"Architects of society" seems to be a running theme the last 100-200 years. And there is indeed a great deal of hubris in that idea. Thiel is a libertarian (i.

"Architects of society" seems to be a running theme the last 100-200 years. And there is indeed a great deal of hubris in that idea. Thiel is a libertarian (i.e., effectively a classical liberal and then some), and libertarians are individualists who view society as some kind of thing we enter into almost grudgingly and purely for the sake of private self-interest. The notion of the common good is either offensive to them, or understood as something ceded to "society" by individuals with little enthusiasm, but for the sake of some kind of utility or unfortunate necessity. For a libertarian to "architect society" can only mean ordering it in a manner that conforms to libertarian notions, and in practice, this means rule of the powerful for their own self-interest. This is the definition of tyranny. The Soviets, too, wanted to "architect" societies, to remake Man and society in their own image, gladly throwing millions under the crushing wheels of the socialist machine. The similarities between the two are not an accident, because they're not true opposites.