Stepping over the general LHP/RHP question that you’re driving at, I’ll expand on this:
> Someone asked why Crowley is perennially popular on HN. It's because his approach appeals to people who have experienced enough religion to understand that there is something there, but are struggling to reconcile it with our culture's dominant scientific materialism, because they're bright enough to want to try to. "The method of science, the aim of religion". A lot of HN matches that demographic.
Hackish culture was playful, irreverent, simultaneously creative and destructive, competitive, and elitist (in a word: adolescent). Being part of it felt like sorcery, like you were finding and pulling strings others couldn’t see. I think there’s a heavy psychological crossover between the kind of people who got into that and into occultism, the kind of people who really like the idea of hidden power and taking control of the world around them. That’s also why you see the same people drawn to transhumanism, etc.
Tangentially, how much that culture still exists, I’m not really sure. I think most subcultures have ossified into collections of shibboleths without the creative power that formed them, even subsumed into the same global culture as a mere consumer aesthetic.
> the kind of people who really like the idea of hidden power and taking control of the world around them. That’s also why you see the same people drawn to transhumanism, etc.
Good point - actually not just a case of hidden power but also the sense of wonder at a hidden universe beyond what the eyes could see. Yeah, good shout.
> Someone asked why Crowley is perennially popular on HN. It's because his approach appeals to people who have experienced enough religion to understand that there is something there, but are struggling to reconcile it with our culture's dominant scientific materialism, because they're bright enough to want to try to. "The method of science, the aim of religion". A lot of HN matches that demographic.
Hackish culture was playful, irreverent, simultaneously creative and destructive, competitive, and elitist (in a word: adolescent). Being part of it felt like sorcery, like you were finding and pulling strings others couldn’t see. I think there’s a heavy psychological crossover between the kind of people who got into that and into occultism, the kind of people who really like the idea of hidden power and taking control of the world around them. That’s also why you see the same people drawn to transhumanism, etc.
Tangentially, how much that culture still exists, I’m not really sure. I think most subcultures have ossified into collections of shibboleths without the creative power that formed them, even subsumed into the same global culture as a mere consumer aesthetic.