Silicon Valley ideology fused free-market libertarianism with New Left anti-hierarchy

Evidence

The companies often arose in Silicon Valley, a region of California where government contracts and good universities allowed for physical infrastructure to flourish in suburbs in the San Francisco Bay Area. Culturally, this new corner of US capitalism was shaped by free-market libertarian ideals, as well as a version of new-age individualist utopianism that had some roots in the New Left. According to one prominent strain of thought, decentralization and the destruction of all hierarchies that accompanied the advance of network technology would distribute power, and it would mean democratization. Some took this very literally—at the Synergia Ranch commune, run on a cybernetic notion called “ecotechnics,” both organization and collective action were strictly forbidden. In practice, dark versions of abusive authority quickly emerged. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 290

Culturally, this new corner of US capitalism was shaped by free-market libertarian ideals, as well as a version of new-age individualist utopianism that had some roots in the New Left. According to one prominent strain of thought, decentralization and the destruction of all hierarchies that accompanied the advance of network technology would distribute power, and it would mean democratization. Some took this very literally—at the Synergia Ranch commune, run on a cybernetic notion called “ecotechnics,” both organization and collective action were strictly forbidden. In practice, dark versions of abusive authority quickly emerged. — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 290

Categorization

• XREF: This interestingly parallels the anti-hierarchical movement structures chapters elsewhere — same utopian premise, same failure. — connects to: Neoliberal privatization decisions shaped the corporate-controlled internet — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 288; Silicon Valley’s ideology fuses technological determinism with libertarian individualism. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 118; Web 2.0 ideology fuses Silicon Valley capitalism with countercultural activism while embracing capitalism — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 55 (+1 more)
• QUESTION: The Synergia Ranch commune with banned collective action invites further reading on how cybernetic theory justified abusive authority.
• DEFINE: Explains ecotechnics and the Synergia Ranch experiment as an extreme test of anti-hierarchy ideology.
• SEED: The Synergia Ranch commune’s no-organization rule and its collapse into abuse is a vivid case study for an essay on anti-hierarchy ideology’s failure modes.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 290

Broader Connections

• Silicon Valley’s ideology fuses technological determinism with libertarian individualism. #corroborates (1.00) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 118
• Web 2.0 ideology fuses Silicon Valley capitalism with countercultural activism while embracing capitalism #expands (0.85) — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, 55
• The internet’s egalitarian founding promise hardened into corporate libertarianism #corroborates (0.80) — Jürgen Habermas, A New Structural Transformation of the…, 34