TESCREAList or Eschatologist?

Which One Are You?

The United States is facing a deadly combination born of two extreme ideologies.

The first are the Eschatologists. They believe that the world is coming to an end and the Second Coming of Jesus is about to take place. These are the Christian Nationalists behind the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025 and the Council for National Policy (CNP). They are determined to implement their world view on humanity no matter the level of suffering to everyday people.

The second are the TESCREALists. The acronym stands for: Transhumanism, Extropianism, Singularitarianism, Cosmism, Rationalism, Effective Altruism, and Longtermism. These are the Silicon Valley tech bros who think that the extinction of the human race is imminent and that they somehow will escape the collapse of humanity through their technology and AI.

On Team Jesus, we have the Dominionist Movement and the Council For National Policy and the implementation of Project 2025 by the Heritage Foundation and their adherence to Eschatology, pro-Parousia. They want to facilitate the Second Coming, so they get to fawn at the feet of Jesus. They have unlimited funding from sources such as the Catholic (dark money) cult known as Opus Dei.

On Team TechBro, we have the multi-billionaires of Silicon Valley who are putting all their money into their own longevity and their belief that the rest of us are screwed as they live forever with their brain implants. To them, AI (Artificial Intelligence-AGI) will accelerate them to a Utopian future where they will live on their floating countries or compounds in Alaska or Australia. They want a:

“…future that had less to do with making the world a better place than it did with transcending the human condition altogether.” ― Douglas Rushkoff, Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires

Both of these anti-humanist ideologies are centered around authoritarianism.

“TESCREAL” is an acronym standing for Transhumanism, Extropianism, Singularitarianism, Cosmism, Rationalism, Effective Altruism, and Longtermism. Torres and Gebru argue that these ideologies are deeply rooted in the eugenics movement, particularly its attempts to define “intelligence” instrumentally, and that TESCREAL’s implications are predictably authoritarian.”-- David Z. Morris: Mapping the Cult of the Techno-Utopia

Eschatologists are believers in the End Times, to Book of Revelation, Parousia and the Second Coming of The Christ.

“Eschatology, pronounced “es-kuh-TOL-uh-jee,” is a term that stems from the Greek word eschatos, meaning “last” or “end”, combined with logia, meaning “study of” or “doctrine.” As a branch of theology, eschatology is concerned with the study of the ultimate destiny of humanity and the world, often referred to as the “end times.” --Marko Marina, Ph.D.: Eschatology: Exploring Its Meaning & Conflicting Views

They Have the Power

“For them, the future of technology is about only one thing: escape from the rest of us.” ― Douglas Rushkoff

“The power of Christ compels you!” –The Exorcist

Following January 20, 2025, this combination of freaks and weirdos are going to have full control of the U.S. government.

The combination of Christian Nationalists wedded to Eschatology and the creepy TechBros who want to live forever in their android form will be calling the shots for the rest of us in the country.

Some of us just want our morning cup of coffee and maybe walk the dogs. We aren’t looking forward to a thousand-year reign of Jesus or the end of humanity so the TechBros can live to be 300-years old with their AI making their techno utopia. We just want to have a quality bowel movement.

Both want a similar ending, but with different outcomes.

“People in this third group imagine our species disappearing by being replaced by a new species of what some call “posthuman” beings, which could take the form of “intelligent machines” or “AIs.”” -- Émile P. Torres: Team Human vs. Team Posthuman—Which Side Are You On?

Biological life is quaint, but it is on the way out. So, we are left with two scenarios, or perhaps a blending of ideologies? Maybe Jesus will come back but he will be an AI powered android, and he will reign over a 1000-year period of techno utopia? Better yet, the TechBros and TESCREALists will create the android Jesus, and this will be their new God?

What binds these two “philosophies” (can they be called that?) is the thinking that the true believers will be spared while the rest of humanity suffers. The non-believers of the religious cult will be burnt to a crisp in some hell. The non-believers of the techno cult will be relegated to, maybe, batteries to power the AGI, ala The Matrix?

Neither of these scenarios carry any inherent risks, right?

If you read Rushkoff’s book: Survival of the Richest you learn that these TechBros are not the brightest bulbs in the chandelier. Not only are they visibly dumb, but they also have a level of arrogance born of their enormous wealth that has turned their brains into pudding…and then the spiders started eating the pudding.

“…it also set me off on a multi-year journey to understand “The Mindset” leading the wealthy to believe that as long they have enough money and the right technology, they can break the laws of physics, economics and morality to escape a disaster of their own making. They are preparing for a digital future that has less to do with making the world a better place than transcending the human condition altogether.” –Douglas Rushkoff

For the Christofascists, it is the Evangelical view that if you don’t believe in their God, you are expendable. Try being a “Palestinian” while Jared Kushner is salivating over your beachfront property on the Mediterranean.

Drones: I've Become So Numb

What are those of us not possessed by The Mindset to do? Is there a people-powered revolution that we can create that stands up to these dual tragedies about to befall the country?

The reality is that the ‘majority’ of the country is centrist. The far right and far left fringes want everyone to fight and be numb and they have amplified voices thanks to the combination of the churches and social media. The churches are preaching insanity and the Inquisition, and the media allows unmoderated insanity to flood the zone with garbage as people swipe their device and “consume mass quantities.”

“By diverting resources away from productive investments, late-stage capitalism has weakened the broader economy, limiting job growth and wage increases for the majority. This era of financialization, rather than providing widespread prosperity, has exacerbated inequality and led to economic instability.” -- “Late Stage Capitalism: A Structural and Societal Decline”

On Douglas Rushkoff’s podcast: Team Human, he recently discussed Late Stage Capitalism and suggested that our best strategy might be to no longer feed the machine. He gave an example of each person owning a power drill. They maybe used the power drill two times, but the act of driving a car to Home Depot to purchase the power drill feeds the machine. It helps the oil company producing gasoline for the car, it feeds Home Depot and it feeds Black & Decker. The reality is that one person on your block might own a power drill that can be used as a community power drill, and everyone can share the drill as needed.

Rushkoff then asks, what else do we know of that needs to constantly feed and grow…and replies “Cancer.” Cancer is something that feeds off the host for the purpose of continuous growth. E.g., Capitalism = Cancer.

Take the latest “Drone Scare.” This is the country we live in today. People see airplanes or even constellations in the sky and are convinced that aliens (or Iran) are flying dangerous objects in the sky to spy on us or hurt us. The media feeds the narrative and suddenly the only thing in the “news” is ‘drones.’

At the same time, there is an incoming administration that wants to put the most ill-equipped people in charge of some of the most sensitive positions in the government. The national security of the country is quite literally on the line, and they want people focused on lights in the sky.

The Three Card Monty continues with the sleight of hand as they tee up the country to be taken over by religious extremists that believe in the End Times and tech billionaires who want to live forever in their techno utopia.

Stay numb. Stay defeated. You are powerless. Keep them dumb, keep them poor, keep them scared. That is fascism; defined. We must resist the undertow.

When we act together, “we” are not powerless. We are the supply; we are the commodity. We need to starve the religious nuts and the technocrats and not feed them. If their goal is to tear it all down and crash it so they can scoop up the remnants at bargain basement prices…it is up to us to make that playbook as difficult as possible. Once one person stands up, others will be empowered to the same.