The Old is New in SF Politics

So some dude is having feverish dreams of turning San Francisco into some sort of nightmarish, tech-controlled dystopia.

Now, San Francisco has always been packed with people trying to mold the city into their very own personal fiefdom. This dude just happens to have money and influence, so he’s getting more attention than most. He will, of course, fail, and he probably knows it, but sharing these types of fantasies will still bring him some clout in certain circles.

But even if his scheme is doomed to fail, this is an opportunity to remind people that what he is proposing is, at its core, not really new. The idea of creating a politically-dominant social class around an arbitrary attribute (in this case, gray shirts that signal techie cred?) is just 21st century “Big Man” politics.

The twisted, retrograde logic goes like this: The “masses” are a barrier to actual progress, as defined by the enlightened overlords. Therefore the ideal solution is to eliminate the ability of the working class to influence governance. Displacing them from San Francisco removes them from the voter list and accomplishes this goal neatly.

After all, you don’t need to persuade the poors to vote for your measures or candidates if they don’t even live in San Francisco, right? It is the immature response of a man that, despite having disproportionate political influence due to his wealth, is still unable to manage very normal political tension.

People like this aren’t just turning their back on modern society and Liberalism, but skipping and running towards feudalism in the form of a techno-caste society. Don’t buy into the political obscurantism peddled by these folks.