Peter Thiel, The Anti-Christ, and the Third Way
Note: Because of the recent attention being given to Peter Thiel’s “Anti-Christ Lecture Series” I am sharing this previously unpublished essay from late 2024. It is now more timely and therefore possibly more meaningful to the reader.
When presented with two possible outcomes, and being asked to make a choice, we tend towards that outcome which is least painful. Not most ideal, but least painful.
However, as we have mentioned often in our courses and presentations life is rarely a choice between extremes. In fact, we have repeatedly pointed out that in the system of General Semantic it is stated that a problem cannot be solved by: 1) going to extremes; 2) emotionalizing it; or 3) personalizing it. A problem can only be solved by focusing on outcomes. We spend some time with this topic in our recent course “Four-Fifteen: Foundations for Personal Success” when discussing the critical aspect of how we personally solve our own problems.
This is also true on the collective level, be it group projects in school, meetings with co-workers, or solving disputes between nations. The most important thing to focus on is the outcomes and which are most desirable and achievable.
Over the last twenty years I have increasingly pointed out to you how the media, and the mainstream media in particular, uses charged language in its headlines to elicit a specific emotional reaction without having to read the article. I’ve also spend a modest amount of time pointing out the extreme dualistic positions presented to us in the same media (although not exclusively, as alternative media sources have done a good job of catching up on this point).
The most extreme message we in the Western World have been presented with over the last seventy-five years has been that the world and all that lives on it is faced with a choice between Armageddon or the Anti-Christ and total destruction, between extinction or total surveillance and control, between the end of civilization and life as we know it or the end of personal freedom.
Over the last few years several people have on occasion spoken to me about this to discuss “a third way” or alternative to these two extremes. Both of which are possible, but not necessarily desirable. Be it fear of global warming/climate change or nuclear war, or a worldwide mass surveillance state (to which their is no court of appeal). Since neither of these conditions provide us with an outcome very suitable for esoteric practice except for the most experienced practitioners it is critical that we consider viable alternatives – or how we will continue to undertake the Path under those extremes.
In December of 2024 I was sent a link to an interview with Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal in which he discussed in someone inelegant terms the very points above. Until this interview Thiel was only a name to me and I had no idea who he was or what he had accomplished or believed. He is clearly a brilliant fellow, and among the wealthiest men on earth, and therefore we should pay some attention to what his thoughts are on this topic. These specific ideas overlap with my own as well as those of some of our long term supporters, and we mention them as generalities and not in support (or contradiction) of particular details or solutions that Thiel may present at various times.
In summary, Thiel stated that since the end of World War Two the world in general and the West in particular has been told there are only two choice facing us: total annihilation or one world government. He places it in the theological language of the West or “Armageddon or Anti-Christ.” While both he and his host go into the more subtle ideas behind those terms they should not be alien to esotericists. I have even spoken at length about this same idea in interviews over the last few years, including my recent one one with Rudolf Berger on Pansophers Podcast.
In this same interview I discuss the ‘Third Way’ without naming it as such. However, before a path or way can be taken we need to know that it even exists, where it may take us, what is demanded of us to journey it, and what the outcomes may be. The Third Way between Armageddon and Anti-Christ can be seen as similar to Steiner’s trinity of “Lucifer-Christ-Ahriman” with Christ being the intermediary, or the third way between the extremes of materialism and selfishly oriented spiritualism. I am not advocating for Steiner’s metaphysics, only pointing out a presentation that some of you may be familiar with. In addition, it is a system of metaphysics – Anthroposophy – that has taken on some traction with the people that Thiel circulates with: high-tech, Silicon Valley folks as can be seen in their general preference for technology limiting Waldorf Schools for educating their children.
While we can easily dismiss Thiel’s concerns he does state the obvious, and it is often the obvious which goes most ignored: while considerable fear is brought up and encouraged around the end of the world in some form, there is little criticism of the very real terrors that the stated solution of One World Government would bring. Just as Marx believed that communism was inevitable, so to are we in the world and within esotericism in particular, told that One World Government is both inevitable and desired. As I have pointed out in detail this can be seen in earlier literature and most vocally brought to the forefront after the Second World War.
We have been constantly told that only a single ruling body could solve our problems and keep world ending destruction at bay.
The problem is that such a governing entity requires that those in charge be the best of the best, and have your best interests at heart. It requires that leadership knows what your best interests are, not just think they know what it best for you. A cursory look at the history of the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, contemporary Venezuela (2025), National Socialism, and Italian Fascism should dispel any myths. But of course, we are constantly being inundated with a new crop of idealists under the age of twenty who all chant the mantra, “This time it will be different.” The Covid years and what has ensued since should be sufficient to demonstrate that it will not be different. But there is no convincing the idealist that they might need to reduce their expectations.
Unfortunately idealists do not stop, they do not sleep, they soldier on, and therein is the totality of the problem. We cannot simply assume that somehow, in some magical fashion, everything is going to work out alright because we want it to. Each of us is here and is in part responsible for creating a desirable outcome or future for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren. It is not only our responsibility, but it is our DUTY as students on the Path to leave something meaningful and helpful behind when we die.
What we leave behind is our legacy, it is the summation of our actions, it is in a word our karma. It is what we will pick up and unpack when we return, and if it is done well, it will be The Third Way between these two extremes. A way based neither on fear nor unquestioned loyalty in some so-called “inevitable outcome.” No, it is none of that, it is personal responsibility, it is courage, it is sacrifice, it is being a living example of what the Path demands from us and in turn provides for us and others: courage, freedom, self-realization, all expressing the continuity of consciousness from the subtle dimensions of the invisible to the visible dimensions of life. It is each of you living “your best possible life” in real terms on the Path of Return.
