shareholder sovereignty, with no board of directors. The board layer strikes me as a bit of an anachronism, and it is certainly one place stuff can go wrong. Deleted. And I also dislike the term 'CEO,' which seems a bit vainglorious for a sovereign organization. A softer word with a pleasant Quaker feel is delegate, although we will compromise on a capital. And we can call the logical holder of each share its proprietor.
• Red pill: Moldbug, Mencius (8 January 2009). "A gentle introduction to Unqualified Reservations (part 1)". Unqualified Reservations. Thus the red pill: any stimulus or stimulant, pharmaceutical or literary, that fundamentally compromises said system of deception.
• Religion: Moldbug, Mencius (25 April 2007). "Why do atheists believe in religion?". Unqualified Reservations. We can define "religion" as the attribution of existence to anthropomorphic paranormal entities. This definition has its fuzzy corner cases, notably some kinds of Buddhism, but it's short and it'll do for the moment.
• Reset:

• Moldbug, Mencius (10 July 2008). "OLXIII: tactics and structures of any prospective restoration". Unqualified Reservations. For obvious reasons, I prefer the word reset. But English does have a word for a discontinuous transition in sovereignty: coup. Not every coup is a reset, but every reset is a coup. The French meaning, a blow or strike, is a perfect shorthand for a discontinuous transition of sovereignty. If this transition involves a complete replacement of the sovereign decision structure, it is a reset. For example, if Plaingov's military initiates a reset, as obviously it will always have the power to, we would be looking at a military reset.
• Moldbug, Mencius (10 July 2008). "OLXIII: tactics and structures of any prospective restoration". Unqualified Reservations. By definition, a reset is a nonincremental transition. To the extent that there is some gradual algorithm which slowly weakens Plaingov and pulls it inexorably toward the brink of implosion, gradualist tactics may be of use. But the tactics are useful only as they promote the goal, and the goal is not gradual.

• Resident: Moldbug, Mencius (20 November 2008). "Patchwork 2: profit strategies for our new corporate overlords". Unqualified Reservations. Any hominid, hominoid, or other bipedal ape present on Friscorp's patch is a resident.
• Restoration: Moldbug, Mencius (19 June 2008). "OLX: a simple sovereign bankruptcy procedure". Unqualified Reservations. A restoration is a regime-change procedure designed to safely and effectively reverse the damage which progressivism has inflicted on civilization, acting under the principles of good government that prevailed in theory, if not always in practice, in the late classical or Victorian period, and producing a new era in which secure, responsible and effective government is as easy to take for granted as tap-water you can drink, electricity that is always on, or a search engine that returns porn only if you searched for porn.
• Right: Moldbug, Mencius (8 January 2009). "A gentle introduction to Unqualified Reservations (part 1)". Unqualified Reservations. First, we need to define left and right. In my opinion, obviously a controversial one, the explanation for this mysterious asymmetric dimension is easy: it is political entropy. Right represents peace, order and security; left represents war, anarchy and crime.
• Soft reset: Moldbug, Mencius (12 June 2008). "OL9: how to uninstall a cathedral". Unqualified Reservations. In a soft reset, we leave the current structure of government the same, except that we apply the 20th-century First Amendment to all forms of instruction, theistic or "secular." In other words, our policy is separation of education and state.
• The Trust: Moldbug, Mencius (10 July 2008). "OLXIII: tactics and structures of any prospective restoration". Unqualified Reservations. Rather, any plan in which Plaingov relinquishes its sovereign power must involve a transfer of that power to an agency which is intrinsically trustworthy. Let's call this the Trust. The Receiver is an employee of the Trust, which selects her, reviews her performance regularly, and replaces her if there is any doubt as to her excellence. Sovereignty is an attribute of the Trust, not of the Receiver.
• Ward of the realm: Moldbug, Mencius (20 November 2008). "Patchwork 2: profit strategies for our new corporate overlords". Unqualified Reservations. There is one problem, though, which is the problem I mentioned last week: the problem of adults who are not productive members of society. In our little Newspeak we call them wards of the realm. A ward is any resident who is not capable of earning a living, is not accepted as a dependent by any guardian, and is not wanted by any other patch.

Terms Yarvin says can't be defined

• Righteousness: Moldbug, Mencius (14 May 2007). "Idealism is not great". Unqualified Reservations. We all know there is no objective definition of Righteousness.
• Self-government: Moldbug, Mencius (13 May 2007). "Political sanity in one easy step". Unqualified Reservations. There is no such thing as "self-government." Government is an organization that acts.