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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 1, 2026

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What is a knight in the face of an autonomous drone swarm, where each unit that can kill him and his brethren costs less than his monthly salary?

Well, the Dreaded Jim has actually had a lot to say on this, particularly with the lessons of the Ukraine war. Specifically, the limits of communication links and autonomy means that drone swarm proves most effective with a skilled, mobile elite operator providing human guidance from nearby on the battlefield. Specifically, he's argued that these men in fact represent the emerging "new knights."

What is a knight when his bank account can be frozen on the whims of a bureaucrat?

How did knights historically deal with either a lack of cash on hand, or an obstructive clerk? For that matter, need I mention traditional aristocrats' disdain for commerce (and banking)? How many were cash-poor? How much of their wealth was in either land holdings, castles/fortresses, and their military equipment? How Germanic kings were described in sagas as "breaker of rings" or "foe of gold"? What need does a king have for a bank account — when he needs something, he just holds out his hand, and some loyal subject places it in that hand.

As others have pointed out, money isn't power, power gets you money. The wealthy never truly rule, because wealth is too easily expropriated; and thus, the rich end up beholden to whoever defends them from expropriation (either with the sword, or with a faith that condemns such taking). Thus, society is ruled by either warriors or priests. Our modern problem is priestly rule.

(Again, this is a problem with Moldbug. He spills enormous amounts of digital ink detailing exactly how the current priestly "brahmin"/"elf" elite are ruling terribly… and then proposes solutions that are all about making that very same elite's rule permanent, while trying to design technological mechanisms to exclude warrior rule forever…)