Mini-thread: against the "One Commandment"

Balaji's The Network State (see my review https://vitalik.ca/general/2022/07/13/networkstates.html ) has a concept called "the one commandment": a new startup society should have one key moral value that differs from the outside world. I argue that this is wrong.

Good thread. TLDR: one commandment is an oversimplification, but a useful oversimplification.

One way to think about it: when you pitch your community to a new recruit, how do you describe it?

Culdesac: car-free
Kift: van life
Praxis: vitalist

Note what this is *not*. It's not an economic pitch. It's a values pitch.

The beauty of a one commandment is the same as that of slogans. They can become mantras, fit t-shirts, be part of chants. But then they can be expanded to mean something nuanced. Think of examples like "free speech" or BLM (off the top of my head). They have as many meanings as people interpreting them.