A kingmaker is a dealmaker. As per Wikipedia, a kingmaker is one who has the power to tip the balances. One who can make the decision to choose a man over another as king. There may not be viable themselves as an option due to age, gender, familial ties, or competency, but they are powerful enough to be able to pull the strings.
In a recent interview, Curtis Yarvin criticizes the American West for not knowing how to bear the burden of power, not knowing how to be anointed. The American man wants power off his back and assumes it for that purpose and solely for that purpose. A man of the old world assumes that position with honor and with pride. Now if we are going to respect that position of power and if we are going to aspire to it, the question becomes, what does a king look like? What does a rising king look like?
To us this question is foreign, but when you look at it for a moment and remember those old school nursery rhymes and the books you were read as a boy, you come to know that a rising king is a prince. But then you say, well, how can I be a prince if my father is not a king? And my mother is not a queen? And there is no royal family, not only in my bloodline, but in my country. Then you have to realize that a prince is not just one who has ties to the throne based on blood. You may have ties to the throne because they are anointed by a kingmaker. Although it is not often used this way, the kingmaker is often their parents who have put them in that role. But a kingmaker can come in many forms. And for many, to become the great king that they have become, they inherit a portion of the throne. As Dan Carlin would say, they are given the keys to the Maserati. And now they have to drive baby drive.
There does this modern day prince find his kingmaker? Perhaps… It is… once again found in the parents. While lacking traditional kings, we no doubt have monarchical leaders today. You just have to look at the fortune 500 to understand that there are dynasties that have the potential to be passed down. And even not just the material wealth that will be passed down, but the know-how, the… the divine position that may be granted by the powerful. So, to seize this position, one has to strike a deal. And that deal can be many things. Often, in familial relationships, it’s implicit. It’s, they will give you the keys if you will uphold their legacy and make good on that family name. In others, it’s good old-fashioned bribery can get the job done. Now, what system in the modern world is going to facilitate this bribery? On what platform can the modern day king rise?
There are two options. There is the coup or the startup. The coup is the option which entails overthrowing an incumbent purveyor and assuming control over their people and assets. This is an easy path. It has been done before. See Lincoln, FDR, and Deng Xiaoping for some recent examples. But there are so many cases where this has not gone well. See the French Revolution and the English Civil War. And the countless regime changes which have occurred all across South America in the 20th century. It is possible though. And a man can get back on that bike of a throne and see if those wheels still turn and the gears still work. The question then becomes how do you reprogram the beast? How do you reprogram Terminator once inside? Is this doable?
This test is certainly being played out now. While the orange man may not be reprogramming the terminator effectively, he is certainly trying to ride the bike.
Now the second option is the startup, the network state if you will. Borrowing Balaji’s phrase. Now this is the ground up strategy. It is often easier to rebuild and to remake from the ground up than it is to reform from the inside as many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs will tell you. The problem with this though is you need land and you need people and you need man power and military power, fire power. Most importantly you need a kingmaker. Now a kingmaker falls in many of the categories from before because a kingmaker offers constituents land, fire power and money power. Another problem with this is there is no facilitating system by which the product market fit of king to kingmaker can be matched. It is not often that you find a kingmaking service just around the corner in a fiat nation. It requires working outside the system, under the system’s nose but outside the system’s reach.
Apology proposed something similar at the end of his network state conference in 2024. The gist of it was an application whereby you can dedicate funds and dedicate your vote via social smart contract to a political party and given the parameters of the smart contract which operates on a blockchain, there would be limitations and requirements for how that money be spent. This is a perfect example of how to work outside of the system’s reach but under its nose. The reason I think you haven’t heard about a kingmatching startup since this press conference despite his showing of a simple MVP and the lack of difficulty of such a project is that it is not easy to build this network of users who would use this server often enough for that perfect match between kingmaker and king to be, to occur. It is not often you come by someone with the means and political swing to make such differences in elections and in power struggles and it is also not often you come by someone with vision and charisma looking to ascend a throne, particularly in America. However this can change. There is already an analogous problem that it exists in angel investing. There already exists a wide array of angel investors looking to make a lot of money in small projects and also take on that risk and mentor role much similar to a kingmaker. There are also a shitload of first time founders looking to get their weekend business off the ground and live the dream. Not all of these people are really kingmaker material and not all of them are kingmaterial. However, a very similar application could be used to serve such a demographic and the agency that comes with founding is remarkably similar to that of a prince and the means and mentorship Yoda like nature of the angel investor is often what a prince needs in a kingmaker.
This is what I’m going to build. I’m not sure whether I’m going to push it to this website or another. I’m not sure exactly which blockchain I’m going to deploy it on. And I’m not sure about the timeline. But someday, when the moment is right… And I can find… The time… I will facilitate this great machine. This will be my great work. And the birthplace… Of many great new thrones. I will be the kingmaker of kingmakers of kingmakers. if you will.
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